of 92. in his memory we dedicate this hour. walter cronkite, dead at the age of 92. in his memory we dedicate this hour. . >> you're a go for landing. >> i was in michigan. we knew what he was going to encounter, at least up to >> you're a go for landing. mission control watching. we even more than the rest of the world wondered if they would pull this off. >> things are looking great. >> probably almost everybody else in mission control center said, that is what we signed up to do. we did what we said we were going to do. >> the eagle has landed. greta: to return man on the

moon and return him safely within a decade, that goal challenged and inspired america. welcome to "apollo 11, one small step to our future." i'm greta van susteren. buzz aldrin tells us about this adventure. he is joined by other apollo astronauts and he tells -- and they tell how america got to the moon and what it did for america. it was 40 years ago when america one that space race to the moon. do you know there's another space race going on right now? these images are from indian and japanese spacecraft. they have been photographed in the moon for the past two years. in 2003, became the third country to put a man into space. in 2005, two chinese astronauts completed a five-day orbital mission around the earth. national pride is just one of the benefits for every country. from the very beginning, our

space programs have been inspiring. do you ever look up and think, i have been there? >> yes. greta: it is sort of fun, isn't it? >> yes, but it is something in the past. >> colonel buzz aldrin on this 40th anniversary wanted to talk about the and it looks kind of dismal, the finances, the economy, we have an opportunity to make a pathway, the leader of the nation has an opportunity to create a pathway. we have made a choice to go back and do what we did 50 years ago. greta: coming up, buzz aldrin talks about his vision for the future. >> you're going to fast on the panoramic. >> on july 20, 1969, hundreds of millions of people around the

world gathered in front of their tvs as buzz aldrin and neil armstrong walked on the moon. in the u.s.a., it was on in prime time. that mission was the fulfillment of a vision with a very well- defined goal. that was the first ingredient for apollo's success. 50 years ago, the national aeronautics and space administration was created during the eisenhower administration and america's adventure in space began. in 1961, president john f. kennedy challenge america. >> before this decade is out, landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. >> they said, land on the moon by the end of the decade. i thought it was a very bold statement. >> captain jim lovell, apollo 8, won the space race by orbiting the moon on christmas eve, 1968. >> happy birthday, mother. >> apollo 13 proved to nasa

could manage a crisis it had not trained for. >> maybe i did not realize the capacity of the american industry and military, that they could do something like that and accomplished. >> there is no ambiguity in terms of getting the job done. >> rusty stay in orbit testing systems and the docking techniques critical to the missions. >> that was an incredible challenge for not just those of us who were part of the program, but as the region but for the nation as a whole. >> we did go to the moon because people in the united states were afraid that maybe communism and the science of communism was better than ours. >> apollo 12 held the fourth man to walk on the moon. >> they said, we will spend the money, we will do anything to

show that our technology is better than anybody else's. >> we had to invent the technologies. we had to build the teams and write the procedures for something that had never been done before. >> jean france, flight director for all of the apollo missions. >> there's a lot of prestige from our nation, pride, that basically, we were warriors in this cold war. basically, we were in the battlefield trying to win the war in the space. >> each mission began with a ride on the saturn v, a three- stage rocket taller than a 36- story building. it was the most powerful rocket ever launched. >> it was an act -- an extraordinarily exciting time. >> jack schmidt, the only scientist to walk on the moon. >> we were launching one of those every two months between november of 1968 and november of 1969. that is almost impossible to conceive of today.

>> we are getting a picture on the tv. it is upside down. >> i was at buzz's house when they did those for steps on the moon. -- those first steps on the moon. it was the cutting edge of technology. >> neil armstrong was getting ready to step on the moon. >> it is one small step for man. >> neil armstrong stepped on the moon. >> one giant leap for mankind. >> every parent turns to every child and says, you will never forget this. trust us. >> i choked up partly because i was of that generation of kids who could go into the library and watch john glenn left off and all of the other -- alan shepard and the others. >> they were so far out of the box. the box was gone. >> it is not corny to say that those kinds of big dreams are

important for a nation, a society, a civilization, to say, to dream big, and then do it. >> we opened the door during apollo. we cracked the door open. >> the final dress rehearsal was apollo 10. >> the greatest legacy that we have from the wright brothers is the romance of aviation. it is the inspiration that they provided into the hearts and minds of all of us dreamers. that is what we are. that is what got us to the moon. dreamers followed in our footsteps. greta: do you look up and think, home is a long way away? >> yes, but that is not part of our business, to look back at the earth and philosophize about how far away it is. greta: you are not, like,

absolutely to the moon with excitement? >> we are businesslike. greta: mighty important business. coming up, buzz aldrin takes as long as he lands and then walks on the moon. first, how america got to the moon. it was the 1960's. >> you something new is happening at ethan allen with special savings on select fabrics on all frames you choose the fabric we custom make it it's more affordable than you think. ethan allen offer ends july 31st.

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president johnson said if we have lost walter cronkite, we have lost america. >> rich, we have to say goodbye. thank you. greta: the vision and goal of going to the moon and returning safely inspired america. before that, a basketball-sized object that russians called sputnik scared us into action. today, more than 750 satellites are in earth's orbit for telecommunications, gps mapping, and much more. in 1961, there was just one. >> you know, it is 40 years since apollo 11. i look back on that time with special nostalgia.

i also feel this profound sense of gratitude for having been alive at the moment when we first left our home planet and ventured out to explore another world. greta: 12 years before apollo 11, america was in a state of panic because the soviets had beaten us into space. >> i remember october, 1957, when the russians put sputnik into orbit. >> this pressure is the author of the book "the physics of the impossible." >> it was a shock wave that reverberated in everyone's living room. i remember people going outside and going, look, i see it. greta: america had problems in the early days. >> i ask my mother permission to wake up at 4 in the morning to watch the first vanguard rocket take off.

i watched it boost two feet into the air, fall two feet, follow for, and blow up on the launch pad. greta: even though our first flight was sub-orbital, the 15- minute flight aboard rocket proved america was ready. >> roger. we are programming. greta: on figure 20, 1962, john glenn made america's first orbital flight. he circled the earth three times. his reception was enormous. >> we chose to go to the moon. >> what we were dealing with was the soviet union having one- upped us on everything in space until that time, first man to fly, first woman to fly. greta: america responded with a

gem and nine program because nasa needed and intermediary step. >> it represented john kennedy's new frontier. these were the all-american boys. while the counterculture was going on, the astronauts were the new cowboys. greta: lance arms -- neil armstrong was born in ohio. nasa chose him for apollo 11 because he was not a career military officer. >> many of the career for skies did not like that. armstrong was jury picked from the middle of the list and put on top simply because he was a civilian. >> edwin buzz aldrin from new jersey graduated from west point. he earned a doctorate at mit by writing his thesis on manned orbital rendezvous. >> when nasa found out about that, they changed the rules, somehow, so that you did not have to have the test pilot training background. greta: did there come a time when you thought, i have got to

be an astronaut? >> i was in the company of white scarf. test pilots had studied the rendezvous techniques that had been acquired by nasa as what they would be doing in the jim and i and apollo program. >> -- greta: mike collins came up through the ranks. he was the creator of the famous mission patch for apollo 11. >> he is clear to command. greta: it is virtually impossible to imagine any nasa operations in space without the men of mission control. >> they came from rural background. the had a spectacular work ethic. the key thing was that they were all young, optimistic. they basically look at themselves as bulletproof. greta: nasa suffered its first tragedy on january 27, 1967. the apollo 1 crew died on the

launch pad due to a fire in the capsule. >> i cannot accept the fact that we lost three of our friends, three of our colleagues before we ever got an apollo space ship off the ground. >> we recognize that it was our failure that resulted in the death of our crew. >> when you talk about risk, we did not take risk for granted. greta: risk always lingered. neil armstrong was nearly killed when he was training in a lunar lander test vehicle. >> the space craft started to pitch and gyrate. it looked like it was almost vertical. greta: pay close attention to neil armstrong in this rarely seen as a film. >> when he decided to reject, looking at the pictures, it looks like he had only a few swings in the parachute before he hit the ground.

he hit the ground many hundred yards away from the place the vehicle crashed. greta: testing the equipment and correcting the procedures is what nasa became famous for. gene recalls the dress rehearsal came within 47,000 feet of the moon's lunar surface and did everything but land. >> we found some problems that if they were not corrected, neil probably would not have landed. apollo 10 contributed a great deal to making apollo 11 successful. i like to tell me all that we pay to the sky line so he would not get lost. greta: there were complications that could of changed the course of history. we will hear the inside story when we come back after the break. >> almost every person in this room had some type of a problem. the

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you doing so late? he said, doing my homework. >> by the time neil armstrong and buzz aldrin got ready to descend to the surface of the moon, everything had been checked out by previous missions, everything except the trickiest part, the actual landing. >> think about that. everybody we sent to the moon came home. >> probably a 500 brigitte probably 500 years from now, we will be considered living in the age of armstrong. >> he was a modern-day charles

lindbergh. he knew what he was charged to do. he knew that he could do it. he had a presence about him that indicated this man is a historic figure. if you look back on the early days of space, he had the environmental movement going on. you have the civil rights movement. you have the peace corps. >> socially and politically, the place was coming apart between assassinations and riots and the generation gap in america. >> america was out of their living rooms and out in the field, working and driving and marching. the feelings i had in mission control were part of this cadre who really intended not only to win the space race, but to do it for our dead president john f. kennedy and the crew of apollo 1. this was truly an inspired group of young americans. greta: buzz aldrin, a self- described egghead from mit, inspired americans.

>> i think anybody will tell you that the most critical part of that mission was not kicking up dust, walking around on the moon. that was relatively easy to do unless you fell over. the most critical thing was to take a spacecraft from orbit and put it on the surface. that is a significant task. greta: abuzz described his extraordinary experience of this sending down to the surface of the moon with neil armstrong. >> houston, what is with this program alarm? at 100 feet, about, when we get the 60 seconds, i am beginning to get a little bored. i did not want to let neil know i was worried. there was a little bit of psychic body english going back to urge him, get this on the ground. >> we are on the ground and neil

says, i think we will be a little long. there are no buildings or roadways. he has nothing to really compare the size of the crater to what the actual altitude really is. >> i know that he knows that minimum fuel light is coming on. greta: are you looking out the window? you're looking engages? >> i am looking at the computer. even before this, we started getting computer of arms. >> almost every person in this room had some type of a problem. my guidance officer at a computer problem because the computer was trying to dial us. the flight dynamics officer at the navigation problem. >> by the time it got 30 seconds, i feel bold enough to maybe sneak a peek out the window. i see the shadow as we are coming down and the probe from the landing gear. it is obscured. >> communications guys had

problems. other people that electrical problems. i was trying to keep this orchestrated. >> i called out, face shadow, picking up dust. the light came on, contact light. that is the key to shut the engine off. i say, engine stopped. we are on the ground. >> houston, the eagle has landed. >> we copy you on the ground. we're breathing again. thanks a lot. >> they were on the surface of the moon and it was probably 10 seconds before my control train wreck -- control team recognized it. greta: what was the physical sensation of landing on the moon? >> very soft. greta: you land and you're sitting there with armstrong. what do you think? >> we look each other, and we shook hands. i remember patting him on the back.

greta: while the viewing audience at nasa and around the world was cheering, the landing was not out of the woods yet. >> we touched down and we do not know whether everything is ok. if it is not ok, after touchdown, you had better get out of there. >> why is the spacecraft tipping? was there any reason to lift off immediately? greta: neil armstrong and buzz aldrin appeared to land safely on tranquillity base. only gene and his crew knew how the descent to the surface nearly failed. >> as it turned out, it was an extremely difficult landing because we have a variety of problems during the descent phase. he had less than 17 seconds of fuel reading. >> i talked to neil armstrong later on about some things and he said he thought he had a 90% chance of getting back alive.

he only thought he had a 50% chance of actually making the landing. it was because of hardware failures, not because of skill. greta: the next day, the news spread. here at the newseum, the front pages from around the world around the split. up next, buzz aldrin takes us for his walk on the moon. >> the soil was not cooperative. the first inch or so was pretty loose, and then it was hard to tful place in a long line of amazing performance machines. this is the new e-coupe. this is mercedes-benz.

>> this is a fox news alert. tv news legend walter cronkite has died. the man who was the face of cbs news two decades died friday night, with his family at his side. he became known as the most trusted man in america, covering all the big stories from the first manned mission to the moon, the assassinations of president john kennedy, martin luther king jr., the watergate scandal, and the resignation of president richard nixon. though he remained scrupulously objective, he came out publicly against the war in vietnam. while in retirement, he also opposed the invasion of iraq. walter cronkite, dead at the age of 92. we now had back to "apollo 11 --

one small step to america's future," special this weekend. enjoy your weekend. greta: i was at home with my sister and parents watching those black-and-white images of apollo 11. check out my blog for the story about the cookies i 8 that night. for now, let's go to the moon with the apollo astronauts. >> after landing, we had hours to stand there, a mere 15 feet above the surface. long before we actually got out on the surface, we already had a pretty good appreciation for what the moon was like. >> it is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. greta: buzz aldrin was the lunar module pilot and the second man to walk on the moon after neil

armstrong. when you set foot on the moon, how did it feel? was it a lot of dust and powder? how would you describe it? >> like talcum powder. greta: you referred to it as magnificent that the -- desolation. why those words? >> someone said beautiful. i thought, this is not beautiful. i do not see any sign of life here. it is magnificent but it is more desolate than anything you could possibly imagine. >> neil and buzz, i am talking to you from the oval room at the white house. >greta: you did not expect nixon to call you. what did you leave behind on the moon? >> there were two medallions of two cosmonauts who perished in space. there's a patch representing the three-man crew of apollo 11.

there was a disk with 72 messages from world leaders, including the pope. greta: there was the mission plaque. >> three men from the planet earth first set foot on the moon. >> we came in peace for all mankind. >greta: what was the problem with planting the flag? >> we had to plant it in the ground. it looked very lazy looking. we wanted it to look like it was stretched out. we had a rod that would snap at 90 degrees. it would telescope out. greta: this iconic shot of a buzz aldrin saluting the flag is one of the thousands of pictures that was shot on the lunar surface by the moon walkers. >> apollo 11 gets all the attention, but it was the dullest of all of the missions.

greta: michael is the author of "full moon." the pictures are part of the permanent collection at the american museum of natural history. >> people will say, what is your favorite picture? i will say, i have 125. >greta: he went through the nearly impossible task of going through every picture shot by the astronauts. >> 32,000 images were shot. here it is chest-mounted, as they often more. the astronauts were not looking through a viewfinder. i tried to stay away from pictures that were too -- what we're seeing here is a portrait of charles duke and his family shot in houston in his backyard. what we're really seeing is one of the very few moments where the astronauts caught on film a

sense of emotional poignancy. greta: what about the rumors that the moon landings were fake and the photographs contain technical flaws? >> you had optical people, many people had access to this material. there was not a peep out of the soviet union saying these moon landings came off a hollywood sound stage. greta: we spoke to a moon walker who does not care to be thought of as a master not anymore. >> i began painting when i was a test pilot in the navy. i was not that great. greta: he considers himself strictly an art is now. >> buzz aldrin would call me and say, i want to talk to you about a way to get to mars. i would say, do not talk to me about that. i do not care anymore. i'm trying to paint this picture. >> he will paint three astronauts on the surface of the moon, things that did not occur.

it is wonderful. greta: how to create these paintings? >> i build models and i make them very active. this painting is built with neil armstrong right here carrying the american flag, buzz aldrin carrying an olive branch. this kind of symbolized in this painting with the spirit of apollo was. they wanted to put neil armstrong on the cover of "life" magazine and everywhere else. well, there is no picture of neil armstrong on the moon. this is the one that most people know. here is neil reflected in the visor. not very good. i use my little models to rebuild them and put them in the right place. here is neil, a painting i did of him, as he took this photograph. it shows the reflection of a bubuzz.

greta: he adds unique elements to the paintings that make them one-of-a-kind, like finding moon dust, or using his moon boots to add texture. >> i have an apollo 12 patchen my name tag. i said, you know, they are dusty with moon dust. i got out some of those patches and i put them in the painting. there's moon dust from where we were. greta: if you'd like to see more of his paintings, they are on display at the smithsonian's national aerospace museum into next year. coming up, now suppose a plan to return to the moon. the grand plan has a glitch. >> to put a pound of anything into orbit costs $10,000. to go to the moon is4l

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your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, or have vision changes or eye pain. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, problems passing urine or an enlarged prostate, as these may worsen with spiriva. also discuss the medicines you take, even eye drops. side effects may include dry mouth, constipation and trouble passing urine. every day could be a good day to breathe better. announcer: ask your doctor if once-daily spiriva is right for you. you all want to run your businesses more efficiently, so we've brought in a team of experts to help. one suggestion is to make your shipping more efficient with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. call or go online for a free supply and up to $160 in offers from authorized postage vendors. shipping's a hassle! weighing every box... actually, with flat rate boxes you don't need to weigh anything under 70 pounds. if it fits, it ships for a low flat rate. ok, but i ship all over the country. you can ship anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. ship international, too.

yes, but i ship hundreds of things, in all sizes. great, because flat rate boxes come in four sizes. call and we'll send a free supply, plus up to $160 in offers. when you're ready to ship, we'll even pick them up for free, no matter how many you have. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. call or go online now to get started. greta: someday, we'll be back on the moon and nasa has a plan. it is a question of when we can afford to do it. to the benefits out with the costs? -- do the benefits outweigh the costs? >> it will take everybody, everybody in the world -- i would like to take everybody,

everybody in the world, to the moon with me and look back at the air. if i could do that, i think the world be a much different place. greta: there's something about being on the moon that allows us to see the unimaginable. >> our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020. >> america is the place that rests right at the edge of human imagination. >> it is essential to go back to the moon to reestablish our bat as explorers. we must inspire our young people. >> it is time for us to lead once again. >> the first phase of sending a man back to the moon is under way. >> we're not just going to repeat apollo. greta: nasa launched two satellites missions in june. >> we do not have good information about the moon.

greta: lro is mapping the moon in more detail than before. >> the camera is a powerful, it will allow people to get a much better idea of what we could place. greta: finding by some water is a focus of the companion mission. lunar crater observation and sensing satellite. >> it is a little pad that actually strikes the south pole in one of those craters and blasts out a huge amount of material. the exciting thing will be if we can detect water or ice in that material. greta: nasa's consolation program is creating the next launch vehicle to explore the moon for weeks at a time and take man even deeper into space. >> to launch the crew into orbit with our rockets -- the

crew rides on top of the rocket. >> it is used in an aggressive environment. greta: the astronauts in the capsule will carry their lander. astronauts will luke -- will use the lander to travel to the surface of the moon. >> it is a combination of the last 50 years in space flight. it is much safer than we can use on a space shuttle today. greta: it seems the plan was always to get us back to the moon and beyond. >> i have got the original chart. we are supposed to have a colony on mars by the early-1990's. greta: the congressional budget

office reports we will not be able to complete the space station by 2015. -- 2015 and go back to the moon on nasa post a budget. cost overruns require an extra $4 billion per year through 2025 to stay on course. president obama has asked the entire program be reviewed. >> to put a pound of anything into orbit around the earth costs $10,000. to go to the moon, it is about $100,000 per pound. greta: other nations are also trying to get a man to the moon. india is mapping the lunar surface. japan has these images from their latest mission. >> the chinese have stated they want to put chinese are astronauts on the moon by 2020. we figure we will be there, too. the indians do not want to be left behind. the japanese, maybe the europeans and russians. we could suffer from a traffic

jam on the moon. >> the chinese basically feel that if they are beaten back to the moon by the americans, that is no big deal. the americans have been to the moon before. greta: the real race might be between china and other asian countries. >> it their beaten back to the moon by the indians or the japanese, that would be an enormous loss of prestige for them. the real concern i have is that america will say, that is great. we will congratulate them and we will be willing to except the second place in space exploration. >> we develop new technologies that will spin off in other industries. it is an inspiration to the next generation. >> it is important to our national security and our national psyche. we must get america's out into the firing line. >> the united states is not the

predominant in nation in these days, somebody else will be. >> we wanted to be the next congress thing. i have an idea. greta: innovation got as to the moon and it could get us back and beyond. >> part of what worked about the moon shot is that people were driven by a kind of feat of imagination tied to, how will i feel that they? that is a pretty good model, but not one the administration has really harnessed. >> we have to have a vision of the future. quite frankly, we lost our way in the last several decades. there's always the second act. we can always reinvent ourselves. greta: buzz aldrin, one of the first men to walk on the moon, believes focusing this money and attention on going back is

nothing but a dead end. that is right. that is right. egúx

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i'll see you at 3:00! announcer: captioned telephone - enjoy the phone again! greta: the spinoffs from our space exploits do not include tang or velcro. that is a legend. cell phones and the things we use every day are products of the investments in the space. now, back to buzz aldrin and his vision. should we go back to the moon? >> there does not appear to be something on the moon that you can bring back to work or you can send to somebody else that

will pay for the expensive habitation. we taxpayers will pay for habitation on the moon, which is not advancing our global space leadership. greta: you said that going to the moon is a dead end. >> not for the europeans, not for the japanese. we have been there. greta: buzz aldrin believes focusing on going to mars, not the moon, is the only way to inspire and lead the world in scientific innovation. >> mars is more of the survival location. it is a building block. it is the only near, habitable place in the solar system. >> we have generations of people today that have never worked in deep space. greta: harrison says we cannot get to mars until we go back to the moon. >> buzz aldrin need to recognize, the moon is a gift. it is nearby. using the moon will be very cost effective. >> it is a very difficult place

to set up housekeeping. you have radiation, temperatures are very hot for very cold. >> in terms of getting people excited, i am fixated on mars. returning to the moon would be great, but it would be like, you know, woodstock ii. greta: what is on mars? >> life, maybe. we might be able to fly by comets. in 2022, we could land a habitat on the moon of march. greta: what is the reason to keep going? >> it is the inspiration of the stories that will be passed on to many people. greta: vision inspires the same way kennedy's did. >> i do not think we have had a

real solution that we have seen of how to channel these things head on. >> the apollo model of success that got us to the moon is still today's challenges. >> the big project brought together the best resources of private and -- enterprise. >> there will solve problems like energy in the future for this country. >> it will take bold innovation to solve this dilemma. >> this country has the ability to take a project and say, here are the people that want to do the job, here are the finances, here is the technology, go ahead and do it. greta: the apollo model might hold promise for solving problems like energy and climate change. nasa is still facing a gap in accessing faith.

there was never a chance to serve as the space station until now. >> they wanted to see if they could provide funding to an organization and see if they could develop a product. >> $1.6 billion agreement was awarded to develop the next launch vehicle to bring flight back and forth to the space -- space station. >> under the agreement, we have prearranged what our milestones are. if we do not complete that milestone, we do not pay. it is an -- it is an extraordinary benefit to the taxpayer. greta: nasa decided to give private industry some of the stimulus money. it might show a new era of commercial space flight. the attitude that nasa began to change after the spaceship roman one got the $10 million prize. -- spaceship i got the $10

million prize. they built a commercial version of spaceship i. virgin galactic spaceship ii could be revolutionary. >> we based upon the white knight ii. it will carry people up there. they will have their vision of the world. >> the idea is what we will learn about ourselves. that is what kennedy seemed to understand. it is what emerged from that moment and why it resonates so strongly even today. >> by the time the 50th anniversary comes, we will not be on the moon. nobody else will be. there is a chance that by the 60th anniversary, we could be on

the doorstep of mars. greta: maybe mars seems impossible now, but it is not from what you say. >> like mercury, gemini i come and apollo were stepping stones to landing on the moon, we will have steppingstones to getting people close to mars and then on the surface of mars. they are not hanging around, looking for the way home. there settlers. greta: you inspire me. >> if i can convince greta of something, i have achieved a milestone. greta: do you have souvenirs' from the moon? >> me. greta: it is impossible to find a part of everyday life that has not been affected by our venture into space. let's hope invention continues to be the greatest benefit. i'm greta van susteren. thanks for watching. . .

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