GBH Openvault

NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Aaron Cohen, former Acting Deputy Administrator of NASA

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

Aaron Cohen, former manager of the Apollo Command and Service Modules, former manager of the Space Shuttle Program, and former Acting Deputy Administrator of NASA, is interviewed about his role in the Apollo program. Cohen discusses the Saturn vehicle and Apollo 12's lightning strike, and the power of the Saturn V spacecraft. Cohen talks about where he was during the Apollo 1 fire, and explains the causes, as well as the investigation into the fire and the necessary changes after the fire that enabled later space and lunar missions. In Cohen's opinion, Apollo 8 was the greatest of the Apollo missions, since it was the first time humans had left Earth orbit, and Cohen describes his fears when the spacecraft went behind the moon, as well as George Low's fears about Apollo 8's propulsion. Cohen explains the issues that took place on Apollo 13, and then talks about the NOVA rocket and the difficulties in its realization. Cohen talks about what Apollo meant to him, and its meaning for him and for the United States. The interview ends with 2 minutes of audio of interview of Duke talking about the deposit of lunar samples, and of Cohen talking about the Saturn vehicle.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with Aaron Cohen, former Acting Deputy Administrator of NASA

Series Description

NOVA is a general-interest documentary series that addresses a single science issue each week. Billed as "science adventures for curious grown-ups" when it first aired in March, 1974, NOVA continues to offer an informative and entertaining approach to a challenging subject. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over.

Program Description

Alan Binder, former Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, is interviewed about the Lunar Prospector. Binder says that if moon travel became viable again, he would want to go to the moon, but says that in order to get financial and public support for space exploration, scientists need to sell the science of the moon. Another option, according to Binder, is to make travel to the moon commercially viable, and lists many benefits of going to the moon, including using it as a fuel source, or colonizing the surface for human habitation (audio cuts out from 00:07:30 - 00:09:00). Binder explains the work of the Lunar Prospector and talks about the necessity of having computers to do a lot of the work. On Apollo, Binder calls the program the most significant event of the 21st century, and talks about the roles of the Apollo program, the Clementine spacecraft, and hte Lunar Prospector. The interview ends with Binder's views on his relationship with NASA, which he characterizes as being needlessly bound up in beaurocracy and red tape.

Duration

0:23:16

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

Space

Astronaut

Apollo

Moon

American history

Gemini

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

Cohen, Aaron, 1931-2010 (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Aaron Cohen, former Acting Deputy Administrator of NASA,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed April 26, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_BD80D4D10DFF4CA5A98B1A7E61595191.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Aaron Cohen, former Acting Deputy Administrator of NASA.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. April 26, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_BD80D4D10DFF4CA5A98B1A7E61595191>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Aaron Cohen, former Acting Deputy Administrator of NASA. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_BD80D4D10DFF4CA5A98B1A7E61595191