leaked text messages revealed a culture of intimidation and disorderly inside his government governor seller has so far refused to go saying it's in the ivans best interest for him to stay for. a 50 years ago today july the 16th 1969 neil armstrong buzz aldrin and michael collins or poised to make history as part of the apollo 11 mission millions cheered in to watch their rocket lift off is how they are original black and white images this 1st manned mission to the moon i took to the skies from nasa as kennedy space center in florida and restates destination 4 days later the vessel was america demonstrating its power to the world today those black and white images are available in color bringing a new generation closer to one of the 20 century's most defining moments. for neil armstrong. michael collins. and buzz aldrin it was the

mission of their lives the estimated probability for success was put it only 20 percent by nasa technicians and engineers. the launch was followed by multiple complex maneuvers each of which would have disastrous consequences if anything went wrong to get to the moon pilot mike collins had to ignite an engine to the nearest 2nd and then down the lander ferry and separated from the rocket. surely duke was one of the team members at the control center he kept in touch with the astronauts on their mission. that the ready 1st place was building but we were in a space race with the russians so that motivated ready us to commit to it. there was a tense moment 4 days into the mission when armstrong and aldrin flew towards the

moon again and again the radio cut out. then the navigation computer sounded the alarm neil armstrong took control and landed the lunar module gently. on the moon's surface. here. maybe your. way through the eagle is. very excitedly i said write your toy for a week i'll be on the ground you got a bunch of guys about for a blueberry that buzz aldrin filmed armstrong setting foot on the moon along with his historic words. armstrong then went about collecting dust and rock samples buzz aldrin set up some

scientific equipment. together they planted the stars and stripes in the moon surface. and then the last big challenge the lunar module has only one engine and if it failed it would mean that the astronauts would be stranded on the moon. a mansion makes it into orbit around the moon without any problems and almost 4 hours later it docks on to the command capsule. what seemed like an impossible feat and then accomplished and on july 24th the 3 astronauts returned to earth 1st they went into quarantine they could have brought dangerous microbes with them but later they were hailed as heroes all of them

visibly touched by their part in the adventure of the century. that's got to go on that adventure of a century from nasa as chief historian bill barry joins us from washington welcome to day w. we had at the start about before that this mission was only given a 20 percent likelihood of success we're judging the likelihood of them reaching the moon or of coming back alive. i think the estimates from r.g.p. some success of the overall mission there's the fairly good likelihood that apollo 11 might not landed the moon during the descent and landing of course that there were problems and people concerned about your boarding approach we actually had great luck in 1969 with several missions that went off perfectly. paul and was the 1st one that had a chance and i thought it is it turns out they did but they could well have been apollo 12 or even 13 or 14 that would have been the 1st landing if they had problems on apollo off so the budget was that so just keep going if the 5th the 1st

one failed. that was the that was the plan all along that there were several missions in sequence you know we had plans for all of those missions but their expectation was that if there was a problem for example we have a problem with apollo 8 going around the moon we might have to reflect that mission again or the test little lunar module around earth orbit in the spring of 1069 on apollo 9 we actually had an extra lunar lander built for that to the test again in earth orbit that actual lunar landers on display at the national air and space museum here in washington d.c. so we're ready for all kinds of things would at nasa we prepare for all kinds of contingencies. and so they were ready to fly the mission when it was whatever it was we're capable of doing it you know fortunately on apollo 11 we were successful on the 1st try i'm about to face of course was the space race between the united

states and the soviet union as it was that so was this mission about science all political press stage. it was primarily a political geopolitical mission when president kennedy made the decision to send the united states to within a decade back in 1901 that was predicated on the challenge that the soviet union was saying that because there had in space they had a better political economic system and you know we think that's a ridiculous perspective at this point in history but back then many newly independent countries were watching the soviet union and saying well they must know something if they're going to have the united states in space so it's a critical geo political goal for 9 states to prove that the western capitalist democratic model was at least as good as not if not better than the soviet system and apollo prove that. it's a great success to the point now where we don't even think about that that's a real prospect yeah it's not quite

a fact all around the world that stay with us we're going to hear now from a current russian cosmonaut field though you kitchen it was a boy at the time of a moon landing. back then i was 10 and a half years old and i had dreamt of becoming an astronaut for a long time. my heroes were yuri gagarin and also neil armstrong i don't make a distinction between them but they both did they did for all mankind yes it was a pity it wasn't us russian space travel was developing fast and it was clear to us that many countries would send their astronauts into space. now i'm at the end of my career as an active astronaut but i have never been to the moon. so bilberry let's talk about the man who did get that neil armstrong and buzz aldrin and michael collins how did life change for them when they got back. well it was an interesting challenge for them there were of course military test

pilots primarily they were focused heavily on training for the mission and i think they were rather a bit surprised when they got back and they found out that they were you a huge international celebrities and also that they were not likely to ever fly in space again there were other people in the training queue behind them waiting for their turn to go to the moon and so it was pretty likely that both neil and mike were we're not likely to fly again so there's some ahead a new role and took some adjusting but president nixon was very keen on. making the maximum use of the public inquiry so immediately after that they got out of quarantine houston they were flown to new york city and there's a ticker tape parade in new york city the same thing to chicago and it has a ticker tape parade in chicago and then if the los angeles there is a big gala dinner in los angeles and after that they embark on a worldwide tour with a business most of the countries around the world including some of the eastern bloc at the time they were very interested in the space program and wherever they

went they found that people didn't say they you were americans you're the ones who made it to the movie they find that people are saying you know we made it to them because it really was an international effort there are 400000 people around the planet who can help put apollo on the moon and it really did come in peace for all mankind and that was i think reflected in the reception that the apollo astronauts got as they travel around the world and so the united states got the big budgets as the number one we got there. but what about the rest of us how does that 1st moon landing affected how we live today. well that's something that i think people often miss but this huge injection of technology into the modern economy made a big influence in ways that we don't even know if there are you know there are plenty of obvious things that came from the space program like fireproof clothing and things like that that people point to the firefighters were things as well as

astronauts but but for example the computer revolution there was nobody using integrated circuits until nasa decided to use integrated circuits on the apollo guidance computer and nasa is the man for those circuits and for their high reliability drove the price down dramatically for integrated circuits and by the late 1960 s. early 1970 s. integrated circuit sort of theory everywhere you know they had been where you said if that hadn't happened at the price i've been dragged down in the reliability different way up by the apollo program we might not have gotten to the point where you know today with the digital revolution we're talking to you thank you for joining us the nasa chief historian bill barry. it watching t.w. news live from let me quickly bring you up to speed on a story that we're following this hour members of the european parliament i've been focusing on whether to approve of a nominee for a u. commission president the only nomination for the post of president is out of. the

lot and she needs every piece approval if she gets a notice to get the job and if she does she'll be the 1st woman to lead the commission and she's the outgoing defense minister a member i'm going to conservative c d c so we're following we're following tonight . here in the studio political correspondent simon young and in strasbourg where the votes is that taking place in brussels bureau chief hoffman let's start with you max the voting finished time ago where are we at what i say sometimes about a half an hour or so ago where are we in the counting. the bell just rang here and that means all the members of the european parliament are asked to get back into the plenary so their votes have been counted and sources are telling us that funnel made it but with a small margin smaller than we expected apparently the number is 383 she needed 374 so only 9 votes margin if this really is the official result and we will find

out soon that it will be very very tight does it not matter how or busy how much does it matter if the margin is a close one. it really depends on who gave her those votes the suspect i suspect what happened is that the right wing euro skeptics from the e.c.r. had said last week they would probably vote in favor of from the line pulled back their votes we know that they did not have an official recommendation for their members of the european parliament because underlying made a very left leaning speech to today's of the bad news would be the margin is smaller but the good news would be that she really managed to get a majority without the help of the euro skeptics without the help of the right wing and even right wing populist so real majority only with the help of the social

democrats the conservatives the liberals and maybe even the greens simon young political correspondent you've been following up on that once or create for some time what does she bring to this job what sort of a president would she be well i think she as i was saying earlier she brings a lot of qualities of as a reformer as somebody who can get big jobs done and you know this needs if it if it's confirmed in the next few minutes will be a huge piece of news for germany as well as be europe you know the 1st female european commission president the 1st german city to how steinback at the end of the the 1950 s. so you know it's really putting germany back at the very heart of europe it's never been away but this is a very important symbolic job and a job where europe can be laid at. the law and has got lots of

experience she's been labor minister she's been families minister she's then had this job at defense she's served you know a long time in government and she's francis had the job of rafah. warming germany's military and that's a job that she did she had some success with it can be said any way at the beginning she had to tackle in a so this very male demain and get more personnel get more material and just she was instrumental for instance in increasing the budgets of germany's military there's been more problems in recent years she said now that she's stepping down from that job whatever the outcome of today's vote was going to be she'll be back in berlin tomorrow handing over that important defense portfolio to whoever's chosen to succeed her and i suspect we'll find that out in the next couple of hours as well. so you know she is somebody with

a with format as they say she's been thought of as a potential chancellor even as a potential. general secretary of nato now she's got this important job and she'll be with her linguistic skills which we've seen today she'll be you know speaking different languages french german and english she was she was talking today as somebody who's lived her whole life she was born in brussels actually and she's lived her whole life you know around europe and she'll be on the international stage i think she'll be very much a home. for let's let's pick your brains out having. what's that observed in brussels and strasburg for some time how much difference does the personality of the president make out of that so it was so we have a joke or younger at the moment before him i think was. mr burroughs or what. what .