it was a lucky escape and the team are now spanning the ocean waves hoping for a glimpse to see if the man is safe. there watching the news don't forget you can get up to date with all the latest on our web site that's state of the new doc on and you can follow us on twitter and instagram to ask you to be honest and richard and brad and thanks so much for watching. a male. second season on the defense of the planet on the brink of disaster just long in-depth interviews with experts about one question. the.

pictures of moscow's moon rocket images that were to be among the soviet union's most closely guarded state secrets. and pictures of cars minot's training for a moon landing in the so-called star city near moscow the soviet union was determined to beat the united states in the race to put a man on the moon a race that would cost russian and american lives. the russians had always set the pace but in the end they ultimately lost the 20th century's most prestigious race. bag. are.

opened in 1957 baikonur cosmodrome was moscow's gateway to the stars. after the launch of several sputnik satellites and unmanned moon probes in the late 1950 s. the whole world assumed that the soviets would also be using baikonur to send cosmonauts to the moon. there were certainly concrete plans but nothing was leaked there were no official statements nothing to indicate the soviet union's plans step of. got the truth about all decisions on the space program are classified top secret including the moon program that.

1 may program much in fact if you browse the newspapers of this time you won't find anything not even iraq the plans for the unmanned probes were flipped and there were no america. nowhere did it indicate we were working on moon projects. that. secrecy was the order of the day there were no preliminary briefings before the moon probes in 1989 nothing was to be revealed until the sensational mission was complete. sergei cuddle yoffe the father of the soviet union space triumphs had been wondering for some time how to approach a moon landing was. images from early soviet science fiction films inspired the imaginations of moonstruck rocket man like. if.

one or rather that is the last he said to me then and 25 years man will be on the moon. i said no that science fiction maybe it will happen someday but we want to experience that. and he said it will happen and our lifetime is that the put in that. but the vision of landing on the moon was still pure speculation perhaps simply outlandish dreams coverly of realized that he needed a completely new rocket and a convincing argument. his legendary r 7 sputnik carrier rockets was too weak to transport people to the moon but he hadn't even started yet his next triumph came in 1961 with you what he got

in the 1st man in space. the kremlin boss was delighted with the coup whereas sputnik success had shocked the americans they got in flight humiliated them. just a few days after the soviet triumph president kennedy announced a bold sunset foolhardy plan. american alibi. i believe. we're hearing the. returning him safely to be your. there was no official reaction from the kremlin but soviet leader nikita khrushchev called in missed his love kell desh president of the soviet academy of sciences and asked him how serious kennedy was. the governor of the girl . to the city of kill this replied that this was

a serious statement on your data and that the americans were highly capable but that he didn't believe they would reach their goal by the end of the decade. or your god in any case he said we were ready to take on such a challenge either khrushchev said well then we must think about it but no more. so while it wasn't yet clear what the kremlin leader would decide it was clear that the u.s. program would soak up huge resources and any soviet moonshot would cost at least as much. was very torn did he want to could he even invest so much in such a vague project. he was ready to be forced. to swallow what i mean but if you will have to pay a 1000000000 the meaning of the window. he said they've got

a little. bit give the. go forward to. the future and they can believe. what all the thought but most competition at that time was the petition over the but directional. mail but and meet. you think in city. hall view the 1st seduce. pretty much for agriculture was in a very bad state there was almost a famine the problem had to be solved the problem of. the fabric of the socialist economy was starting to unravel production plants were falling behind and there were widespread shortages of many come oddities agriculture was failing even after the major maize planting campaign ordered by khrushchev himself

a campaign that prompted germany's newsmagazine desh to ask in 1962 mains or the moon. by that time kennedy had already inspected a mock up of the apollo space ship. the u.s. was forging ahead while the soviets hadn't decided whether to join the race at all let alone whether they could afford it. at the vienna summit a year earlier the u.s. president had twice offered to work together with the soviets to send a man to the moon. whether he meant it seriously or not khrushchev twice said nyet . back home near moscow the rocket men were already in the starting blocks and raring to go the kremlin's refusal to commit left them frustrated and angry. but chief designer left no stone unturned in his

attempts to persuade the kremlin boss to change his mind. he was a. bit here breathless here a few official but i would read. this. here boat story of. courage of knew quite well how to sell his moon project he promised that the armed forces would be able to use the. technology afterwards which made the project seem relatively inexpensive but that was a lie. 1962 finally brought the 1st ray of hope. was told to come up with more precise plans for his end one moon rocket. meanwhile his r 7 rocket was knocking up new records and creating new heroes for public consumption tito of the poets nikolayev and in the summer of 63 valentina tereshkova

the 1st woman in space. but can a yobs moon landing project continue to lose ground to the americans the teams at the baikonur cosmodrome were ready and waiting for their marching orders which didn't come. their u.s. challengers were baffled they'd been flying espionage missions since the 1950 s. and had assumed the soviets would not let them win without a fight. despite planes had been monitoring the r 7 launch facility since the outset and it was thought that a moon shot could not be launched from there. often the cia's analysts couldn't believe their eyes. the thing about it go with the satellites or you're a same

a same thing about iraq 3rd 4th and that you have to if you're down or constructing something. you've got to do it well because we've got are. but the u.s. just couldn't find anything there was simply no evidence of a lunar program. then in 1964 they saw a lot of new activity and construction sites at baikonur. it was the 1st indication that moscow was planning something bigger after all. in fact the construction work had been running at full speed since august when khrushchev had finally given the green light for a manned moon mission. soviet cost minot's would be working around the clock from then on. the movement to be misused we had 24 hour shifts sometimes we couldn't go home for several weeks but we slept at work on the tables not covered with a fur jacket and with

a cap under our heads. but. in our granny's pilot after the birth of my 1st child i couldn't pick my wife up from the hospital because i had to work but. never missed it. and we had to make a lot of sacrifices you know. but i still look back on this time as the happiest time of my life. ruth. the kremlin had decreed that carl yoffe would deliver the new n one moon rocket by 966 but everyone knew that was just an illusion. in fact there is much to suggest that the race to the moon had been lost before it had even begun. not only because the americans were 3 years ahead. but also because of valentino. the gifted engineer had worked for coral yard for years but

now refused to continue developing engines for him. a brutal power struggle between 2 alpha males had begun. oh i don't know but in their mile the main culprit here wasn't karloff but groups go. mainly due to his difficult character. glasgow thought rather highly of himself. and because of his character was unwilling to make compromises. at one meeting in moscow the 2 almost came to blows in front of those present not even the kremlin leader himself could reconcile the squabbling technocrats. it was an argument neither could win and a fatal disaster for the soviets moon program. the dispute was triggered by the question as to whether korolyov would be prepared to use those new engines which

made use of some highly toxic components. ever since a devastating missed launch of a military missile had killed more than $100.00 people including some of his staff cardiod had been convinced that close close engines were too dangerous for the launch stages of manned moon missiles. the images he had witnessed of the inferno had left deep scars in carl ya's mind he was convinced that a false start would result. in more deaths. so he needed to find someone else to build the engines for him even though there was actually no replacement for glasgow in the end the contract went to nicole like his nets of a designer who had previously only worked in the aircraft industry. but i look told off i will do with the cruise missile was not new car was one of the best

design us but he with the best jet engine design i. do the same is you will fly the best ferarri. design they will though you will build the cruise ship. it will take with he will do it or maybe full well they would do it. those weren't the best conditions for a race where your competitor has been steadily working through its test program for the last 3 years. each component would be tested until everything worked perfectly the soviets needed a miracle. of course what. if it will be the part of this competition that he would win you kind of go because and what if you think that you will fail. not that i know i did it with you or your . car or your for us absolutely convinced that the moon landing would work through

did it at then it was also convinced he would experience it himself. not his powers of persuasion or so great that we believed it too. as long as calling it off was a lie or there was no doubt in our minds. and in your body of work with the. chief designer sergey cut you off had to be both magician and manager. could in fact everyone with his enthusiasm the people surrounding him or his true disciples. my for you would have given your life for him every. phone call which. why it was he could have been a divisional commander to show that quotable our leader was or he was

a real leader that's what they say a leader urgent when you're ready for it but people followed him when they believed in him unconditionally. they thought he was doing everything right. despite all the setbacks and delays the soviet lunar program slowly got going in 1965 and exactly owner of was the 1st man to float freely in space. a space walk outside the orbiting those cards spacecraft was an important step on the way to the moon. landings were obviously progressing. assuming cia reconnaissance aircraft were also monitoring the construction of the huge new hangar in baikonur where the n one moon rocket was due to be assembled although they could only assume that that

is what it was meant for the americans still had no contacts or sources in the inner esle lines of soviet power. thousands of soviet workers and technicians who were forbidden to speak about the new moon rocket. everything was kept strictly under wraps. in what little skull that we were under constant pressure from the k.g.b. if we went on vacation and didn't tell anyone we were censored those are young kids . if you were traveling on the train and you went to the restaurant car to have dinner or just to sit and talk. with a cagey minder would come up to you these days maybe after half an hour they tap you on the shoulder and tell you it was time you went back to your seat and that's . the new anyone moon rocket was bigger

than anything the soviets had built before. the 1st stage had a diameter of 7000 meters but they had no way of transporting such a colossus. so they decided to build it on site which also meant the vast hangar had to be located right next to the launch pad. it was a big investment that would eat into the already tight budget with sometimes fatal consequences. especially for the ground testing of the new rocket. that had to do more with that of the board we had big problems with the equipment on the ground. with that one fortunately the entire ground preparation for the flights especially the ground testing of all space gear wasn't carried out as

normally it should have been. if you want to be successful you have to carry out the soil tests properly that. there were some test beds but no money for the new ones necessary to complete testing of the 1st stage no money no test beds no test of a gigantic 1st stage that was a new situation for all concerned a kind of intergalactic russian roulette. but everyone drew a cloak of silence over any difficulties. the cia was watching as best it could and trying to make sense out of what it was seeing it wasn't just the huge assembly hangar that had now caught its eye but also a big new construction site that suggested a new launch pad bigger than any before. we saw the pad. the aperture of the hole in the center we measured it and that was

50 feet. and that's obviously was a big enough for they were pretty certain. that this missile was our big one. the analysts put together drawings and 3 d. models from the shadows cast on the ground as a way of estimating the size of structures. it quickly became clear that this launch facility was for a rocket roughly the same size as the american saturn 5. the saturn 5 was already quite well advanced. the engine tests were almost complete the launch vehicle was well on schedule as was the apollo spacecraft itself.

carly augustine. on the other hand was way behind their competitors as well as their own deadlines. the engines were still the big problem too weak to unreliable and too many 30 of them in the 1st stage alone. that was not. we knew that using so many engines would make the whole thing unreliable for sure so when you got stuck but we had no other solution at the time for us here we lack the necessary technical and experimental know how we simply did not have the necessary resources. you know if you saw the say. it's not just the moon rocket that was causing problems they hadn't even started thinking about the moon capsule. there weren't even any models of it it was only on paper. but call ya remained optimistic. or walked up there it

would you. prescribe your lordship he was able to motivate his employees he could appear at the plant in the middle of the night and say. we have to work we have to be the 1st and i saw that the boss was with him. and so they worked hard and put their heart and soul into it. he was able to inspire and organize large collectives . he always knew what he wanted and how to achieve it well what did he got about it at the. writing to the new kremlin chief leonid brezhnev in 1965 he guaranteed the soviet union would carry out a moon landing by 968. knew he had to keep the kremlin rulers happy. but he also knew that a manned lunar mission was still a long way off. for

a low blow. and swear to god for his very tense and very hard during this time score one vostok you know he didn't like a lot of what was going on knew for sure. that i believe all things weren't going the way they should or he was irritable and very disciplined. with your venue just to preen it. but the chief designer didn't give up they've been making progress in spite of all the difficulties. but then fate intervened on january 14th 1966 went into the hospital for a routine procedure. the minister of health was to perform the operation himself. premier if they're all scared of minister of health pitofsky had a good relationship with my father i fear he thought he should treat

a man of such social standing himself that's why he performs the operation he was actually a good surgeon. for here. but karl yoffe didn't survive the operation. for gay people if there are no surrogate father over discovery of died because of the failure of our doctors or. broken pick a mom views that there were not only disasters with missiles but also with people. the next day karl your body was laid in state in the moscow column hall his cosmonauts forming an honor guard their chief designer the man responsible for all their cosmic trials sergey puddle of each car young at last became known to the public. his portrait on the kremlin wall was the 1st time most people had set eyes on this little known hero of the soviet union. and at last the americans found

out who had humiliated them so often in the early years of the space race. but there was no word of a successor nothing had been decided. move got to know what does that with the. car death was completely unexpected. the owner was. hard to find someone to match his personality quickly on it and they're for karloff was simply irreplaceable in many ways. though it was their game incipient. in one fell swoop the soviet moonshot had lost its visionary its clever manager with the links to the kremlin its great motivator and its driving force by stealing machine was appointed the new chief designer. book it was received. or know he was his deputy who else could it have been the a book tory but he did not have cut off the authority he was

a very weak personality. which were issues. sheen was a weak leader recorders for them and there was another thing he also had a drinking problem but the more shocking it well. within just a few weeks of taking office however the new chief designer had already matched up his 1st success the luna 9 probe made the 1st ever soft landing on the moon surface and sent back the 1st sensational photos. the next leap forward came just weeks later when luna 10 became the 1st satellite to take up the moon orbit. internet sanaya a bit hard to laid out but life on the loose orbits. a great moment at the 23rd

party congress of the communist party of the soviet union. work on the actual lunar landing program may have been hitting snags but it wasn't meant for the headlines anyway. the top secret project was still in the running. to. lunar cosmonauts. were already being recruited no one was supposed to know how well trained the cosmonauts already were these are secret pictures from lunar landing training. the moon landing in star city near moscow was going perfectly according to plan. but all activity was indoors out of sight of the u.s. spy planes. u.s. intelligence was still focusing on baikonur although there was still nothing to suggest that a moon shot would be soaring over the steps of cost on any time soon. the launch

vehicle was far from ready. the americans could breathe easier especially as the apollo program already seemed to be on the homestretch they were aiming to launch the new spacecraft in 1967 virgil gus grissom edward white and roger chaffee were carrying out final tests on january 27th the crew knew there were issues with the craft. mere seconds after mission control heard the words we got a fire in the cockpit the astronauts were dead. the tragedy was a huge setback. the u.s. space program suddenly ground to a complete standstill. it gave the soviets a chance to make up some lost ground just

a week after the apollo disaster the kremlin adopted a decree on the national importance of soviet lunar programs. spurred on by both new hope and new pressure to perform work on the soyuz spacecraft was accelerated it was a central component of the moon landing. docking training continued in the simulator . but then came the launch order even though the new spacecraft wasn't fully ready . leadin me a comet off on his way to his soyuz spacecraft just 3 months after the apollo one accident come out off was to be launched into space his companions tried to cheer him up but despite the fact that all 3 on manned test flights had failed before he was making a manned flight with a new space ship. had always stipulated that manned flights could only take place after 3 successful unmanned flights his successor machine over ruled him.

no we could have it was a new spaceship and a new chief designer they wanted to show that even death wouldn't stop us. with a show. of the better of it at sales it's not everything went smoothly when we were preparing for the launch was a few there were a lot of complaints from technicians and engineers or there was a board check of this and some more pretty serious. but the new chief designer was prepared to take any risks and overruled the objections of his staff. will come out all putting a new comer up shouldn't have started at all but official i tried everything to make sure the launch did not go ahead and. i contacted all my superiors with

a including the head of launch preparation i said to him we can't do this and he said to me a lot of this is a decision of the central committee of the party as if we could do anything about it. there was no point in trying anymore. just to. the big chance to finally make up lost ground in the race to the moon was too tempting. and again fate took its course. the launch sequence continued without any problems coming off reported that everything was fine and going to plan. but then one of the 2 suns sails failed and the energy supply started to break down. was was the launch was aborted.

then came disaster soyuz once parachute system failed and the space pod smashed into the ground. stalinist there was basically nothing left in. his body he was vaporized and burned. for progress there were some photos that were terrible because there was almost nothing left to see there was practically nothing left at all if everything had been burnt to a crisp up the. sure and you know of course kishka. the secret pictures wouldn't be seen for decades. but there were some official pictures and news. circle flues are concerned we only reported big successes or big tragedies you could get.

the reports didn't mention that the soviet union's 1st dead cause may not have been a victim of its moon program. the actual purpose of the mission was also kept dark. nothing was said about the moon program or the cancellation of the soyuz 2 mission which had been due to take place a day after cannot all flaunt and dock with him later a crucial maneuver on the way to the moon. but in baikonur work on the lunar rocket continued albion slowly. all the launch schedules were scrapped. new problems were constantly cropping up with the n one rocket yobs problematic brainchild many in the program now had doubts.

record collections are going to argue the end one moon rocket was very complicated and required far too many engines 3 years ago you off had lived he would have been fired a few months later anyway. that was how it was. we had reached the limits of the technology. is it worth. everything carl goss did was great unfortunately even his mistakes this is in the end one was college golf faulty design. the kurdish cricketer. no one knew when the mammoth moon rocket would finally be towed from the hangar to the launch site then finally at the end of 1967 it was time to roll out the soviet super booster. in a ceremony prior to launch crimean sparkling wine replaced the traditional bottle

of champagne to send the vessel on its initial voyage. the spectacle wasn't lost on the american observers on december 11th 1967 they managed to get their 1st photo of the giant and one rock and we had it nailed down we watched that baby and i couldn't get over how big it was it was just like a big cone. and we spotted it and. always saw it on the pad and then we saw they are effects or are sure that. when that thing went off it just tore the hell out of it. and. they called the end one big mother as well as jay bird because it was being assembled on launch site j. . but what they had actually photographed was just a dummy to train the launch team on ramp procedures it was the same size and had all the fittings that the original had it just didn't fly.

another jaybird was sighted on a launch pad in september 1968 but there was still a long way to go to the actual take off in june the cia had predicted that the soviets would not be able to make a moon landing before mid 1971 it seemed they were right. the lunar landing program was still stuck firmly on the ground. the kremlin summoned leading scientists and politicians to a crisis meeting in moscow at the beginning of january 1969. the americans had just entered the homestretch with their apollo 8 lunar orbit the moon seemed close enough to touch the race almost over. the decisive apollo 11 flight was scheduled for summer 969. design

a machine came under renewed pressure to finally get the n one airborne and although he was almost resigned to failure the launch date was now slowly approaching. in mid february 1 19694 locomotives towed the colossus towards the ramp on 2 tracks. on february 21st the long awaited countdown began. the boosters were ready to. but u.s. intelligence missed it i am. ignition. the m one lifts off the 30 engines in the 1st stage straining at their limits to meet. through the blue oval never thing was huge. when the rocket began to lift off. everything within a radius of 5 kilometers. everything rattled and trembled

we were filming the start from a long way off with and we were very excited intense. then you want to stay on your bullfight the rockets launched flare was almost 3 times as long as the rocket itself and were a 300 meter long torch that shone a long way. to. 51 seconds then there was an explosion in the 1st stage. nevertheless the launch team still seems confident. iraqi attack machine is a missile it exploded but no one saw it as a catastrophe yet if everyone was optimistic that the rocket would fly the next time with you would be sol the 2nd flight was prepared with what you are. just 5 months before the american scheduled apollo 11 launch the soviets were relaxed and optimistic preparations for the 2nd attempt were already underway in june.

the cia knew what was going on this time and were able to warn the u.s. president in advance about the jaybirds forthcoming launch in by canoe on. july 3rd 1969 countdown for the 2nd takeoff attempt. this time the 105 metre high cost us only managed to get a few meters off the ground before the engines shut down again the 1st stage had failed i am the entire launch site was wrecked the only thing left working was the escape route. when was. when we watched it and then.

we saw the after effects of but then burst into flames and here you can clearly see the burnt area you can see the powerful plates have been knocked down. it was a rude awakening from the dream of space flight. a few days later neil armstrong and buzz aldrin stepped onto the moon's surface and sealed america's victory nearly 400000 kilometers from earth. the unofficial race to the moon was over the soviet union had lost. the as a surrogate both were in that if my father had not died in 1966 perhaps we would not have handed the moon to the americans. or now that it was. colonel yobs mighty moon rocket never manage to overcome earth's gravity the

soviets made several more attempts the final one in 1972 lasting exactly 107 seconds until again the 1st stage exploded. the final end came in 1974 all documents relating to the moon program were destroyed on orders from on high. as silently and secretly as it came into the world the n one disappeared the remains of the gigantic rocket landed on the scrap heap of history some parts gave playgrounds a futuristic look other parts were converted into pics dies. only the insiders still know the stories connected with the scrap metal and many still firmly believe that the soviet union could have won the race to the moon if calling young hadn't died so early if bush had made more of an effort or if the

kremlin hadn't been so hesitant. that's a whole lot of ifs but history has never been written and what if. mozart made some mean spirited dancing. at a pretty cool musical. or a classical plus cuban. horn player sara willis joins in with gusto.

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3rd d. w. . this is e w news live from berlin a tight runoff in poland's presidential election the populist income both jay dude is fighting for a 2nd term he came out on top but which he will have to face a challenge from the liberal mayor of warsaw in the runoff on the 12th of july. also coming up.