The Apollo Program | Behind the Wings at NASA

Video from the channel Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum about Apollo program, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 12:09. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A special edition of the "Behind the Wings" program, from the Wings Over the Rockies museum, for the 50th anniversary of Apollo. Host Matthew Burchette starts at Neil Armstrong's childhood home in Wapakoneta, Ohio, and visits NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, where Armstrong worked when it was still called Lewis.

The center, which took the name John Glenn in 1999, tackled one of Apollo's great challenges: mastering hydrogen as a fuel. It took part in 16 missions ahead of the crewed Moon flights, such as the Ranger and Lunar Orbiter probes, which helped choose the landing sites.

Specialist John Oldham shows a backup A7L suit belonging to William Anders, command module pilot of Apollo 8, along with lunar samples from Apollo 15 and Apollo 16, rich in mineral oxygen. The episode tours labs for lunar rover testing, astronaut exercise, and xenon electric propulsion. Astronaut Janet Kavandi explains Glenn's role in Orion's service module, built by Airbus in Bremen and set to be tested in the Plum Brook vacuum chamber.