:05:01
Boom, you go straight to the moon.
:05:05
The other method we call
Earth Orbit Rendezvous.
:05:07
Instead of using one huge rocket...
:05:09
we perform several launches
with somewhat smaller rockets...
:05:12
each carrying a component
of the spacecraft.
:05:17
We put the pieces together
in orbit...
:05:21
and off we go.
:05:22
These two methods... these are
the only ways of getting to moon?
:05:27
Yes.
:05:28
Actually, there were other ideas.
:05:30
So we started thinking:
"What can we do right now?"
:05:34
Then it hit us.
:05:38
The moon!
:05:39
You rendezvous
on the surface of the moon.
:05:43
The problem isn't getting
a man to the moon.
:05:45
- That's easy.
- It's not easy.
:05:46
- Relatively easy.
- Pretty easy.
:05:48
- The problem is getting him back.
- So we say...
:05:50
You send up some ships to the moon...
:05:52
with all the extra fuel
and supplies to get back.
:05:55
That way, when the astronauts arrive...
:05:57
everything they need to get home
is already there.
:06:01
We put a man on the moon
as soon as possible.
:06:03
Just get him there.
:06:05
- We can keep sending supply ships...
- Until we figure a way to get him back!
:06:10
Well, that's...
:06:17
No, I'm sorry, gentlemen.
:06:20
There is no way on God's green Earth...
:06:22
we would ever...
:06:23
ever do anything like that.
:06:26
I'm sorry.
:06:33
It looked like either
Earth Orbit Rendezvous...
:06:35
or Direct Ascent
would be the way to go.
:06:37
Either way we go...
:06:39
the spacecraft that lands on the moon
is going to look like that.
:06:43
Yes, just like that.
:06:47
It doesn't have
to look like this at all.
:06:49
At Chance Vought Industries in Texas...
:06:51
an engineer named Tom Dolan
hit upon an interesting idea.
:06:54
You ever hear of a Russian rocket guy
named Yuri Kondratyuk?