a public service by america's cable television companies. to bring, we continue you unfiltered coverage of house, thehe white supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the countries. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> next, former nasa chief historian, roger launius, talks the apollo program. he describes how the cold war influenced the first missions excitement over the alone landing in 1969. legacy explores apollo's and speculates on the future of space travel. we recorded this 15-minute interview at the annual american historical association meeting in chicago. launius as a space historian and former chief historian for nasa, let's talk about the apollo program.

want to begin in the 1950's, because that really is the starting point to where we were the 60's and 70's. explain. >> one of the things that's important to understand is, it's hard to get a grip on it for those who didn't live through this cold war rivalry between the u.s. and soviet union was incredibly intense. one of those areas of was in space, because technology was gonna win this cold war. in that context, who had the best technology had a lead on other side. space was a demonstrator of that technology. the 1950's, the americans and the soviets are variety ofn a whole arenas, but one of them is ballistic missiles, spaceflight for peaceful purposes and ultimately human spaceflight. >> early in that period, what did the soviets have that we did not? >> they had a big rocket. an irony in the context of that they built it as a

ballistic missile so they could send a nuclear warhead to the blow us up.s and we were building them too, to do had the to them, but we capability to miniaturize our weapons. quite that same capability, so they had to build which enableder, pay payloads into before we could do it. sputnik was a name attached the first satellite was launched. alphanumeric system that they use for designating these things until they were launched. americans did the same thing. then they would tend to name them as they publicly described they were doing. sputnik one, the famous spaceite that went into on the 4th of october of 1957,

was really something that they and up with after the fact, it made such a big splash. initially the russians didn't it. much out of but when it made such a big splash, they played it for all the propaganda value that i could. >> you lived through this period. what was it like? >> just barely. a little kid when this was happening. i was no firsthand knowledge of sputnik. spoide studied it a lot. that didf the things happen is that everybody recognized the new age had begun. sputnik as,hink of oh, my gosh, we're so far behind the russians. but not for an, few weeks. of americans were very interested in what was taking place. was aalked about how this great accomplishment regardless of who did it. it was a step forward by humans, just by russians or americans or whoever else. that was that of

it took a while. sputnik was argued by american political leaders on side, because eisenhower was president, as that the republicans had gotten behind the russians on this and they needed to catch up. and they used every opportunity to embarrass. the other political side over this issue. >> during the time period 1960,ally 1956 through how much pressure was president eisenhower under? periodic pressure on a variety of fronts. but in terms of space, he didn't untiluch pressure at all the sputnik one launch in 1957, the fall of 1957. the reality was he had spent a spacemount of money on activities. now, they were all done in the context of ballistic missiles, building missiles, rockets. that's a technology that has a variety of uses. people use it to kill

and break things. but you can also use it to launch satellites into orbit and people.ly the other area they spent a lot money was reconnaissance satellites. in 1960, the americans launched their first spy satellites that were able to take pictures over the soviet union. eisenhower was motivated on we never want to have another pearl harbor. of thesethe purpose spy satellites. so he had spent a lot of money, but not in areas that were much, thatt very most people knew very much about. it provided a good bedrock on to build the public of the program but it did take a while for them to move in that direction. new new president, a decade, john kennedy famously saying we're gonna put a man on the end of the decade and return him safely, was the country scientifically that?for

>> nobody was ready for the decision to go to the moon at that point in time. if you talk to the nasa hands at the time, their response was, oh, my god, now we this.o actually do and they had the building blocks in place. enough timeat with and energy and especially money, they could be successful. faced the objective was in a half-hearted way, if they said we're gonna do something away, itwalked probably wouldn't have happened. what they did have in kennedy was an individual who said, make this happen, and he sustained it with budgets through the rest of his administration. johnson, who was his vice president and became president assassination, was totally committed to these things and had been a champion 1950's.e >> so how did we get there? work.re was a lot of the nasa budget rose from about 1960 dollars to

$5.2 billion in 1965. and that's the investment that took us to the moon. started to go down after that. and that was the building of the kennedyre, like space center down in florida. the launch complexes. buildings, all the things that we see today. that was the result of the apollo buildup. and they've been modified over time but they're still being used. other thing that they did was invest in the technology, especially the rocket technology, the saturn 5 to get to the moon, and the human piece spacecraft and the astronauts and the space suits space walks, so on and so forth, was all the result of developments in that first of the 1960's. >> why the moon? why was that the objective? is the mosthe moon romantic place that anybody can imagine. think about this. assigned special

significance to the moon. romantic.it's seen as you know, i love you so much, i would give you the moon, those kinds of things. so it had a resonance in that particular way. but more importantly, it's the closest target. no place else is accessible in the same way. so they found a target that was hard to get to, the soviets immediately.t and they found a target that was reasonable. toy weren't gonna be able get to mars, for instance. that was too far. perfect.oon was >> of course, this year, marking the 50th anniversary of the famous moon landing and the walk moon by neil armstrong. but after that, as we move into 1970's, where was the apollo space program? what were its objectives? first landings, they began to extend the missions and make them longer and more scientifically focused. the astronauts on apollo 11

deployed a few experiments and they collected some rock that.s, things like but that was simple in comparison to especially the last three missions. apollo 15, 16 and 17 where they had a lunar rover that allowed go out as far as 20 miles away from the landing site kinds ofy all scientific satellites, some of which -- or scientific experiments, some of which are still operating. and also to collect a wide of lunar samples and bring those back for study. bonanza in terms activities that were good for the scientists and we learned a great deal from that process. have the kind of public resonance that those early flights did. to get bored after the first few times you do something and now sort of passe. happened with apollo. >> we've done a number of programs on c-span on the apollo

program. one thing that struck me is that the smartphone that we carry thand has more technology what the apollo and nasa had in is really, which remarkable. >> it is. you know, they had good technology. there's no question about that. they pushed that technology pretty significantly. what we'vedn't have got today. the microelectronics revolution the 1970's made it possible for us to carry around mini computers in our pockets the way we do today. most interesting thing about apollo in some ways, nasa loves about spinoffs and things that are everyday products that are the result of investment in the space program. and there are some of those. it is indirect. you know, in the 1960's, they assembled a group of computer specialists to push the

technology for the landing computer that was used on the apollo spacecraft. and they were at the draper lab at m.i.t. did their work, built a very small, very robust computer for its time. was very simplistic by our standards ft at the end of program, those people dispersed. it's interesting, because they knowledgethem the they attained and their rolodex. and addresses and contact information for all the people they'd work with, and they ceded the electronics industry everywhere. they went to industry, ofversities, all kinds places. i would contend that that inirect investment microelectronics that came with these guys moving on to other really an important thing from apollo. >> would you say that is its legacy? >> i wouldn't say that necessarily. the biggest legacy is actually

body infoot on another the solar system, bringing back the scientific data in es to how the -- necessary to understand how the solar system has evolved and that's i believe, more important. but from a practical perspective, that microelectronic ceding, i think, is significant. >> why is this such interest to you? >> spaceflight is intrinsically exciting.g and and it's a history that is replete with heroes, in some cases with villains, with with races in success as well as failures. i mean, i can't think of a topic?top gli >> should we go back to the moon? go back to great to the moon. i think we ultimately do. we'll already doing it with robots. we'll be doing it with humans at some point in the indefinite future. we had biggest problem with the moon and us not going back is we did not find anything there that we wanted.

that's the real problem. terrestrial exploration has built upon, you know, a series of objectives. some of those might be geopolitical. went to the moon for geopolitical purposes. boilstimately it kind of down to, if you find something there that you want and that really means something of value, that is commercially useful, that's when you keep going. and we haven't found that on the moon, at least not yet. it might be there. don't know. >> so based on the history of the nasa, the apollo program, looking ahead, especially with private enterprise, looking at space exploration, what is the future? >> i think we're gonna see a lot of activities in space. are going to be in earth orbit, a very comfortable place of activities to happen. and those can happen in the context of governments, of individual organizations, so forth, tourists

and all kinds of other things like that. and in fact, one of the things did and the orbital flights that preceded it and especially the shuttle afterwards, was it made earth orbital activities no longer a frontier. it's not something that is unknown. we know exactly what is there and lots of people are starting to use it for all kinds of purposes. that's really where the in this story as well. and translunar space is much harder to do. motive,here's a profit we're probably not going to see commercial entities just going and doing it. have some return on investment. there might be individual tolionaires who are willing spend some money, but they're not willing to spend everything achieve this. and when you start talking about multiples of billions, you can go through a fortune in a hurry. the i think will remain

providence of probably nation states maybe doing it cooperatively but i definitely be going back. >> you look at some of the key players in the apollo program. you mentioned presidents and others. who else? who are the unsung heroes in this effort? >> i'm not sure they're so unsung in so many ways. there's a whole range of people unknown to anybody who is nasa who made it possible to go to the moon. the person i keep pointing to is bob gillruth. of aerospaceeran activities by time of the apollo program. he becomes the lead at what becomes the johnson space center the human spaceflight activities all took place. shepherded that effort, all the way through the apollo ingram and finally retired the early 1970's. i think that individual is well but he certainly should be. >> what's your message to fellow historians here in chicago?

lots of things yet to be done in the history of spaceflight. that is a really interesting for exploration. it ties closely to larger concerns that we have in a whole areas, economically, politically, socially, culturally, and we've only begun to scratch the surface of what we understand about this. >> roger launius, we thank you for your time. >> thank you. in americand history t.v.? visit our website, c-span.org/history. can view our tv schedule, preview upcoming programs and lectures, museum tours, archival films and more. t.v., athistory c-span.org/history. beal street could talk, received three oscar nominations. sunday, on q&a, we'll discuss the movie based on

>> the thing that really sticks with you is just how loving and lovely the film is. i think his writing really does deal with love, whether it's universal love, loving oneself, love between people and society. i really think that that is sort of the overarching theme. i think a lot of people probably see him, because he was so passionate in fighting for the rights of african-americans that think that people mistake that for anger. i think he was not angry but his denups yaition of racism. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern c-span's q&a.

>> this monday, president's day, p.m. eastern, american history t.v. features presidential historians, with harold holter. he'll be talking about his book, man, the life and art of daniel chester french," which examines the life of the sculpture best known for the lincoln statue that serves as the memorial centerpiece. here's a preview. in the first decade of the 20th century, when state of that the nebraska, the capital city of enough, appropriately wants a statue of lincoln in time for 1909. and he gets the great commission. now, they've already done his iscoln for chicago and that a tough act to follow. so french begins his research. found this sort of interesting. dot does a sculptor have to to create a lincoln?

the first thing he does is he of reserves, photographers of abraham lincoln, privately printed. >> he wants to show lincoln with a crushing weight of a war still to be won. he admits, the more i study lincoln, the bigger he seems. lincolne says, my problem. model. the first 36-inch model. lincoln with bowed head arms clasped in front. he takes it to lincoln, nebraska. meets a woman who had seen abraham lincoln at the lincoln-douglas debates.

him, i remembered he had a curious way of standing before he was to speak. with his hands clasped in front of him as if he was collecting his thoughts. they then unpacked the model and put it on display and the woman were there? and he wasn't. intuited it.mehow he called this his high water mark. president's day, beginning at 8 p.m. eastern, to learn more about the lincoln memorial. is american history t.v. all weekend, every weekend, on c-span 3. nearly 100 new members of the u.s. house this year, congresswoman iana presley. the boston based seventh district. she previously served as an of the bostonr city council. this isn't her first experience with congress.

formerked for both representative joseph kennedy and former senator john kerry in her career. isresentative laurie trahan also a former congressionallal staffer. prior to her election, trahan was c.e.o. of a consulting firm. pappas has been involved in state and local politics 2000's,e early including an elected body that advises the governor and two terms in the state house. is alsoman pappas co-owner of a manchester, new hampshire, restaurant, often visited by presidential candidates. the first openly gay person elected to congress by new hampshire voters. and representative hayes first attention whenl president obama named her 2016 national teacher of the year as

ceremony.use she's only the second african-american to represent connecticut in congress. first was congressman gary franks, a republican, who also the fifth district in the 1990's. new congress, new leaders. all on c-span. american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places to learn about american history. brief look at what's airing this sunday night. >> the h13 originally was not developed for an evacuation vehicle. sowas originally developed that artillery observers could get up over the terrain. morphed into the troll. this one was actually developed a truee get-go to be multi-role piece of equipment. it could carry rocket pods. it could carry machine guns. it could carry cargo and soldiers. and it was also specifically designed, from the beginning,

have a version that would allow us to have litters. patience could lie on the litters. they could lie on the open floor. and they could also take the back.ack in the if we go back to the korean war, what we have is men flying the aircraft. this we can put them inside. you're not subjected to the weather. not subjected to that fearful ride of just being hanging out in midair. but there's also a change in theory, because one of the doing is we have improved the capability of the field.n the before we load them on the putraft, now we can treatment crew on the aircraft to continue treatment in flight. have long-range radios that allow information to be taken and the helicopter forwarded to the hospitals where the men will eventually be taken. arrive, because they know they're coming, it's

saying it.o'reilly they know how many. this communication platform is also going to improve the outcome of the patients. being able to take more men greater distances, with much more lifting capacity navigation,crew for communication and patient treatment. this is a game us to historic sites, museums, and archives each sunday at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern on our weekly series "american artifacts." next, on lectures in history. brooklyn college professor kc johnson teaches a class on lyndon johnson and richard nixon's supreme court nominations.

he describes johnson's plan to fill the bench with liberal justices and the difficulties he ran into trying to get them concerned -- confirmed. he concludes with background on some of nixon's nominations to the court. his class is about one hour and 15 minutes. prof. johnson: today whatprof. johnson: we are going to be looking at is the development of controversial supreme court confirmationn -- of supreme court nominations in the 1950's and 1960's. the surge of decisions from the court which served two basic rent suppose. the idea that it was a particular job of the supreme court to stand up on behalf of people who may not have majority support. whether it was atheists or civil rights activist or criminal defendants throughout the 1960's. second was the emergence of