We explore the dramatic story of NASA's Apollo Program, beginning with President Kennedy's ambitious deadline for a lunar landing in response to Soviet success with Sputnik and cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin. We look at how Werner von Braun, a former rocket scientist of the Third Reich responsible for the V2 programme, played a leading role in NASA's planning. After groundbreaking success with the Mercury and Gemini missions, NASA was rocked by the Apollo 1 disaster, in which all three crew members (Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee) were killed in an accidental fire on the launch pad. But NASA recovered, overhauling its designs and methods, to achieve a successful manned launch with Apollo 7. Then came the launch of Apollo 8 aboard the mighty Saturn V rocket - the largest and most powerful rocket ever seen. The mission was a complete success, culminating in the first manned orbit of the moon, and the capture of the legendary 'Earthrise' photograph by astronaut Bill Anders. The way was now clear for an attempted moon landing in 1969.

This video created for Epic History TV by James Malcolm:
www.jamesmalcolm.work
@JamesEMalcolm

Thanks to Twitter users TJ Cooney (@TJ_Cooney) & Gavin Price (@pilliarscreatio) for additional research assistance.

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