The Greatest Leap, part 1:How the Apollo fire propelled NASA to the Moon

Video shot by Joshua Ballinger, edited and produced by Jing Niu and David Minick. Click here for transcript.

Seated in Mission Control, Chris Kraft neared the end of a tedious Friday afternoon as he monitored a seemingly interminable ground test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft. It was January 1967, and communications between frustrated astronauts inside the capsule on its Florida launch pad and the test conductors in Houston sputtered periodically through his headset. His mind drifted.

Sudden shouts snapped him to attention. In frantic calls coming from the Apollo cockpit, fear had replaced frustration. Amid the cacophony, Kraft heard the Apollo program's most capable astronaut, Gus Grissom, exclaim a single word.Apollo: The Greatest Leap

• The Greatest Leap, part 1: How the Apollo fire propelled NASA to the Moon
• The Greatest Leap, part 6: After Apollo, NASA still searching for an encore
• The Greatest Leap, part 5: Saving the crew of Apollo 13
• The Greatest Leap, part 4: Catching Apollo fever as a new NASA employee
• Video: See our full interview with Orion Program Manager Mark Kirasich

Fire!

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