John Glenn & Fellow Astronauts Told Us Off-The-Record True Stories in 1993

Back in the 1993 my team and I got the chance to make the four-part Turner Broadcasting Peabody award-winning series MOONSHOT. I keep finding outtakes and the stories told here by the 5 astronauts present were truly off the record - John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Dick Gordon, Gordon Cooper and Scott Carpenter. The 6th person speaking is the author of the book Moonshot, Howard Benedict. Toward the end of the video, it is fascinating to hear them discuss climate change and what they think will happen in the future (from 1993). The Apollo astronauts were part of NASA’s Apollo program which aimed to land humans on the moon and bring them back safely to Earth. The Space Race, while ostensibly about exploring outer space, had profound implications for the United States and its position in the world during the Cold War. Winning the Space Race was crucial for the US for several reasons: After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik the US felt an urgent need to regain its standing in the world. Success in space exploration was seen as a benchmark of national capability and technological prowess. The Space Race was an important front in the Cold War. Each milestone achieved was viewed as an indicator of geopolitical strength and ideological superiority. Winning the Space Race would thus signify the triumph of democracy and capitalism over communism. Space exploration required cutting-edge technology. The technologies developed for space travel, such as advanced rockets and surveillance satellites, had clear military applications. Winning the Space Race was a way to inspire scientific curiosity and ambition among the American public, particularly the younger generation. By landing men on the moon in 1969, the US achieved a major victory in the Space Race. This event helped to bolster national pride, reassure allies, and underscore the benefits of a free society and open scientific inquiry. Here are some of the goals the United States pursued in order to beat the Soviet Union. The US established the NASA in 1958. It said it would put a man in space, a goal accomplished on May 5, 1961, when astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space. However, the USSR had already achieved this with Yuri Gagarin’s flight on April 12, 1961. The most significant goal was to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. President John Kennedy announced this in 1961 and it was accomplished with the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969. This achievement is generally seen as the point where the US took the lead in the Space Race. A significant aspect of the Space Race was demonstrating technological superiority. The US sought to make significant scientific discoveries about space including understanding more about the moon’s surface and composition plus gaining a better understanding of the solar system and the wider universe. The Space Race had a significant impact on technology, education and culture and it provoked a shift in the US educational system to focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. The U.S. remains a major player in space exploration. China has become a major player in space exploration. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has successfully conducted several lunar missions including the Chang’e-4, which made the first soft landing on the far side of the moon, and the Chang’e-5, which returned lunar samples to Earth. Despite economic challenges Russia continues its space exploration through the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. Russia remains a key player, especially in terms of human spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). The European Space Agency (ESA), a cooperative effort of 22 member states, has been involved in a variety of space exploration missions, including Mars and comet missions, and contributes significantly to the ISS. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has made impressive strides in space exploration, including sending an orbiter to Mars (Mars Orbiter Mission) and launching the Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon. Perhaps the most significant change in the space exploration landscape is the rise of private companies. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, has achieved significant milestones, including reusable rockets and being the first private company to send humans to the ISS. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic are also important players, focusing on suborbital human spaceflight and space tourism. Throughout my adult life I have supported NASA and all efforts made to understand the universe, our solar system, and to expand into our nearest planetary neighbors as soon as we were able. I hope I am alive to see that as it is clear there will come a time when we will land on Mars and Venus and go further to explore the space beyond our Big Blue marble.