GBH Openvault
NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Walter "Wally" Schirra, naval aviator, astronaut, and commander of Apollo 7, part 1 of 3
Part of To the Moon Interviews.
1998
Walter "Wally" Schirra, naval aviator, astronaut, and commander of Apollo 7, is interviewed about becoming an astronaut. Schirra talks about his doubts at the time of President John F. Kennedy's announcement of his deadline to go to the moon, and describes his introduction to the space program. Although he was not initially interested in being an astronaut, he was convinced by his peers. Schirra also describes his many interactions with doctors during the Mercury program, who worried about how space would affect the human body, although Schirra says that he was not concerned because he had experience working at high altitudes. The race against the Russians ismentioned, and Schirra explains how the Russian advances in space urged the American team to work faster with experiments on animals and people. Schirra ends by describing the difficulty of doing Rendezvous maneuvers by hand during Gemini 6, although he says that was his favorite mission.
- Series
- NOVA
- Program
- To the Moon
- Program Number
2610
- Title
Interview with Walter "Wally" Schirra, naval aviator, astronaut, and commander of Apollo 7, part 1 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
0:14:03
- Asset Type
Raw video
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Moon
- Apollo
- Gemini
- Astronaut
- American history
- Space
- Creators
- WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)
- Contributors
- Schirra, Walter, 1923-2007 (Interviewee)
- Rights Summary
Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation
- Citation
- Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Walter "Wally" Schirra, naval aviator, astronaut, and commander of Apollo 7, part 1 of 3,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed April 20, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E70FBF4A66B14F45A09A8226551CE533.
- MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Walter "Wally" Schirra, naval aviator, astronaut, and commander of Apollo 7, part 1 of 3.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. April 20, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E70FBF4A66B14F45A09A8226551CE533>.
- APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Walter "Wally" Schirra, naval aviator, astronaut, and commander of Apollo 7, part 1 of 3. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E70FBF4A66B14F45A09A8226551CE533