making headlines today, president obama taking time out from his vacation in hawaii with a message to american military personnel overseas. correspondent dan springer is with the president. we'll get that for you a little later on. former president george h.w. bush remains in the hospital tonight. the 90-year-old bush is doing well. he was brought in tuesday with shortness of breath. pope francis told a crowd in st. peter's square said he's praying for the families of the

students killed in pakistan's massacre. and talks about the hardened heart in affluent nations. now we can go to dan springer who is traveling with the president. >> reporter: merry christmas to you, doug. president obama his thoughts with the troops around the world, especially those still deployed in afghanistan. they're in afghanistan. we see the troops in their waning days in their deployment there. and those troops, of course, thinking of their families back home. >> pretty important mission here. it's an honor to be a part of that. at the same time it's a little bit difficult being away from home. >> reporter: 13,500 troops will be remaining there after the first of the year that's way down from the peak of 140,000 in 2010. there are critics who say the pullout is happening at the same time that the civilian casualties are going way up. president obama said it's time to move on and it's time to reach out to the troops there

today. >> in a few days our time in afghanistan will be over. that gives us an opportunity to step back and reflect on what the families have given us. we're able to gather with family and friends because the troops are able to hug theirs good-bye and step forward to serve. >> reporter: congressman from oklahoma elected to the senate gave the republican response showing that when it comes to the troops, and christmas, there is no political divide. >> to all of our military families scattered across the globe, this christmas thank you for serving far away so millions of american families can be home today in freedom and safety. >> reporter: president obama finishes his vacation here in hawaii. he played golf with the prime minister of malaysia. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> it was a pioneer, something

that anywhere hadn't been done before. >> the apollo astronauts were american heroes. >> that's what we're being asked to do. ours is not the reason why. it was to do or die. >> we choose to go to the moon and do the other things. not because they are easy but because they are hard. >> did you actually ever think you might die? >> we thought our chances were about 50/50. >> did you really? >> today spending on nasa and the globe privatizes. >> the eagle has landed. >> we are reminded what it was like to fly to the moon. >> we were in the touchdown service. how did that make you feel? >> humble. >> reporting from the kennedy space center visitor complex in florida. >> it is hard for people my age to believe that most americans weren't even alive the last time

a man walked on the moon. apollo xvii astronauts in 1972. a number of the explorers who made that trip passed away. the rest of now in their late 70s, some 80ings, but the story they tell sounds like something out of the future, not the past. it's a story about how america with a combination of vision high-tech know-how, and good old-fashioned courage answered the challenge and achieved what is almost as unbelievable today as it was a half century ago. it was 1957 at the height of the cold war that the soviets launched a satellite named sputnik which orbited the earth at just over an hour and a half. >> the world may never be the same again. >> in 1957 when i was still in flight school, sputnik was launched. that's the beginning of the space age.

>> reporter: the dawn of the space age was the start of the space race. america competing with the soviets for scientific dominance. but in a world where americans dug bomb shelters and worried about missiles science was about national security. >> the cold war had been prolonged. it was going on. nobody could really see an end to it. there were all the underlying risks of nuclear confrontation at the time. >> reporter: the next step in that race, man launches, that required a few good men, seven to start. project mercury began in 1958 with the goal of putting a human in orbit, and doing so before the soviets did. on that second count, they failed. three and a half years after the sputnik launched on april 12th, 1961, the soviets outpaced the u.s. once again when a cosmonaut became the first human being in

orbit. >> we were behind. we were lagging. >> reporter: america scrambled to catch up. less than one month later on may 5th, alan shepard one of the mercury seven became the first american in space. just over three months into his presidency, john f. kennedy like millions of other americans across the country was glued to his television. >> alan shepard became an instant hero that this country needed. but a cosmonaut circled the earth a month before. >> reporter: they sought out advice from nasa's top engineers. one was famed rocket scientist von braun. >> president kennedy here with missile expert von braun began a two-day tour of u.s. space centers. >> i read a letter from von braun, he wrote to kennedy, when he said how can we beat the

russians, and von braun's letter basically said, we can't beat them anywhere except to be the first on the moon. so that's what we committed to. >> reporter: may 25th, 1961 the president made a dramatic announcement before a joint session of congress. >> i believe that this nation should commit itself of achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. >> we didn't go to the moon to collect rocks. we went to the moon to stick the flag in the moon before the russians did. >> we didn't have the cold war would kennedy have had the same deal? no. >> to have something that would show america's ability to respond to a challenge as well as to do it in a full open and peaceful way, i think really did catch the imagination of the american people, and of the politicians at the time.

>> reporter: catch the imagination it did. >> we're under way. >> reporter: on february 20th, 1962 john glenn became the first american to orbit the earth. >> oh, that view is tremendous. >> we choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. >> reporter: the mercury program would ultimately have six manned flights. each mission a step closer to the ultimate goal. then, as mercury was winding down, on november 22nd, 1963, president kennedy was assassinated. >> to honor his memory and the future of the works he started, the nasa center in florida shall hereafter be known as the john f. kennedy space center. >> reporter: in april 1964 nasa launched the gemini program.

>> it was a two-manned spacecraft. the gemini program was specifically to show that we could do a rendezvous and dock. >> in order to get to the moon, you had to have the capability of two weeks in space. you had to be able to rendezvous. you had to be able to do eva, get outside the spacecraft and have a guided reentry. we practiced all those missions in gemini. so gemini was an extremely part of theprogram. >> reporter: in 1964, on gemini iv the first american performed an eva, extra vehicular activity, or space walk. america was still playing catch-up, however. soviet cosmonaut had performed a space walk three months earlier. the big prize was still up there in the night sky and the gemini missions were moving forward. each one providing nasa with

more information necessary for the ultimate quest. >> we're on our way frank. >> reporter: in december of 19 of 5 gemini 7 was the first manned spacecraft to do so. gemini 7 also doubled the amount of time any man had been in space. >> many doctors at that time said, you know people can't live in zero gravity for too long. of course, we went up there for two weeks, and we did see some changes in the body. but it was nothing that couldn't be overcome. >> that was significant, right? because that meant that we could go to the moon that we could chance a mission of that duration, if not longer. that changed people's perspective. >> because moon flights they said would be about a two-week flight. we had to make sure that the people were, you know, able to function in that respect. >> reporter: america's next step, the apollo program would get us to the moon, but apollo

almost cratered as soon as it began. fox news reporting continues after the break.

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so you can breathe and do the one thing you want to do sleep. add breathe right to your cold medicine shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. and look for the calming scent of new breathe right lavender in the sleep aisle. everybody knew a moon mission was a supremely dangerous undertaking. still, few saw astronauts actually dying on the launch pad. during a dress rehearsal, no less. just feet away from desperate technicians helpless to save them. on friday, january 27, 1967,

three astronauts entered apollo's maiden craft to conduct a pre-flight test. as test conductors were about to pick up the count, the instruments showed an unexplained rise in the oxygen flow into the capsule. six seconds letter the frantic voice of ed white came over the intercom. >> there's a fire in the cockpit. >> a fire in the cockpit. >> they were inside a spacecraft in pure oxygen. that's a recipe for disaster. all they needed was a spark and unfortunately they got one. >> reporter: from a piece of exposed, uninsulated wiring. all three men were dead. >> we live near one of the wives of one of the crewmen. >> reporter: he had to break the in us to the wife of edward white. >> that was a pretty tough deal. when i stopped in front of the house, she saw me coming and even though she had not heard i

could just tell by the look on her face that she knew something was wrong. >> reporter: the three were given hero's funerals. and in their honor, mission af-204 was redesignated apollo i. it could well have been the last apollo. >> that put the apollo program on hold. frank gorman became very instrumental in reviewing the hold issue. >> nasa, especially investigators themselves, that kept the outside without the slightest idea was going on. that was one of the hallmarks of the confidence that the public had in nasa at that time. we were able to get a team together and point out the failures and fix it. >> reporter: congress helped convince the government and the public although there would always be risks nasa could learn from its program. and the program should go ahead. the launchpad disaster may have

allowed nasa to get to the moon faster than scheduled. >> we had an opportunity to learn from that mistake. very tragic and sad mistake. but to actually accelerate the program. i don't think i'm alone in having said that the fire really did make it possible to meet kennedy's goal to land on the moon by the end of the decade of the '60s. >> reporter: apol to 4, 5 and 6 were unmanned missions to test the safety of the rocket. it took almost two years before another american crew went into orbit. apollo vii on october 11th, 1968. >> all clear. >> reporter: the space program was sacked but a slow reentry wasn't going to be enough to meet a deadline to beat the soviets. it would require a daring and dramatic change of plan. coming up nasa rolls the dice

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titles on the winter watchlist, only with xfinity from comcast. 1968 was a year of chaos and conflict in the united states. martin luther king jr. and robert f. kennedy assassinated. riots engulfed our cities. the escalating war in vietnam, alienating millions of americans. against a turbulent back drop, nasa resumed its manned flights and aimed to test in space the craft that had hoped to land on the moon before year's end. a sudden change of plans turned apollo viii into another make or break mission. >> apollo viii was not going to be a lunar flight. it was going to be an orbital flight to make sure that everything was correct from two

vehicles before we would go to the moon. >> reporter: apollo viii was a big step forward. america would still be trailing the russians in the race to the moon. >> they sent spacecraft around the moon with animals to test them for cosmonauts. and they were fairly successful. but then in the soviet hierarchy, they had a been controversy, should we send the cosmo mauts, and people said, no we should send them one more time before the cia began getting signals that maybe the soviets were going to try a sir com lunar flight. which would have massively undercut the pr potential of a lunar landing, or even you know, a lunar orbital flight. >> reporter: the lunar module wasn't ready to go into space.

it was months behind schedule. instead of falling further behind the soviets nasa officials had a bold idea. >> the lunar module unfortunately was delayed considerably. and so nasa again in one of the, i think one of the great strokes of management substituted apollo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. >> reporter: if it worked, america would actually leapfrog the soviets in the space race an astronaut, not a cosmonaut, would be the first to fly around the moon. >> it was one of the big gambles that nasa at the direction of the president took in order to establish that america was better than the soviet union. >> reporter: a big gamble indeed. after all it was less than two years before that apollo 1 demonstrated how complex every mission was, how the smallest oversight can be fatal. nobody knew that better than frank gorman, point man in the apollo 1 investigation. nasa tapped him for the latest

mission. >> i was called back, will you volunteer to take apollo 8 to the moon? i said, yes, we would be happy to. >> we were sort of at the last minute, several months before we were scheduled to launch. but that's what we were being asked to do. so ours was not the reason why, it was to do or die. >> reporter: do or die not just for the three astronauts. it was 1968, ending with a disaster it could end america's lunar quest for good. >> it certainly occurred to me that if the flight wasn't successful, it would be a monumental failure. >> reporter: they launched from cape kennedy center in florida. just over two and a half hours later, the crew was given permission to become the first humans to leave earth orbit. using a state of the art computer which had 1/13th the memory of a modern calculator.

they fired the third stage and sent them hurling on the three-day journey to the moon. >> what does the old moon like? >> the moon is essentially gray, no color. >> as we came into earth rise we were shocked, dumbfounded almost to see this earth coming up. we hadn't seen it before. we weren't briefed about it. and so there was a scramble for cameras. >> reporter: on christmas eve while orbiting the moon this picture was photographed by the landers. this shot has become one of the most reproduced space photographs in history. >> it was the only thing in space that had any color. everything else was black and white. the earth was blue. with white clouds. and we were a long way away from home and it was christmas. for me i think bill anders said it best. he said, we came all the way to the moon and what really perks

our interest was the earth. >> reporter: with the world engrossed in apollo 8's epic journey, they took turns reading from the old testament. >> god said let the waters of the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. and god called the dry land earth. >> the old testament is the basis of the world's religions, not just christians. so we thought that was very appropriate. >> reporter: they relayed a sighting that delighted children worldwide. >> there is a santa claus. >> did your family delay the christmas celebration until you got back? >> partly. i planned ahead of time and gave my wife a president that essentially the card said from the man in the moon. >> reporter: apollo 8 showed

everyone up, certainly the soviets. but while america was now leading the space race, the end of the decade and jfk's deadline was quickly approaching. coming up, there was only one giant step left to take on the pathway to the moon and it would mark an epic moment in human history. after this. ♪ ♪ you don't need to think about the energy that makes our lives possible.

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making headlines on this christmas day, a few dozen protesters had a peaceful protests after the fatal police shooting of an african-american man tuesday after he allegedly pulled a gun on an officer. russian president vladimir putin has canceled vacation for government ministers. he wants them to keep working to fix the country's economic crisis. russia has been battered by falling oil prices and western sanctions. russia is offering sympathy to north korea saying the government's outrage is outlandish. it's been viewed online and at a small number of theaters. >> the first chance i got. i want to exercise freedom of speech. i want to come see it. president obama's golfing partner, the malaysian prime minister is taking heat for being away during massive

flooding in that country. more than # the90,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. the forecast in denver is up to four inches of snow. throughout much of the rest of the country, however temperatures were warmer than normal. now back to neil kaputo's fly me to the moon. welcome back. coming from the kennedy space center visitor complex in florida, president john kennedy set the goal to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. apollo 8 orbited the moon, but no man had set foot on the surface. when president nixon assumed office the warrior wasn't about to see the soviets get there first.

the next leg of the space race was a series of sprints. >> we launched the saturn 5 essentially every two months. >> reporter: each mission got the astronauts a little closer to their ultimate goal. apollo 9 launching march 3rd, 1969 with three astronauts the first test of a lunar module in space. apollo 10 in 1969 moved within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface. that would be a dress rehearsal for apollo 11 commanded by neil armstrong. >> what will your plans be in the unlikely event that the module does not come up to the surface? >> we've chosen not to think about that at the present time. >> reporter: the other two crew members were command module

pilot michael allen and buzz aldrin who would walk on the moon with armstrong. there was a lot of gossip back and forth, how it ended up neil armstrong was the first. it was felt that you were supposed to be the first right? >> there was an uncertainty every e.v.a. is always done by the junior person. the senior person has the responsibility for the much more requirement. it would seem to me that the outside activities should be the job of the junior person. >> who was that supposed to be? was it going to be you? was it going to be armstrong? >> there's a lot of discussion about the commander leading his troops somewhere. and the commander is the symbolic person. neil was closer to the door.

>> it is weird, right? >> it's not weird. i went home and told joan frankly, i would just as soon be on a later mission so i wouldn't have to put up with all this celebrity speak making for the rest of my life. >> reporter: july 16th, 1969, showtime. >> you think about the countdown as the curtains opening. clouds, clear thinking, that is absolutely needed. >> reporter: the launch another dazzling pillar of fire was launched. from the earth to the moon, without incident. >> we are very comfortable up here. we have a happy home. plenty of room for the three of us. >> reporter: four days into the mission, in time to do what no astronaut had done before he coupled the lunar module named

eagle and guided it safely to the moon. on their way down, armstrong and aldrin realized they were going long beyond the landing zone, and into a boulder sphere. that's when armstrong took over diverting from the plan. he was now flying above unfamiliar territory. searching for a safe spot to land. but running low on fuel. >> so we're on the far side. and i'm reading the altitude. >> 60 seconds. >> 60 seconds. >> okay. a hundred feet still a ways off the ground. and we've got 60 seconds. i'm getting a little concerned. >> so it got very tense at mission control. we were holding our breath. are we going to have enough gas. 13 seconds later, with a stop

watch, i heard contact engine stopped. after a little pause neil very calmly said -- >> the eagle has landed. >> you got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. we're breathing again. thanks a lot. >> reporter: 3:00 p.m. eastern time, 6 hours and 37 minutes later, neil armstrong took the first step on the moon. what he said might be the most famous words of the 20th century, or any century. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> mike and i asked him mike said, have you figured out what you're going to say? i don't know yet. when we land, i'll think about it. you never know whether to take him seriously.

>> reporter: they spent enough time to bounce around set up scientific experiments, collect moon rocks and take several enduringly famous photos. aldrin with the american flag, a foot on the moon. and probably the most iconic of all -- >> people have asked me what's the significance of this picture? and i say i've got three words -- location, location, location. >> i'm looking at you looking at that vast desolate plates. >> you would use the same word i would. but i prefaced desolate with magnificent, because of humanity reaching outward and accomplishing something that people thought was impossible. >> apollo 11 made it to the moon

just six months ahead of the deadline jfk had set at the beginning of the decade. it was left to another president to congratulate the astronauts. >> one priceless moment in the whole history of man all the people on this earth are truly one. >> reporter: armstrong aldrin and collins splashed down. the space race was over. the stars and stripes were on the moon. coming up, in the 1960s, there was a hit tv show "lost in space" and a movie "marooned." as long as humans explored the heavens, they shuddered at the possibility of never getting back. the astronauts of apollo 13, that nightmare almost came true. after this. ame's louis, and i quit smoking with chantix. i had tried to do it in the past. i hadn't been successful. quitting smoking this time was different because i got a prescription for chantix. along with support chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking.

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americans would be landing on the moon. how huge would that be. so it's kind of hard to believe that after apollo 11 the idea of going to the moon became almost old hat. after apollo 12 returned to the moon in november 1969, some people were actually feeling that these trips were getting routine. then the world was reminded starkly that they were anything but. >> we never lost our enthusiasm our excitement, because we knew what we were doing was very, very important scientifically. >> reporter: plenty of astronauts still wanted their shot to walk on the moon. one was alan shepard who had not been in space since that flight in 1961. >> alan shepard had been grounded for about nine years. wiser heads in management said wait a second shepard doesn't have that much training so far. we need to give him more training.

would you mind taking 13. we're going to give shepard 13. i said 13 would be fine. >> reporter: more than fine. it would give lovell who had gone into space three times and even orbited the moon a chance to walk on its surface that much sooner. apollo 13 launched at 1313 military time. it was set to enter lunar orbit on the 13th of april. but the crew were having nothing but good luck. 56 hours into the flight, the crew finished a broadcast showing how comfortably they lived and worked in weightlessness. >> the crew of apollo 13 is wish you you a nice evening. >> reporter: nine minutes later, a tank blew up causing the number one tank to also fail. houston, we have a problem. words that would forever be linked to commander jim lovell. >> when the explosion occurred, i thought to myself, why me? and for a little while i

couldn't believe what was happening. and then all of a sudden i said well, it is me, and it is now. so what's next? >> reporter: the command module's electricity, light and water all lost. there was no heat source. they were 200,000 miles from earth, and going in the wrong direction. >> did you actually ever think, i might die? >> reporter: well, we thought our chances were about 10%. >> did you really? >> oh yeah. when we realized after we saw the oxygen escaping, that things could be really bad. >> reporter: as the world watched, ground control in houston faced a formidable task. think of a way for the crew to fix their spaceship, test it then write up step-by-step procedures for the astronauts to follow just to get home. >> we immediately went to the simulators to try to do in the simulators what they had to do, in the damaged apollo 13

spacecraft, to get them home. >> we're trying to come up with some good ideas here for you. >> reporter: one was to shut down the command module to conserve its remaining energy. use the lunar module as a sort of lifeline. >> we knew we had the lunar module. it had power, and batteries and oxygen. >> but not enough. >> no. but if we could use it to get us back home again but if not, we were going to transmit as long as we could so that the people would have some idea of what to do to correct for future flights. >> i want to say, you guys are doing real good work. >> so are you guys, jack. >> you all sounded so calm. you in particular, captain sounded so at ease. now, if that were me i would be barney five. i'm 200,000 miles from home. my spaceship blew up. and i'm not feeling optimistic. what went through your mind?

>> a lot of people said, you didn't understand the situation. >> reporter: another crisis. carbon dioxide levels were getting dangerously high. ground control fixed that by instructing the crew to build a make-shift rig they called the mailbox, to purge the deadly gas from the craft and keep oxygen levels safe. the crew were running low on water and food. >> you lost 14 pounds? >> i didn't realize i'd lost 14 pounds. i guess i -- i was all charged up. >> reporter: they were sick freezing and tired, but safe for now. mission control's next chance was to get the broken-down craft out of the lunar landing course and back on a return to earth's trajectory. engineers in houston figured the crew could do this by executing two made from the limping command module.

powering that up after the long cold sleep was one of mission control's greatest achievements. light controllers generated the necessary procedures to do this in three days. something like that would normally take three months. >> we got smarter and smarter and smarter. then it became, let's don't make a mistake. >> reporter: people across the globe hoped for a miracle. they got one. the crew of apollo 13 splashed down safely in the south pacific ocean on april 17th. >> it was a failure in the initial mission. but in reality it was a triumph in the ability of people to overcome adversity. >> reporter: that triumph likely gave alan shepard the opportunity to walk on the moon nine months later. shepard famously launched two golf balls with a 6 iron he had smuggled aboard apollo 14.

>> i'll try a sand shot here. >> i fantasized about landing on the moon what i was going to do, how i was going to act on the moon. >> reporter: but lovell would never get the chance to go back. >> so close, and yet so far. >> apollo 15 launched july 26th, 1971. apollo 16 launched april 16th, 1972 carrying john young, mattingly and charles duke. they were the first missions to use the lunar roving vehicle. but the apollo missions were winding down. would man ever return to the moon. the astronauts of apollo 17 certainly hoped so. their amazeing and what would turn out to be their final mission after the break. i have a cold with terrible chest congestion. i better take something. theraflu severe cold doesn't treat chest congestion. really? new alka-seltzer plus day powder rushes relief to your worst cold symptoms plus chest congestion.

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not long after neil armstrong maids giant leap for mankind a new expression entered the lexicon. if we can't put a -- if we can put a man on the moon why can't we -- sticking gum to our shoes, a joke, yes, but but showed how americans viewed apollo as a human achievement up to that point or will it be for all time? >> i have been asked a million times how does it feel to make that first step on the moon? i knew that when i made that first step it was mine. nobody could ever take it away from me. >> yet gene almost gave that up chance. he had done almost everything an astronaut could do. even buzzing the moon in apollo 10. he had never set foot on a a lunar surface. hoping to command a flight of his own was no guarantee

there would be apollo 17 or he would be on it yet he was given the final flight in the program. >> this is the last of the moon landings but not the least because this has got to be the best, right? >> yes, sir. that's the way we feel about it. >> his crew ron evans and the first nonmilitary trained astronaut geelg jack smith that launched america's first ever at night took place on december 7th, 1972. the flight went smoothly while looking back at the earth, schmidt snapped this photo now known as the blue marble picture. >> we had our view of a fully full earth. i took that at about 34,000 miles away. nasa tells me it is still the most requested photograph from the apollo archives. >> apollo 17 arrived at the moon on december 11th jt first i remember looking out at mountainous valley i am now where no human being has ever been before. >> it's beautiful. one of the most proud

moments in my life i guarantee. >> you jack schmidt and ron evans had never flown before. i said listen, guys you are only coming this way once. >> i was strolling on the moon one day. >> enjoy. and they did and i did. >> hippety hop. pety. >> involved risk as they soon discovered with the lunar hammer. broke it off. the dust was raining down on you and the equipment and everything like that. >> and on the moon dust equals disaster. >> dust effects the thermal absorption of your suit. get warmer use of cooling water faster. >> in the direct light the temperature of the moon surface rises well above the boiling point. >> we t. took some time but we taped together photographs that worked extremely well for the rest of the mission. needless to say we became

hahn area members of many auto repair associations. >> had you a couple of close calls there. you got dust on your suits that you could have burned up. >> leave earth put yourful? a knew environment of risk. >> people said you had guts. i didn't have guts. you didn't go to the moon knowing to come back. >> blooming with color, atmosphere, and life in a cold, black sky. profoundly effected. >> i can promise you if i could take every human being with me for five minutes, stabbed them next to me on the surface of the moon and look back at the earth, the world might very well be a better place to live in today. there is no question in my mind that there is a crartd of creator of the universe. >> no atheists in space. once you are exposed and see what you see. >> this is not two dust particles that came together and created mass and energy and eventually life. it's just inconceivable.

>> on december 14th 1972 after collecting almost it 250 pounds of lunar samples, the most of any crew, the mission was over. >> i started of up the ladder and i looked down at -- i knew i wasn't coming back this i way. i looked up at the earth multicolored blues and the oceans and the whites and the snow on the clouds not tumbling through space but with purpose and order turning on an axis started up the ladder and i was looking for that proverbial freeze because i wanted to keep this going in my mind. >> america's challenge has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. >> you were the last human being to touch that surface. how does that make you feel? >> humble. >> we leave as we came and god willing as we shall return.

with testimony peace and hope for all mankind. >> a war raging in vietnam budget demands raging in washington. the program itself continued in 1970s the u.s. launched a space station and then there was a joint mission with the russians called apollo soyuz. then the space shuttle, amazing but through the years budget cuts every year bit by bit the u.s. pulling back and others more than happy to fill the gap. russia china, independent i independent -- india. japan. the country space relegated to hitching rides. >> ushered in like apollo these companies are getting off to a rocky start. on december 5th, 2014, nasa

took one small step back to the future the unmanned orion space capsule to wait orbited the earth before splashing down in the pacific ocean. orion may land astronauts on meteor or surface of mars. but spending on nasa is near historic lows that is literally and figuratively a long ways away. >> maybe by spending a little time looking back we can at least learn anew the lesson that apollo showed us. if we as americans set ourv=;z øhg]e#jy=c/3/lj3 sights on a goal and some will to achieve it, even of the sky isn't the limit. i'm neilfor cavuto.er thanks for watching. $3 billion? $4.5 billion? the answer is... up to $4.5 billion. using your computer's built-in energy-saving features can generate

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