the very first one was allan shepherd. >> allan shepherd. allan shepherd. allan shepherd and i were watching in the white house and nixon and bill rogers were watching in his office in the eob. so the idea was that we would all watch it separately, we'd go in and see the president, secretary of state, then we would go do television on it and so it was an interesting thing for me to watchal lan shepherd. as going down he would move this way, he was steering down himself to the moon. then he went over and explained it all to the president and to the secretary of state, so what had happened and what the effect was. then we went on television. only injury allan shepherd ever got operating on the moon was he jumped in the car and cut his hand on the way to the television studio. >> so when the lunar module landed -- >> nixon was watching carefully. >> watching with you drn. >> no. he was watching with bill rogers. >> now there was a speech prepared in case the two astronauts, ael dron and armstrong, were stranded on the moon. what kind of contingencies did you h

. >> less than a year after allan shepherd blazed a suborbital trail for the u.s., this is the climax of three years of training. this is the moment when the eyes of world turn to cape canaveral. russian orbitz were in a thick fog the secrecy. the united states stands or falls on the white-hot glare of worldwide publicity. in the capsule atop the atlas missile, the colonel will be strapped to a contoured couch. once in flight the mercury will be tilted so that the astronaut will ride backwards. second tick off as his rendezvous with space approaches. hatch cover causes a slight delay whether a defective bolt is discovered. then, millions are moved to silent prayer. everything is go. the take-off of the "atlas" blastoff by 360,000 pounds of thrust carries the mergry gracely skyward. friendship 7 gracefully climbing out of the world's atmosphere exerts a pressure of six times the force of gravity on the astronaut. loud and clear he reports back to mercury control reading off his instruments, commenting on his reactions all as calmly and cooley as xhucommuting on the a. glenn checks with