A/V Geeks Lunch 7-26

hi everybody this is a skip alzheimer welcome to the av geeks lunchtime streaming show i am not at the archive today uh i am taking a break and so um i'm in my basement where i was broadcasting from before um but using a different computer and hanging out on the couch drinking some delicious uh ginger seltzer taking a break but i still want to show you some films that we have from our collection and um we'll be doing this for a couple of weeks couple days i don't know when you're gonna see this but um i should be back in august but uh anyways the first one we're gonna watch is part of the coronet collection that we've been tasked to scan and so we've been finding beautiful copies of films in in this giant collection of almost nine thousand films and um this one's called understanding fire enjoy [Music] early one warm fall evening billy and his mother and father decided to eat supper outdoors and prepare it on their outdoor fireplace billy's father had laid the fire with paper wood and charcoal at first only the paper burned they would have to wait for the wood and charcoal to catch on fire meanwhile there are things to do back in the house billy's father warned him not to stand too close to the fire billy had always enjoyed watching fires but he had never before thought much about them what did he already know about fire well he knew about fire engines when fire is out of control it is dangerous and can do a great deal of damage but when fire is under control it can be useful we use fire for cooking fire in the furnace helps keep our houses warm fire in locomotives helps to make them go and there are many more ways we use fire because we have been learning about fire since earliest times many thousands of years ago men first learned to use fire for heat and light since then men have learned more about fire and how to control it and so put it to better use but what is fire what can we find out about it now the wood had started to burn billy could see that and he could feel that the fire was hotter now yes a fire is hot he could see that the fire gave off light a fire gives off heat and light yes billy knew that but how does a fire get started what do you need in order to make a fire you need something to burn of course but can you burn everything billy remembered an experiment with fire his teacher did in school with a stone glass paper wood and charcoal when she put these things over a fire what do you think happened the paper burned almost as soon as the fire touched it then the wood on the left began burning and turned black but what about the other things watch the small piece of charcoal in the middle soon the charcoal began to glow which meant that it was burning but the stone and the glass never did burn so to have a fire you need some material that will burn well or fuel in billy's house coal is burned for heat other people use oil or gas or wood for fuel yes you need fuel to have a fire do you need anything else now the charcoal was burning the charcoal had been in the flames for several minutes why was it burning only now would the experiment that billy saw at school explain it this time the paper was in a different place but it was still the first thing to burn the flame beneath kept making the wood and charcoal hotter and hotter until the wood caught on fire but still not the charcoal the flame kept making it hotter and hotter until finally the charcoal glowed as it caught on fire why didn't the paper and the wood and the charcoal all start burning at the same time because some things have to be hotter than others before they'll burn so billy could see that another thing you need in order to have a fire is enough heat to make the fuel burn something that will burn and enough heat to make it burn is that all you need to have a fire a fire to bake the biscuits for their supper father wanted the poker why he said that by poking the fire he was helping it burn well by making sure that fresh air was getting all around the charcoal air does a fire need air that made billy think of another experiment he'd seen at school watch why did the flame go out as a candle burns it uses up something in the air when it has used up almost all that special something and no fresh air can get to it it starts to go out this special something in the air is called oxygen and so billy knew that a fire needs three things fuel material that will burn enough heat to set the fuel on fire and enough oxygen to keep the fire burning now billy knew more about how we start a fire and about what makes a fire burn and he was glad to know more about some of the ways we use fire but is that enough to know about fire how is a fire put out what can you do to stop a fire billy knew that water is used to put out some fires how does it do that have you ever seen a piece of metal made so hot that it glows so hot that it will set paper on fire but after a few seconds in water it is cool enough that you can hold it in your fingers yes water can cool very hot things remember materials have to be hot enough to burn water will cool them so they can't burn so one way of putting out a fire is to cool the material that is burning when oil or gasoline is burning it's dangerous to use water because oil and gasoline float on water fires like this are put out in another way special fire extinguishers are often used to spread a foam over the burning oil how does this put out the fire remember how the candle flame went out when the glass was put over it the flame needed oxygen in order to burn the foam that the firemen used to put out an oil fire covers the fire in the same way that the glass covered the candle flame the foam keeps more air more oxygen from getting to the fire so another way to put out a fire is to take away its supply of air billy and his mother and father enjoyed the steaks they had cooked over the fire in their fireplace billy had learned much about fire and he wanted to learn much more for instance he wanted to know why the fire in their fireplace was almost out now do you know do you know how to find out more about fire yeah the color on that was just beautiful um not every uh coronet film that we have found has that beautiful kodachrome uh feel to it and that one was a print um and some prints you know if they were on ectochrome or eastman color would faded red or uh would be problematic but that one was beautifully done in kodachrome uh so every time i've shown something that is nasa or space related i get a little bit of um people either jokingly or unjokingly talking about moon landing hoaxes and i should just say reiterate that i um the moon landing was factual it happened and um i threatened to show a bunch of nasa material so i'm going to start sprinkling in more of pre-apollo stuff so you get a sense of the scope of the space program that led up to the couple of moon landings that we had um and so this one is actually made by wolfer productions david walper did work with cbs and so this is called race to space and has a good friend mike wallace narrating and it's about 45 minutes and it talks about uh what led up to the space race um and i think it ends in the 50s i can't remember exactly where it ends but [Music] enjoy [Music] i'm mike wallace our title the race for space means the contest in the united states and the soviet union for propaganda our program will show that contest and you will see american films and also soviet rocket films never before seen by anyone outside the intelligence services but more important our program will show you that the race for space has always involved a great idea long before the cold war one of man's oldest stars to understand why the dream of the exploration of space has so completely captured the mind of the modern world you must let your imagination soar soar like a rocket imagine not only the white sands desert of new mexico far below but all the deserts of the world like africa's famed sahara imagine all these deserts and all the other sandy wastelands of the world and now realize that for every single grain of sand on earth there is a dar in the sky think of it for every single grain of sand a star in the sky [Music] is it any wonder space is man's next frontier man's ceaseless striving to leave his own world and to explore other worlds his search for other forms of life has always been his destiny his greatest adventure the real race for space in 1898 the 20th century science of space travel was founded by this russian school teacher constantine eduardovich tsiolkovsky there have been mentioned claims of firsts in science but it's been authenticated that 60 years ahead of his time ceo koski stated that the development of rocketry would lead to space flights and in 1903 he designed and built this model spaceship he also coined a new word for the artificial earth satellites whose creation he predicted he called them russian word for fellow travelers this is modern kaluga zielkowski's birth place where today we are able to hear one of his granddaughters marie sampurova [Music] grandfather had many visitors scientists correspondents and authors grandpa would tell them fascinating stories of how people would someday fly to different planets all day long he would work in his study making models of rockets sometimes on starry nights my grandfather would go to the roof of his house and dream of the day when people would fly to the planet they were far more than dreams tielkovsky's ideas were the first science theories on space travel it is interesting that it has always been these two nations russia and the united states that have from the very beginning led the way in this race for space for it was an american dr robert goddard of worcester massachusetts who turned modern rocketry from a theorist's dream into an engineering actuality dr goddard began his rocketry researches as early as 1913 and in scientific circles he soon won respect but it cost money which he paid out of his limited salary as a college professor to conduct this historic test in this scientific pamphlet published just after world war one he proposed using rockets to carry scientific instruments to the upper atmosphere and to the moon we have with us today the widow of this great rocket pioneer mrs robert goddard mrs goddard your husband was a dedicated man of science but i understand that after the publication of the smithsonian report many people called him the moon rocket man i have here these clippings from the new york times of january 12th and 13th back in 1920 in which the times editorial writer implied that your husband didn't even know high school physics and that his smithsonian report was no more scientific than the science fiction novels of jules verne how did your husband feel when he'd see articles like that of course this kind of publicity hurt especially when it appeared in something like the new york times but he had spent many years working on the mathematical theory that underlies jet propulsion he felt that the mathematics indicated that the things he the predictions he had made the things he looked for were about to come true therefore he did not let such things deter him from his experiments i think that our audience should realize mrs goddard that you were the cameraman who photographed all of dr garterd's great firsts in rocketry do you remember this historic shot oh yes indeed i do this was at auburn massachusetts in 1928 it was one of the first flights of a rocket using liquid propellants the rocket had become so large and the flight's so long that we knew it was becoming dangerous to test them in any densely populated area so we moved to roswell new mexico where this new test stand was built and it was here not far from today's white sands proving ground that dr goddard established many of the great firsts in rocketry during these tests there was always so much to do and never enough hands or time to do it with [Music] with this flight and many other successful flights his rocket sometimes attaining nearly supersonic speeds of 700 miles per hour dr goddard established rocket history during these years dr goddard developed the patents that firmly established his reputation as the pioneering genius of the new 20th century science dr robert h goddard died in august of 1945 while serving as director of research in jet propulsion for the us navy mrs goddard did your husband receive much recognition while he was alive from fellow scientists yes and also in those days it was possible to buy a copy of a patent for 10 cents i understand there was a standing order for all guarded patents that standing order came from germany thank you for being with us mrs goddard in post-world war one germany there were a handful of idealists who'd heard of zielkowski and dr goddard and who believed in the dream of travel to the stars the leader of this group was a distinguished theorist dr hermann oberg he along with a few others formed the german society for space travel one of the most enthusiastic members of this little group was this 18 year old boy destined to become one of the giants of the american space program his name werner von braun using some of goddard's ideas and many of their own the germans experimented with the rocket in all sorts of ways [Music] but after many failures they were learning what goddard had already shown that the greatest future for the rocket was in space flight like goddard and many other scientists the german space club members were in financial trouble and were about to disband at this desperate moment germany's most distinguished motion picture director fritz lang came to their rescue he was about to make the world's first modern science fiction movie frau imont or woman in the moon would the club members serve for money as the movie's technical advisors the answer was yes you are now looking at actual scenes from this german classic produced in 1928 to make the launching more dramatic lang hit on the idea of counting backwards until the actual moment for firing the german rocket pioneers then spread the dramatic notion of the countdown throughout the world [Music] most important of all in addition to money the space travel club was also paid with all the props they could walk off with these props were then used as the actual components in the space travel society's rockets but it wasn't long before the movie proceeds too had all gone up in smoke and desperately the club began to look around for a new source of fun [Music] it soon marched on the scene the german space fanatics wanted to get to the moon mars venus the milky way this german fanatic merely wanted to get to england the versailles treaty had forbidden the conventional rearmament of germany but it failed to outlaw rockets because back in 1918 there was no such thing as a military rocket so to the german rocket club the fuhrer and his aides proposed a deal the army would finance all their experiments in rocketry provided first priority was given to the creation of a long-range weapon they had little choice the gestapo informed them they must assist the army or be drafted to do the same work this is pina mundo a remote fishing village along the baltic coast by 1936 the nazis had moved most of the members of their german space travel society here they had installed them in these top secret laboratories quickly assembling the leading technical brains of germany they appointed the youthful wernher von braun as civilian chief of research when braun had selected the site of mundo and designed and built these tremendous test facilities [Applause] but now that the germans travel scientists had bigger and better money and facilities they had bigger and better failures [Music] but soon there were a few successful test launchings propaganda minister goebbels gleefully named the new weapon vengeance number two or just plain v2 by 1943 the v2 was nearly operational but occasionally one of the new birds would wander crazily out of control one landed accidentally in neutral sweden and the wreckage was forwarded to the allies another landed in poland alongside a stream where the huge pieces were discovered by polish patriots [Music] that night the polish underground radioed the allies who immediately set out a plane which brought the v2 wreckage back to allied supreme headquarters in london [Music] now with both the swedish and the polish wrecked v2s in their hands the allies quickly reassembled them they now realized what sort of terror weapon they were up against and that they had no defense whatever against it the allied high command knew that if the germans could build up a big enough supply of these rockets they could destroy london and so pulverized the english ports that the elias could not use them for the invasion of france day after day the allied reconnaissance plane scoured the european continent luck was on the allied side when an raf patrol baltic coast snapped an aerial photograph of the obscure fishing village of phenomena [Music] at raf intelligence headquarters this photograph was developed and enlarged one of the german terror weapons was plainly seen on a launching pad the target for that night august 17 1943 was pina mundo 300 british heavy bombers took to the air [Music] [Music] they've plastered pina mundo with 1500 tons of high explosives in thousands of incendiaries [Music] the august 17th raid shattered pina mundo the germans were forced to quickly move much of their production equipment from pinamunda to a huge new v2 assembly plant in the east german city of nordhaus the scientists stayed behind to carry on their research in underground laboratories but it was on the mad mind of adolf hitler that the massive allied air raids on pina munda had their greatest effect one night he had a terrible nightmare he dreamed the v2 would never land on england he quickly summoned field marshal hermann goering and confided his terrible dream to him [Music] then derpira summoned the rest of his staff and in a decision that could very well have changed the course of world history hitler signed the cancellation order for the entire rocketry project effective immediately what 300 british bombers and thousands of tons of high explosives could not achieve hitler as the result of one bad dream did but at pina mundo when the army informed von braun and his associates of hitler's decision they would not give up in past moments of desperation the space travel enthusiasts had made a movie very well now they would make another movie furiously several reels of film were put together featuring only the successful rocket launchings at staff headquarters they set up a special showing of this carefully edited circus story and they persuaded hitler and his aides to attend and in what may have been history's most important motion picture preview an audience of one saw the picture heard the voice of the weapons creator von braun serving as narrator you are now watching the actual scenes taken from this historic film [Music] no picture has ever played to a more receptive audience [Music] with his mania for power the very notion of a terror weapon from space he found irresistible as he left the screening hitler uttered these prophetic words from now on he said europe and the world will be too small to contain a war with such weapons humanity will be unable to endure war he reinstated the v2 project with the very highest priority within a few months the perfected rockets were giving live performances to london goes the dubious distinction of being the first spot on earth to be bombarded from space [Music] the v2 was indeed a weapon of vengeance the invasion of europe was now underway but what of the v2 in the words of general eisenhower if the germans had succeeded in perfecting and using these rocket weapons six months earlier than they did our invasion of europe would have proved exceedingly difficult perhaps impossible the allied armies swept through western europe the hour of liberation had come [Music] germany was overrun from the point of view of the german army in the spring of 1945 the v2 was too little and too late and soon the american army from the west and the russian army from the east met at the river elba [Music] but even before peace was declared even as these brothers were in each other's arms in the minds of their military leaders not very brotherly thoughts were being born the v2 was ahead of its time though it had no effect on the outcome of world war ii it could very well determine the winner of world war iii it was at this moment that the race for space began in earnest and there were two immediate prizes the stock of b2 parts at nordhausen and at pina mundo the test equipment and the juiciest plum of all the brilliant minds who had made the v2 possible as the european war moved into its final weeks the american army had advanced close to these prizes but under the agreement for occupation of germany the united states would have to turn all this territory over to the red army the american officer on the spot was major general holger n talktoy then a colonel in charge of ordnance technical intelligence in europe and now commanding general of the aberdeen proving ground in maryland you had to act fast general top toy what did you do our our intelligence sources had told us of the role dr von braun and his army superior general dornberger had played in the development of the v2 program i believe that the brains of these men if we could find them must be put to work on behalf of the united states after all they were the world's only experienced missile team i later cabled washington and requested authorities a search for and bring 300 of the leading german rocket scientists the united states i found i was championing a very unpopular idea so before long i was in the pentagon pleading the case in person i finally succeeded in gaining approval not for the 300 german scientists which i had requested but for only 100. this was the beginning of operation paperclip at the same time i ordered my assistant colonel james p hamill then a major to get to nordhausen as fast as he could and to move out enough v2 parts to assemble a hundred missiles before the russians took the area over somehow hamlin as men found enough box cars and quickly loaded them with the v2 component parts when i returned to germany pamela and his men had managed to get these box cars and their precious cargo into the american zone two days before the red army moved in in terms of the biggest prize the brains who had built the v2 we had previously received bad news our agents had gotten into pina mundi found the place stripped and in ruins and the red army in control there was no sign whatsoever dornberger von braun and the other scientists terribly disappointed we presumed that they were all eastwood bound [Music] we intensified operation paperclip in some unoccupied areas we had to parachute our specially trained agents in on the chance that some of them might still be found [Music] in other places we set up key roadblocks we found some important scientists but it looked like the ones we really wanted had slipped through our net what we didn't know was that as the russian army approached pina mundi von braun and their colleagues had rounded up a few battered trucks they loaded these trucks with plans blueprints and choice equipment they headed for a retreat in the mountains of southern germany where they hoped to continue their work finally when it became obvious that germany had lost the war they decided in the words of von braun to go with the west general dornberger the v2 scientist and dr von braun surrendered dr von braun's arm had been injured in an accident while fleeing to bavaria with the surrender of these scientists and the large number of e2 parts in our possession operation paperclip was a resounding success and so then you arranged passage of the 100 v2 scientists to the united states well actually i took 127. oh this was the lease that i felt could form a completely integrated guided missile development team of truly experienced specialists what about the scientists themselves weren't there a lot of unfavorable publicity and other problems in bringing them here to the united states yes the president and the congress were petitioned to return these so-called enemy aliens to germany post haste but the united states had much to learn about rocketry and these men dedicated and experienced made very fine teachers so we stood firm well general toptoy i think our audience should know that for your foresight and dedication to duty and your successful direction of the army missile program the united states last year gave you its highest peacetime award the distinguished service medal and we surely appreciate your being with us under hitler there had been 3 000 scientists engineers and workers at pina mundo most of these men and the heavy equipment fell to the soviet union but as a result of operation paper clip the cream of the crop in brain power was brought to the united states and so the first round of the race for space wound up a draw the war was over and both sides were starting out even loops had come home at a time like this whose fun-loving country wanted to get back to normal to home and family these were to be the best years of our lives 1947 to 1957 there were 54 million new cars there were 11 million new homes and over 3 million new graduates from american colleges but what america was doing mostly during these years wasn't work and it didn't require study we were having babies the biggest crop in history 39 million births in 10 years during the same years 50 million tv sets were sold and by 1948 this was america's best known face but from the world of milton berle to this other world it was quite a change here in grammar and high schools half the curriculum was devoted to science the soviet universities were especially booming training each year 150 000 scientists and engineers both men and women compared to the united states seventy thousand the soviets also tested thousands of their own newly developed missiles these are the first publicly shown films of these russian research rockets [Music] with the knowledge gained from this rocket research with a tremendous surge of new graduates from the technical and scientific schools it was not long before new missiles rolled along the streets of moscow [Music] in the union of soviet socialist republics there was a new look in america however there were only a few dedicated men who believed in space who kept working kept persuading kept patching together their missile programs with a little money and a lot of hope during the early post-war period as an example of their patchwork they mated this old war horse v2 out of peniment to germany with this small young missile called the wac corporal fresh out of pasadena california the v2 wac corporal combination was america's first two-stage missile it also marked for the first time the blending in action of american and german rocket brains a combination that was destined despite many setbacks to have its rendezvous with history with the firing of this missile and the subsequent development of such rockets as the viking in the atlas america's missile program was finally underway [Music] the soviet scientists were especially interested in space medicine they wanted to know whether a dog could survive in space where there is neither air nor weight but only uncharted fields of deadly [Music] radiation [Music] with a camera placed on board the rocket the soviets shot this actual footage of their dogs in space the dogs are here experiencing weightlessness as is shown by the free flight of the loose bolt in the foreground this bolt is completely weightless [Music] the dogs returned unharmed the soviets were not secretive about their intention to create earth satellites with increasing frankness they discussed their plans with anyone willing to listen or read and premier khrushchev himself in august 1956 officially announced the soviet development of an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5 000 miles if the soviets could send up such missiles they could also send up earth satellites the target date was 1957 the international geophysical year a united nations scientific study of the earth the russians announced that sometime in 1957 they would send up their earth satellite the united states too promised to launch an earth satellite but in our satellite program we americans got badly bogged down why what happened we had the money the resources and the scientific know-how unfortunately a series of wrong decisions led us to frustration and failure we present the following facts to salute the men who understood the importance of space the failure to heed the advice of these men irrevocably altered the world situation and brought about america's present position in the race for space now we present these facts facts based upon sworn testimony before the united states senate it is a fact that the united states could have fired the first earth satellite as early as two years ahead of the russians by 1955 the scientific team under general top toy and dr van braun had developed a new military missile called the redstone which was highly successful they proposed that a modification of the redstone called the jupiter c launch the promised american satellite at the same time there was another proposal that a brand new rocket the vanguard be especially created to launch the earth satellite even though with a new rocket there were far greater chances of failure the untested vanguard was chosen on the ground that the satellite should not be launched by a military rocket like the jupiter sea but rather by a purely scientific device since it was to celebrate a united nations event knowing the odds were high against the vanguard's success general james c gavin army chief of research and development generals talk toy in mederis doctors von braun and pickering and many others kept begging for permission to launch the satellite with the jupiter sea immediately they were fearful the russians would launch theirs any day each time they asked they were turned down then on july 29 1957 this order went out to the armed services let me read it to you recent news stories which have described certain projects as space flight projects have resulted in unfavorable reaction at department of defense and congressional levels in any speeches or public releases planned by you or your staff avoid the mention or the discussion of space space technology and space vehicles and so by the summer of 1957 space had become a forbidden word in washington as autumn came in 1957 most of the men who believed in space were silent throughout the country the long hot summer was over and the children had gone back to school in washington the space program was bogged down in frustration but in the soviet union there are dates that school children in the united states are required to memorize like october 12 1492 when columbus discovered america now there was a new date for russian youngsters to remember october 4 1957 when sputnik the first earth satellite was launched [Music] the new moon circled the globe every 96 minutes all the people on this fast shrinking planet heard about it many of them watched it all of them read about it in the history of the earth no other event had captured the imagination of so many people as this first step into space at least the word space was now legal in washington there were high-level meetings there were press conferences and sober analyses of the nation's new position there was prolonged national soul-searching by the executive by congress and by the military meantime the soviet union was ready to launch its second punch in a row sputnik 2 aboard this new satellite lyka was to be the earth's first traveler into space here is leica in his capsule which will be placed inside the satellite there were instruments to test his reaction to cosmic rays radiation heat cold and weightlessness in these exclusive soviet films sputnik 2 is shown in its pre-launch preparation the russian satellite weighed 1120 pounds 10 times heavier than the first spot on november 3rd 1957 commemorating the 40th anniversary of the russian revolution the earth's second artificial satellite went into orbit the second sputnik was not only a tremendous scientific achievement in itself but in the information received on leica's long flight into space the soviets gained a priceless advantage in any forthcoming race to put a man in space in desperation the united states look to the vanguard [Music] nearly 200 newsmen from all over the world were flown down for the big turkey shoot at the launching site they were given a play-by-play account they witnessed each tiny detail of the usually top secret preparation it was carnival time at cape canaveral all through the day and night thousands of people thronged the nearby beaches and jetties waiting eagerly for the big moment and inside the block house the tension steadily mounted [Music] so [Music] [Music] america's prestige had never been lower than at this moment 11 45 am december 6 1957. at huntsville alabama major general john medeiros commander u.s army ordnance missile command had called a special meeting good morning gentlemen be seated please i have a very important announcement for you we've been assigned the mission of launching a scientific earth satellite and we will use the jupiter c configuration as a carrier that we developed along with the jet propulsion laboratory i promised the secretary of the army that we would be ready in 90 days or less let's go werner for years they had begged for this chance the deadline was 90 days but to put up a satellite within 90 days would require an unparalleled crash program the work was divided into three vital areas the rocket carrier the instrumentation and the upper stage scientific payload each had to be redesigned rebuilt and each had to work right the first time here at huntsville alabama the rocket carrier development program was the job of a crack team of over three thousand scientists engineers and technicians headed by dr werner von braun at the state university of iowa phase two the instrumentation its development was under the direction of dr james van allen he had already designed some of the complex electronics instruments that the vanguard was supposed to have hurled into orbit having anticipated a possible vanguard failure he designed his instruments so they could also fit into the tube-shaped satellite that the jupiter sea would carry into space [Music] at their 150 acre research and development complex at pasadena california dr william pickering and his associates were racing toward the same deadline 90 days to put a satellite in orbit their job phase three build and package the rockets upper stages that would take over once the jupiter sea had lifted the satellite into space assembled the satellite appeared small but if all went well seven and a half minutes from the time the giant missile bearing it would leave the earth the cylinder now called explorer one would be hurtling independently through space at a little over eighteen thousand miles an hour if all went well cape canaveral florida wednesday 29 january 1958 eight days before the deadline the jupiter sea was on its pad in position for launching but on the morning of the 29th the weather was unfavorable with heavy thunderstorms and jet streams aloft a 24-hour postponement was decided upon friday 31 january the weather is clear general medeiros orders launch at 10 30 that night dwarfed by the giant carrier rocket and the gantry the explorer one satellite is carefully fitted into place like a glittering jewel in a metallic setting at x minus two hours hyden an exotic and explosive fuel begins to flow into the tanks [Music] minutes click past [Music] the beams of powerful searchlights light up the missile truly the star of one of the greatest suspense dramas of our time [Music] time late evening friday 31 january 1958 in a block house at cape canaveral florida here is the actual countdown for explorer one okay we'll start now any fuel loading the man directing the countdown is army ballistic engineer robert moser okay check this utility room fuel vapors and notify the block house when we're clear to start generators gyro's on second last loading has been completed roger [Music] calibration tape on check all operating lights and meters for proper operation power panel check all voltages we've either got a relay kicking out or the there's something uh dropping down on the champagne instantaneously here oh telemeter indicates the jet vein 2 is deflected this is army scientist dr kurt dibus what do you want to do forget it okay resume count okay so we go ahead right frequency 111 terry 15 seconds 10 9 8 7 6 5 four three two one five command five man fuel tank pressurized block tank pressure missile power [Applause] thank you the missile is in flight but the success of its mission is still in doubt it will take another hour and a half to know whether the satellite is in orbit and this is the most tense and agonizing weight of all midnight general medeiros calls his assistant colonel leonard orman who has kept a direct line open to the secretary of the army hello lynn you can send this off to the secretary that our satellite is definitely on orbit now get that off and then in washington a new kind of american hero was born men like pickering van allen and von braun with the scientific ability foresight and determination they had shown were to lead america into the new age of space this dedicated team had lifted our first satellite into orbit in the contest for space the race was by no means tied up the soviet union with its tremendous heavy satellites was still ahead but the united states was definitely in the race and ready for the next challenge we'll be back in a moment with the concluding scenes in the race for space now soviet science has rocketed to the moon these are the first actual photographs of its hidden face and american satellites from the vanguard to the pioneer have given us priceless information as well but the new contest is the race to put a man into space [Music] these are more than science fiction films produced by the soviet government they are the actual soviet blueprints for their space vehicles of the future [Music] [Music] now both sides had shot satellites into orbit soon there were to be many more satellites heavier with more complex and advanced electronic equipment but there is no collection of electronic tubes as complex and as advanced as the brain of a man this was to be the next contest the big contest the race to put a man into space for space is man's new frontier the exploration of other worlds the search for other forms of life is man's destiny and his great [Music] so [Music] yeah that was that was great i really dug that i think i got that from a cultural resource library in north carolina and uh it's some beautiful footage in there um but uh hey i'd like to say thank you for tuning in today um we'll be back again the next weekday i'm not quite sure when this is gonna air but the next time that we have a weekday coming up we'll have a show it might be pre-recorded it might not be but uh you can show your support for av geeks by clicking and buying us some coffee at buymeatcoffee.comavgeeks you can also go to avgeeks.com and see other shows that we've done and buy dvds and you can also tell the world that you like av geeks by hitting the like button that's a great way to do it subscribing also notifications comments sharing etc etc thanks again everybody for tuning in i hope everybody has a good rest of their day and we will see you again soon take care