A Political History of Apollo

By: The Planetary Society
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  • Summary

  • Explore the politics of why the United States decided to send humans to the Moon—and why the nation pulled back after landing only six times. Hosted by Casey Dreier, the Chief Advocate and Senior Space Policy Adviser at The Planetary Society, this special edition podcast features some of the world’s leading space policy experts and historians in interviews initially broadcast as part of the monthly show, Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition. Together these interviews, along with new opening analyses, attempt to tell a fuller story about Project Apollo, beginning with the political pre-history of the space age, going into the cold war, and looking at the political opposition that ultimately ended the ability of the United States to land on the Moon.
    2024 The Planetary Society
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Episodes
  • Episode 5 - A Gift or a Curse?

    Episode 5 - A Gift or a Curse?
    Aug 12 2019
    In the final episode, producer Mat Kaplan joins Casey to reflect on the lessons and legacy of Apollo. Was it a burden on the space program or a gift for future generations? What can we take away from this single data point of humans walking on another world? And what should we be wary of?

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    57 mins
  • Episode 4 - Why it Ended (With John Logsdon)

    Episode 4 - Why it Ended (With John Logsdon)
    Jul 29 2019
    After more than a decade's worth of work and billions of dollars spent, the United States could send humans to the surface of the Moon whenever it wanted. But after landing only six times, the country just walked away, closing down production lines, laying off tens of thousands of workers, and committing humans to low-Earth orbit seemingly indefinitely. Why did it end? And was this inevitable?

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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Episode 3 - The Home Front (with Emily Margolis)

    Episode 3 - The Home Front (with Emily Margolis)
    Jul 18 2019
    In 1964, 40% of the public did not approve of Project Apollo, and more than 50% did not think the moon shot was "worth the cost" throughout the 1960s. Kennedy himself questioned the commitment and considered cooperating—instead of competing—with the Soviet Union in space. At the same time, there was an explosion of space-related pop culture and citizen engagement with the space race. Dr. Emily Margolis, whose dissertation was titled Space Travel at 1G: Space Tourism in Cold War America, joins the show to explore the complicated politics of the home front during Project Apollo.

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    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    59 mins

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