GBH Openvault

NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Thomas P. Stafford, NASA astronaut, Air Force Officer, and Commander of Apollo 10, part 2 of 3

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

Thomas P. Stafford, NASA astronaut, Air Force Officer, and Commander of Apollo 10, is interviewed about his experiences in space during the Gemini and Apollo programs. Stafford describes flying with Wally Schirra during the Gemini 6 mission, and explains the issues that he and Gene Cernan experienced with their space suits during Gemini 9. Right before they left for the mission on Gemini 9, Stafford was told to bring Cernan's body back if he died during his spacewalk, which would have posed many issues, and he only told Cernan about it after they had both safely returned to Earth. During the Apollo 10 mission, Stafford describes the difficulty of judging distances while flying above the moon because of the lack of landmarks, and explains their discovery of mascons on the moon.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with Thomas P. Stafford, NASA astronaut, Air Force Officer, and Commander of Apollo 10, part 2 of 3

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

0:23:21

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

Moon

Gemini

Astronaut

Apollo

American history

Space

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

Stafford, Thomas P., 1930- (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Thomas P. Stafford, NASA astronaut, Air Force Officer, and Commander of Apollo 10, part 2 of 3,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed December 3, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E5E290BD31FA4B389C93E2845CA8CF88.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Thomas P. Stafford, NASA astronaut, Air Force Officer, and Commander of Apollo 10, part 2 of 3.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. December 3, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E5E290BD31FA4B389C93E2845CA8CF88>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Thomas P. Stafford, NASA astronaut, Air Force Officer, and Commander of Apollo 10, part 2 of 3. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E5E290BD31FA4B389C93E2845CA8CF88