there were other follow-on apollo flights, although the apollo program was cut short. nonetheless, there were others and they were quite important. what was your role during the 14, 15, 16 and 17 phase? >> it changed. we were at the point of having to move engineers over to the coming sky lab program so that was one dimension. i was having to string my teams out more and more and more and we literally had our feet in two programs, apollo and sky lab. at the same time the flight directors had become a very valuable commodity because many of the people who caused the mercury gemini apollo programs to come into being were now retire, they were leaving the program. my flight directors, cliff charlesworth was one of the first to go. we were now looking at how we could apply some of the technologies we had to other problems on earth. glenn lunny left. he picked up the apollo soyuz program at that time which is now this next generation of involvement trying to involve the russians in space as partners. all of a sudden i started finding myself short in flight directors and hav

from mercury and gemini, on through our landings on the moon and the apollo program, their actions unfolded achievement of humankind. today, another new president has challenged us to reach for new heights and plan an ambitious mission to mars. just as we called on the four individuals we honor today to carry out our early achievements in space, we now call on a new generation of explorers to go where we have never gone before. as we honor these heroes, i want to recognize the hundreds of thousands of dedicated nasa employees and industry partners who contributed to the incredible success of the mercury, gemini and apollo programs and all that have followed and all that is yet to come. i also want to thank congress. our nation is a better place because of more than a half century of strong, bipartisan support for nasa's work. in human exploration, science and aeronautics, five members of the most recent astronaut candidate class of 2009 are with us today to pay tribute to the congressional gold medal honorees and build on their accomplishments to make similar lasting contributions to our na

i want to honor those who contributed to the incredible success of the mercury, gemini and apollo programs and that have followed and has yet to come. i also want to thank congress. our nation is a better place because of more than a half century of strong bipartisan support for nasa's work. five members of the most recent class of 2009 are with us today to pay tribute to the congressional gold medal honorees and build on their accomplishments to make similar lasting contributions to our nation's space program. this new group of astronauts stands on the shoulders of the giants we recognize and honor here today and they will redefine space exploration in the years to come and continue to honor the legacy of john glenn, neil armstrong, buzz aldrin and michael collins. it's a lasting legacy, a legacy that transforms our modern world. the inspiration they provided to generations isn't something we can measure but we can feel in our hearts. as a nation, we would not be the same without them and their bravery. their sense of duty and dedication to public service. and their great skill at thinkin

it maintains that sites explored during america's apollo program must be declared off limits and no fly zones. the u.s. is claiming exclusive access to areas of the moon since it's the only country to have explored it. >> and now we're coming into an age of exploitation. not just exploration. and these are questions that were unthinkable 40 years ago, but because of the changing environment and the use of space and much more use of space by other groups, that we're beginning to think about. >> reporter: who owns the moon? the question is still up in the air even as the computation between governments and businesses for its riches intensifies. >> china has revised its projection for this year's economic growth below the 8% level it has main taked since 2005. the country's economy has been slowing due to europe's credit problems and austerity measures. chinese vice president now visiting ireland said in an interview with a local newspaper that its country has set its gdp growth target lower than 8%. it's not clear, however, what the new target is. xi says china's likely to cut economic gr

it maintains that sites explored during america's apollo program must be declared off limits and no-fly zones. the u.s. is claiming exclusive access to areas of the moon since it's the only country to have explored it. and now we're coming into an age of exploitation. not just exploration. these are questions that were unthinkable 40 years ago. but because of the changing environment and the use of space and much more use of space by other groups that we're beginning to think about it. >> who owns the moon? the question is still up in the air even as the competition between governments and businesses for its riches intensifies. kensuke obara, nhk world, new york. >> and who will make the next giant leap for mankind? >>> let's go to bangkok now to find out what's making headlines in the region. >>> thailand's economy shrank a massive 9% in the october to december quarter of last year. the figures reflect severe damage caused by record floods that displaced workers and forced factories to close. nhk world has this report from bangkok. >> reporter: the thai government said on monday the co

the point at which this program had been literally moving along. apollo 11, you were lunar flight director. you were in charge of that. but you also took part in the whole thing, didn't you? >> yes. >> so let's go back over apollo 11. and what a thing to go back over. that's a big project. >> there are many things that stand out. the person says, where were you when? i sure had an awful lot of great breaks in my life. i mean whether they be in college, whether they be in flying airplanes. but one of the ones that i remember that is related to apollo 11 in a very direct fashion was the day that i got the assignment to do the landing phase. cliff charlesworth was the lead flight director. and one of the responsibilities of the lead flight director is to identify which flight director is going to cover which phase of the mission. and moving in there, this was the first mission where in apollo now, where lonnie, charlesworth and myself, who had been flight directors on gemini were actually coming back together again. so you had probably the three most experie

construction costs, all the aircraft carriers in the united states navy and twice the value of the apollo program that sent men to the moon. it's ten times the value of the national football league. back to you. >> incredible. it helps put it all into perspective. thank you, scott. >> very interesting numbers. speaking of interesting numbers, yeah, we have had a smooth ride so far in 2012. finally on the last day of february, it started to feel like winter. >> a leap day for the record books possibly. overall tallies from the storm, we have had pretty significant rainfall numbers so far and we have got more rain on the way to add to the tally. you can see right here, the live picture on san bruno mountain, we do have sunshine over the bay area, a live picture trans america, this is the general sky over the bay area, you are getting a little bit of cloud cover and a little bit of sun but for the most part, still kind of overcast and those winds are still wing, see old glory blowing there in the breeze. winds will be a factor throughout the day today, although radar right now shows you, you be nice

now, this sounds like a very simple change to the process, but at the time of the earlier apollo program, we still had not quite come together. we hadn't fully come together as a team. and deke slaten's troops guarded their checklists and flight plans very jealously and it was very difficult to get one of the crew copies. the exact copy. and at times we would find minor discrepancies between what the crew was carrying on board in previous missions and what the procedures we had in mission control. so mcdivitt said finally, enough's enough. people in mission control are going to have exactly the same copies of the flight plan and procedures that we're going to be using in the spacecraft. that's the way i want to do business. and from then on, every team, actually every crew followed mcdivitt's lead. >> that's remarkable, particularly because looking back on it, apollo 7 rang out essentially of the module, and from that point in, apollo 8 demonstrated it could fly around the moon, apollo 9 was the first all-out test of all the hardware. so i guess it was a good time to start indoctrinating

then i started on the apollo program. and i made some changes, because when you have something that works well for you, why would you want to change it? >> you said the fire upset you. did you have that sense that you wish you'd gone, that you wish you'd already been there? or do you think you could have even made any difference? >> you know, that's a question that i was rather frequently asked, you know, would you have prevented it. i always refuse to answer that question because i would be strictly conjecture. okay? so later on i thought in a way it was unique. somebody's looking out for me, because if i had been there and it happened to me, it would have been very, very devastating. okay? so i was spared that having been in charge of it. see, that later on happened again with the "challenger." i was not involved directly, even though i was on the safety board at that time and i was primarily responsible for flight krewe safety. there was nothing wrong with the orbiter. see? though that was again, it did not fall in my

nasa did not they want did do things as we did on the apollo program. you cannot do that.t use the big heavy launch vehicles and the engineers have lost faith and members of congress have lost faith. we simply do not have a mission because of the direction. >>neil: well, thank god for guys like you in providing the history and memory. but, man, don, thank you very much. when we come back, were in atlanta, a "rage to define all rages," prove that neil cavuto may not vote like a butterfly but he can sting like a bee, the most remarkable comary i have heard in my life, a gut check wake up call. and from paul: living proof neil cavuto is brain dead, and another "you are lucifer with fake hair." that is ahead. i think i'm goin-... shhh! we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. ok, guys-- what's next ? . or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast spes. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're defi

program. bosh from apollo. that was the ending of the program for us. >> it wasn't really the ending of the program for you though, because by now you had moved on into management and it was the end of your flight direction. but on the other hand, there were still flights to be flown and spacecraft to be worked with. you just mentioned a couple of them. sky lab, for one. >> sky lab was -- people say, gene kranz, you can't believe what you're saying. but sky lab was as exciting to me as apollo ever was. this was -- sky lab to me was a different type of focus. focus as a leader and focus as a team. where we had -- the apollo missions were all short, on the order of ten days or so. and it's one thing to hold a team together and do all the right things, keep the quality for ten days, even though it is a very intense. it is another thing to keep this thing together for the best part of the year and to hand over not tens but literally hundreds of problems every shift without a glitch. to have these people respond to l

ron neil, a reporter who covered the american manned space program, interviews director gene kranz, who worked on "mercury," "gemini" and "apollo as lead flight director of the "apollo 13" mission, he and his team lplayed a significant role in guiding astronauts back to earth. this is part two of an interview conducted for nasa's johnson space center. >> it was time to move on to "apollo 12." i can remember pete con regard, since you were talking, let's talk about another, who said to me, those guys landed on the moon, what do i do for an encore? >> was there a similar feeling in mission control? >> no. i think, in fact, it didn't take a second for the program office to ratchet up the complexity of the objectives. once you landed on the moon, what are you going to do to top it? i'm going to land on the moon next to a surveyor satellite that was put up there a couple years. what we're going to do, at the time the crew is dedescending, we're going to give them an update to alter their trajectory so they can land there. and if they didn't do it. i think the entire "apollo 12" mission had this -- now for a change, i was sitting bac

many say cutting the program now would be like calling off the moon mission before apollo 11 landed. coming up, the bay area breakthrough being announced today that could revolutionize the electric car ♪ ♪ twinkle toes i think i found a soul ♪ ♪ to make me happily ever after ♪ ♪ i say i love you and i'll say it more ♪ ♪ my one and only ♪ oh i can't lose ♪ so don't stop doing what you do ♪ ♪ have i paid my dues just to be with you ♪ ♪ don't stop doing what you do ♪ >>> more accusations that facebook is snooping on users. this time critics say the social network is using smartphone apps to read your text message data and other personal information. a report says facebook can get your user location, contact lists and browser history and even transmit the info to third parties. the report says sites like flicker and youtube do the same. facebook admits to having access to text messages but vows it does not read them. >>> announcement from an east bay company today could revolutionize the electric car industry. the company plans to announce it has hit a critical milestone by creating a re

support on capitol hill, but the days of the big- ticket programs, whether it be the shuttle program or the apollo programprursola the precursors to landing on the moon, i think those days are over. obama is stretchingth the a is i virginities reach until 20-25.tt you know, that is two or three presidents from now stretching over.ow that is perversity of five or six. >> host: in the end these big moments, the moon landing or- what have you. >> guest: this is our overcome gueswe have to remember him going to the moon started as part of the space race with thee russian spirit it was not explore the moon. atio became the rationale, but in reality the political driver there from the money and thelil support was national security. and with the space race with tht russians command we don't have that anymore.nymo we're not raising any ready to the moonbo anymore. >> host: what year was it thats: the last man walked?the la speech in 1972. eugene's on in was the last astronaut to leave the mean and he recently endorsed mitt romney in the florida primary. >> host: we have an article thatt that from the tele

program interviewed nasa flight and missions operations director gene kranz. kranz worked on mercury, gemini and apoll jie space missions and was fight director when the apollo astronauts landed on the moon. he and his team played a significant role in guiding three astronauts back to earth after an explosion on the spacecra spacecraft. this is part two of an oral history interview conducted for nasa's johnson space center. >> it is time to move on to apollo 12. i can remember pete conrad since you were talking about one great test pilot, another said to me, lord, those guys landed on the moon. what do i do for an encore. was there a similar feeling here at mission control? >> no, i think that they -- in fact it didn't take a second for the program office to ratchet up the complexity, objectives. once you land on the moon, what are you going to do to top it? i'm going to land next to a surveyor satellite on the moon that was put up there a couple of years ago. we're going to give them a verbal guidance update, they're going to enter into their computer which is going to alter their trajectory so they can land right there. and doggone, if they didn't do it! i think the

apollo 8. the first one to go around the moon and back. >> it launched a career of neil degrasse tyson. his latest book is called "space chronicles "requesting. neil, welcome to the program got markers. back to you, my dear. >> i was busy yesterday. have we lost our interest in space? >> yeah. well, we've lost the motivation to make it a priority. i think there's always been background space activities going on. space shuttles have been going for several decades. but my criticism of that was always that we were boldly going where hundreds had gone before. if you want to advance a space frontier, what you want to do is move that frontier out. every time you do that, a whole new level of interesting curiosity is stimulated and spawned for having done so. >> do we make a difference between man flight or personhood flight and just simply going there to find out everything we can sm. >> so, you can split and say, what do scientists want? as i put on my scientist cap, i would say send robots. they don't even need to eat. give them solar energy and -- but what i found is that no one names high schools after robots. nobody interprets the activities of robots the way we do when i