What They Really Had Planned for Apollo

When we look back at Apollo we see the landing of the first humans on the moon with Apollo 11 and the following 6 missions up to Apollo 17 but the planners wanted a larger and longer program with a moon base and space stations but the Apollo 1 fire triggered the beginning of the end of this dream of lunar exploration. This is what the planners had in mind for Apollo after the initial landings.

Written, researched and presented by Paul Shillito
Images and footage : NASA

A big thank you also goes to all our Patreons too :-)

Ai
Alipasha Sadri
Alistair Brown
Andrew Gaess
Andrew SMITH
Brian Kelly
Cameron Elliot
Carl Soderstrom
Charles Thacker
ChasingSol
Collin Copfer
David Gorostiaga
Dom Riccobene
Dragoncorps
Etienne Dechamps
Florian Muller
George Bishop II
Henning Bitsch
Henri Saussure
inunotaisho
james t early
Jesse Postier
Jim Early
Johan Rombaut
john edwards
Jonathan Merage
Jonathan Travers
Joshua Rea - Dawn Aerospace
Ken Schwarz
L D
László Antal
Lawrence Brennan
Leifur Thor
Lorne Diebel
Paul Gorlinsky
Pyloric
SHAMIR
stefan hufenbach
Steve J - LakeCountySpacePort
Tawn Kramer
Tim Alberstein
Tomasz Leszczyński
Vincent
Will Lowe

Intro music from the YouTube Library
Drifting at 432hz by Unicorn heads

[jgunther]

When I was a kid in the '60s the magazines casually expected humans on Mars around 1986, using mostly Saturn/Apollo hardware as the basis. The movie 2001 was what we in the late 1960s expected space technology would have advanced to by the year 2001. I mean we went to the Moon in 10 years, in 40 years we could do anything. It would be interesting to try and seriously project what we would have today if those things had been accomplished

[seanurquhart]

You are just a natural at hosting. Such a great delivery, explanation and tone every time.

[tag]

Born in '62 I grew up with this. Now, as an adult, I have a deeper appreciation for the entire Apollo program. What could have been eventually did happen and all of it due to the Apollo program. I'm glad we are going back. This time having learned from our mistakes and our successes.

[siegeteamcweir]

Really liking these recent subjects, Paul. Fascinating stuff. Keep it up!

[trickert]

Paul and Mark Felton are in a league of their own when it comes to the mini-documentary format on YoutTube.

[mickeyfilmer]

More extremely interesting stuff that passed me by, as a kid in the 60's

[scottweisel]

Of the three items that competed for money in LBJ’s budget, The Vietnam War, The Great Society, and The Apollo Project: Only the Apollo Project could be considered a success. All three had their detractors, but lessons learned from Apollo led to further space successes, while it seems the lessons from Vietnam have been forgotten, and despite the trillions of dollars spent on poverty, we still create more of it.

[andrewatkins]

Fantastic as always. Glad to see the wardrobe magic has returned.

[ettorebugatti]

not exagerating, i really like your vids, enjoying the content and naration. Just wanted to give a friendly tap! Thank you sir.

[SaturnCanuck]

Thanks Paul. Always great. Ah, what could have been, but wasn't. Oh and perhaps you can do one on the Space Transportation System, if which the Space Shuttle was just one of four parts -- and the only one made.

[MrAndyLocksmith]

Yet another informative, well presented and researched video.

[johnassal]

Of course they couldn't figure out the precise cause. The only safe way to use a pure Oxygen atmosphere was to keep the partial pressure the same as in our air, by reducing total pressure to about 0.2 bar. The risk of fire is slightly higher still but not by much.

*Except* part of the test was a _leak check_ leading them to *pressurize the capsule to 1.25 bar* ... That's right. They made it safe but then made it into an even better lighter just for the _manned_ test they'd be unable to escape what with the above ambient pressure holding the hatch shut.

It was a systemic *procedural* failure that would never be duplicated in any realistic flight scenario. Claiming there was any "silver lining" was just PR and the redesign of the environmental system just a guilty conscience making sure they couldn't forget the basic operating limitations and kill someone...again.

Blame the pure O2 and all the flammable Velcro but ignore the fact you can burn an I-beam in a pure O2 atmosphere at or above 1 bar which everyone diligently checked off the task list.

[devins]

The algorithm favors your worthy content.

[teddy.d]

I found my love of space through my dad. I think it’s fascinating that many decades later, and the death of my dad…I’m still learning from awesome videos, such as yours. Excellent stuff per usual!

[dj_sprmcount]

You are by far the most interesting YouTuber on the planet, also how did I turn on YouTube and get here within 2 minutes of it uploading, also would love to see more content on British history and technology (like harriers)

[manikiro]

Congratulations on 1M!!! Thank you for all your hard work!

[CapitanGuinea]

I really enjoy this video and the very gentle style they are put together!

[mastasolo]

i want to know what shirt Paul would wear if he actually got a ride to space

[johnassal]

The key fact and unthinkable stupidity of the Apollo 1 fire is that they very carefully included design features that mitigated the extra risks of a pure O2 atmosphere but then for the manned ground test _systematically negated all those measures_ to run a test with very close to zero chance of survival.

In that gas mix _any_ spark could ignite aluminum like kindling making it very unlikely it could've been run without so much as one static shock ending in tragedy. Simple insanity expressed in the diligent purpose of a group somehow going totally off the rails.

[chubbster]

Great video! I really appreciate your content, the level of detail you cram into each episode is mind boggling! I really hope you will be doing an episode on the recent US military UAP disclosures, I can imagine it would be fantastic!