Encore: The Space Race | Taking the Lead | 3

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2020

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In times of crisis, Americans had always put their confidence in their country’s superiority in power, technology and leadership. America had never failed them. And in 1961, hope and faith in their country burned brighter than ever as NASA prepared to launch the first man into space. A month out from launch, that light was effectively snuffed. The Soviets beat them to it. On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first person in space and the first person to orbit Earth. The world was in awe. And America was in shock.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:12.1	Imagine it's April 12, 1961.
0:14.7	You work for NASA at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
0:18.6	Your press officer, you're having a really bad week.
0:21.8	For one thing, it's 5.30 in the morning and you're still at work, still sitting at your
0:26.4	desk burning the midnight oil or the early morning oil.
0:31.0	There's barely room in your cramped office for your desk not to mention the cot you've
0:34.4	jammed into the corner.
0:35.8	You haven't slept in your own bed in days.
0:37.8	There's just been too much going on.
0:40.0	Lately, NASA has been a madhouse.
0:43.0	In less than a month, Freedom 7, a Mercury Redstone rocket, the brainchild of the infamous
0:47.8	Werner von Braun is scheduled to launch the first human being into space, Alan Shepherd.
0:53.5	As the announcement, media requests have been pouring in and your phone literally hasn't
0:57.8	stopped ringing.
0:58.8	Until now, it took you multiple days working around the clock to do it, but you're finally
1:03.4	done.
1:04.4	All media requests have been handled.
1:06.0	The schedule is set and everything is right as rain.
1:09.5	And finally, at 5.30 in the morning, things at NASA have gone quiet.
1:15.5	So you turn off the bright fluorescent overhead light.
	...

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