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Speaker 1: In just a moment X minus one. But first, how

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does one man get himself into so many impossible situations?

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This is a question you'll probably ask yourself tomorrow night

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when you follow another hilarious adventure of Throckmorton p Guildersleeve. Yes,

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Gildy's eye for the ladies and his impulsive temperament manage

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to entangle him in a web of riotous circumstances. Join

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the romantic water Commissioner, his neighbors, Judge Hooker, mister Peevie,

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and all the loyal Guildersleeve household as they run through

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another episode of the Great gilder Sleeve Tomorrow night. Now,

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stay tuned for X minus one on NBC.

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Speaker 2: Come down for Blast Off X minus five four three

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two X minus one. Fire from the far horizons of

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the unknown, Come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time

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and space. These are stories of the future adventures in

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which you'll live in a million, could be years, on

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a thousand, maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation

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with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, presents.

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Speaker 3: HE minus minus one.

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Speaker 4: To Night's story The Cave of Night by James E.

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Gunn Little Joy. Okay uh oh yet? Of Hamlet, our

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dear brother's death, the memory being made anyway, how's it? Okay? Okay,

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check recording. I may go over a half hour. Make

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sure they've got another reel of tape ready. Okay, all right,

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Look Bill, I have just put the segments of tape

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together for the next week's show. I'm going to record

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my narrations and we'll listen to it together tomorrow. I

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know this is unusual, but you're the producer and I

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don't want you out on a limb that may be

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sort off behind us. This week shows lively. Either win

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us every award from the Peabody to the Pulletzer Prize,

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or maybe put the network out of business. Okay, we

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start with the standard opening behind the World, et cetera.

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Speaker 5: Forty seconds.

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Speaker 4: This is Harry Anders, your editor, at eight o'clock, after

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the sun is set and the sky is darkening. Look up,

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there's a man up there where no man has ever.

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He is lost in the cave of night.

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Speaker 3: And the fuel tank's empty. Sever broken transmitting and clear.

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Anyone picking this up? Anyone? This is Rev. Mcmilancholy. Notify

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God a rock New Mexico. No way to get back.

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Speaker 4: There's a man up there where no man has ever been.

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He has lost in the cave of night. We all

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know that phrase now, the cave of night. It was

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written by a poet disguised in the cynical height of

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a newspaper. Rewrite man, but it stuck. It caught the

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world and held it like a butterfly pinned to a board.

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It started with a Ham, an amateur radio operator in Davenport, Iowa.

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All right, Eddie, roll the first tape in here. It's

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marked stop my too close. I was up in the attic.

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I usually have a talk with WG. Seven threes in

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Buenos Aires play chess. Well, there was some kind of interference,

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and then all of a sudden I heard this voice.

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I record most of my listening anyway, so I had

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the tape machine running.

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Speaker 5: After I heard it, I called civil defense. That's what

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we're supposed.

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Speaker 4: To, look Bill, I haven't done the final editing on

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these tapes, so don't worry.

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Speaker 5: They're a little rough down.

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Speaker 4: Out of the night. Flung from the darkness came these words,

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the first of so many that electrified the world.

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Speaker 3: Notify God in Rock.

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Speaker 6: New Mexico.

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Speaker 3: No way to get back, No way to get back.

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I'm stuck up here, no way to get down.

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Speaker 4: What does it take to catch the pity of the world.

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A man wedged underground in Kentucky, a little girl in

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the bottom of a well, somebody alive waiting for rescue,

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with the days of his life numbered, somebody somewhere waiting

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for us to get him out. The story broke in

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this morning's papers. Orbiting one thousand miles above our heads

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was a man, an officer of the United States Air Force,

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in a fuel less spaceship. We're recording at the desk

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of Mike Bayless, Senior night editor of the Continental Press

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National Wire.

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Speaker 5: They always get a reaction like this.

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Speaker 7: I remember the Floyd Collins story in the twenties, fellow

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trapped in that cave in Kentucky, Remember, Oh, sure, and

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the whole country hanging on to see if we could

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get out. Then there was that little girl stuck in

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the well. Kathy Fiskus. Yeah, we pulled all those stories

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out and put them on the wire for background, but

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this hit bigger. We got the first lead from an

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Air Force handout in New Mexico. They just said an

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experimental rocket failed to return to base. But by that

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time the cat was out of the bag. Ham operators

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picked up those messages from Boston to Fairbanks, Alaska.

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Speaker 4: Mister Bayliss, you first used the phrase the cave of night,

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didn't you.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I guess so.

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Speaker 7: I mean, you know, you got to get a little

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purple and a thing like this.

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Speaker 5: People eat it up. You can't spread it on too thick. Anyway.

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Speaker 7: I was lost than a cave once when I was

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a kid in upstate New York. I waited around for

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a couple of hours in the dark until.

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Speaker 5: They came for me. But kind of reminded me of that.

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Speaker 4: It reminded the world of terrors at night, of struggling

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awake through nightmares, the fears of loneliness, darkness, falling, suffocation, thirst.

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It reminded me of Rev. McMillan. And perhaps I have

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an advantage over all the other reporters for newspapers and

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radio and television because I knew Rev McMillan. I knew

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him in college and in the Air Force. I knew

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that he was testing rocket powered craft at Goddard, but

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I didn't know they were so close to space. No

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one knew till those messages of desperation crackled down through

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the atmosphere. I remembered rev when I saw those headlines

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that morning. Straight black hair, Clark gable, ears, reckless, grin,

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he ate well, reveled in expert jazz and Mozart opera,

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and he talked incessantly. His Southern speech was no drawer.

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There was too much to say. And now he was alone,

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and soon all that might be extinguished. The men from

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the radio newsrooms rushed to guarded rocket base arms with

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Minger tape recorders.

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Speaker 8: I was, gentlemen, I'm I'm Colonel Arthur J. Hannigan, information

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officer for Coddard Rocket Base, and I am authorized to

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issue the following statement. First Lieutenant Reverty L. Mc millan,

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United States Air Force Pilot Experimental Rocket Division, took off

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from Goddard Base at twenty two thirty four Rocky Mountain

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time as crap the x R thirty seven Mark two

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hydrozene NITREK three stage rocket. I'm sorry I can't describe it.

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Boys classified well. In order to maintain orbit, the motors

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were pulsed for one second every fifteen seconds elect lapsed time.

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After three minutes, the exhaust was seen by Grand spectroscope

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observation to flare for half a minute as fewer supplies exhausted,

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the craft has reached the staining orbital speed.

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Speaker 5: What does that mean, Colonel, He's out of gas. He

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can't get done.

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Speaker 4: The first mobilization was of the scientific brains mast that godded.

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Few of them knew Rev. Brains at a research project

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are usually carefully sorted out and sorted away from the

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distractions of the outside world. They designed, they invented, they calibrated,

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and theorized. But they didn't know the short, stocky man

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with a lopsided grin who rode the fruit of their

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labor up and now and now circled the world of

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his birth with time ticking out. I covered the hearings

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in Washington for the Network newsroom. I flew down from

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New York, and the stewardess came out every few minutes

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to tell the passengers the latest news. She called him Rev,

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although she never knew him, and once I thought I

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saw a tear. The hearing was before the Subcommittee of

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the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, presiding Senator Alan J.

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Haggister of Kentucky.

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Speaker 9: All right, General Fitch, you made the technical situation fairly comprehensive,

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even to an old cane break redneck hill billy.

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Speaker 6: Like myself, I have tried to make the gravity of

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the situation of parents.

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Speaker 10: It appears to me, General, that the sacred life of

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a human being, created in the image of his maker

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is in danger. He's no light thing to be thrown

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away like some guinea pig. If if that ship wasn't seen,

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if that poor man up there in the cave of

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night is to die, somebody is responsible. Isn't that right?

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Speaker 5: General, Sir?

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Speaker 6: A manned rocket was sent up because of one simple fact.

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It takes a computer of tremendous versatility and capacity to

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operate a Harrison mont reactor engine, a computer of infinite complexity.

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Speaker 10: And I asked you, General, I put the question to you,

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why was such a computer not desired?

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Speaker 6: It has been designed, sir, It was designed a half

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a million years ago. There is only one mechanism competent

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to handle those controls her that is the human brain.

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Speaker 4: All right?

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Speaker 10: I turned out of my second question, General, and I

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ask it not only for myself and my colleagues on

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this committee, but for one hundred and seventy million Americans

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listing on the radio, watching on television with that man

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up there living out his last days. Why was it

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not possible to send a ship after it? Why was

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there no second ship built?

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Speaker 6: The one reason, Senator money. The appropriation for rocket research

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fell short by twelve percent of the amount needed even

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to build one vessel. Oh, frankly, gentlemen, the deficiency was

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made up by cutting corners and diverting funds from other projects.

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Speaker 10: And he's not the point. General, There's a man up

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there who's going to die.

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Speaker 6: With the limited funds you gave us. We've done what

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we set out to do. We've demonstrated that spaceflight is possible,

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that a space platform is feasible. If there is any inefficiency,

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if there is any blame for what has happened, it

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lies at the door of those who lacked the confidence

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and the courage and ability of their countrymen to fight

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free of Earth to their greatest glory.

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Speaker 5: Senator, how did jew vote on that?

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Speaker 4: This is Harry Anders in the gallery of the Washington

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National Cathedral. This is a special prayer service called by

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the Dean of the Cathedral for the safety of Lieutenant

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mac millan and for the success of the recently announced

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rescue plan. The church is filled as a sprinkling of

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high Navy, Army and Air Force uniforms. I see General

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Finch in the second row, next to the Secretary of

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the Air Force and the newly appointed Under Secretary of Defense,

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mister Winnaker. Prominently displayed in the center aisle, below the

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ornate railing separating the pews from the altar is the

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small model of macmillan's ship. One by one, now the

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congregation is filing past dropping checks bills. I saw one

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childrop in twelve pennies. One by one, all contributions are

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to be used to defray the cost of the rescue effort.

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The congregation is now kneeling to pray. A moment of

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silent prayer will follow for the safety and rescue.

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Speaker 5: Of Lieutenant McMillan.

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Speaker 4: One billion dollars was raised in one week from voluntary contributions.

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Another billion and a half was appropriated unanimously by Congress.

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The race began. Would the rescue party reached the ship

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in time? Of course, we didn't know then, and daily

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we listened to the voice of the man we hoped

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to buy back from death. Now, look bill on these

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McMillan broadcast tapes said, don't let some some ignorant Engineering

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Vice president Holler because it's not broadcast quality. Believe me,

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I knew McMillan's more of that wild textan in these

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tapes than in any any high five super frequency response

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studio recordings. Just listen, You'll see what I mean.

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Speaker 3: I've been staring out the portals in never tire them

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through the window with the right see a black velvet

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curtain with a strong light behind it. There are pinpoint

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holes in the curtain, and the light shines through, not

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winking the way stars do, but steady.

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Speaker 5: There's no air up here.

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Speaker 3: That's the reason my oxygen is holding out better than

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I expected. By my figures, it should last twenty seven

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days more. I should know so much of it, talking

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all the time, but it's hard to stop talking. I

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feel as if I was still in touch with the earth.

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There's still one of you, even though I am way

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up here. Too bad the receiver is broken. But if

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it had to be one or the other, I'm glad

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it was the transmitter that came through. All right, there's

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only one of me. There are billions of you to

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talk to. You can't see me now, You'll have to

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wait hours for the dark I'll have mine in a

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few minutes.

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Speaker 5: That's the way he talked.

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Speaker 4: And as we listened to the lonely voice from the night,

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the engineers, the scientists, the construction men worked round the clock.

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General Finch presented the problem in the pool interview. I

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asked the questions for the combined networks. That afternoon, most

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of you heard the complete broadcast live as he briefed

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the world with the clipped, laconic delivery of a soldier.

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There are two basic problems. We've recovered the first and

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second stages of the rocket. We've only to construct the

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third stage. The second problem is more difficult. The pilot,

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Lieutenant McMillan, was the only man physically and psychologically qualified.

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We discovered that in our first program. His training and

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orientation took eighteen months. We have now to duplicate this

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in twenty seven days.

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Speaker 5: You think it's possible, General, I don't know, that's all.

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Speaker 6: Missr Anders Stevenson gave me some coffee with your black

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and some kind of sandwich, no butter, no mayonnaise, And.

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Speaker 4: Then the voice from the cave asked a question and

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expected no answer.

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Speaker 3: Do you hear me down there? Sometimes I wonder I

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wish there was some way I could be sure you

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were hearing me. Just that one thing might keep me

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from going crazy.

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Speaker 4: I was there the night we answered that question. I

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was there in a helicopter over Kansas City. This is

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Harry Anders speaking to you from a helicopter over Kansas City.

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There are fifteen seconds till midnight. The plan was developed

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by General Finch, and precisely midnight, every light in the

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city will be out and then flashed on in two

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second intervals. This will be the exact moment that McMillan's

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ship is calculated to pass overhead. It's almost time now

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four three two one.

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Speaker 5: There they go off.

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Speaker 4: On, off, on, off on.

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Speaker 3: I see it. I see it, Kansas City winking at me. Yes,

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I can see it. Thanks. Thanks, you're listening. I know

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that I'm not alone. I'll never forget. I'm waiting for you.

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Speaker 4: We're recording in the press gallery of the goddered rocket

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based main construction hangar. The vast third stage component stands

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before US men swarming up and down the gantry cranes.

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The Mark III is being built to carry five men

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instead of one. The pilot selection has been kept a

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secret to avoid unnecessary strain on the men selected. The

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latest progress report gives a possible margin of six hours

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between the launching of the rescue ship and the estimated

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exhaustion supply of oxygen.

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Speaker 5: To Lieutenant McMillan, now the shift is changing.

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Speaker 4: Now the expert construction workers recruited from across the country.

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By the combined efforts of the Air Force Personnel Service,

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the Atomic Energy Commission, and the International United Electrical Workers

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and United Auto Workers of the AFLCIO, the margin is

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six hours, six hours between life and death for Lieutenant

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Raverty L.

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Speaker 5: McMillan.

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Speaker 3: An hour ago, I saw the sun rise over Russia.

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Looks like any other landship. Here the grain where it

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should be green, Father and Author is a sort of

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mud color, and then white where the snow is still deep.

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You wonder why we're so different? Land is the same?

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You think we're all the same shildren of the same

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mother planet? Who says we're different? Oh?

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Speaker 6: Can you hear me in the back?

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Speaker 5: How about this?

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Speaker 6: All right, gentlemen, I have exactly five minutes for the

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press conference. Therefore, I'm not going to answer any questions.

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Progress report is as follows. As a safety factor, we're

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constructing two complete three stage rockets and six additional third

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stage components. The telemeeded reports from McMillan's ship have added

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important additional information, and the first of the rescue vessel

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should be ready to be launched at the estimated time,

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weather permitting.

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Speaker 5: Now, don't ask a question.

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Speaker 6: Within certain limitations of air turbulence, the rocket will be

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ready to lift in time to save Lieutenant McMillan.

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Speaker 3: The year's bad tonight. It seemed to get a full breath.

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It seems to stick in the lungs. It doesn't matter now,

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but I wish you could see what I've seen, the

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vast spreading universe around Earth like a bride in a

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soft veil. You'd know then that we belong out of here.

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Come out, mankind, Come out and see what.

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Speaker 4: I have seen, Missus Harry Anders at Goddard Rocket Base.

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The Harrison Munch reactor engine for the first third stage

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00:20:39,839 --> 00:20:42,720
rescue is being tested here at Goddard. You can hear

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the roaring of the gases and the test chamber behind me.

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The work has been stepped up as a new calculation

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based on the increased temperature reading from McMillan's ship indicates

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that the exhaustion time will be some six hours earlier

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than originally estimated. The margin of rescue will be in minutes.

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Speaker 3: Air very bad, better hurry, can't last much longer. Salive'll hurry,

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But I don't want anyone feeling sorry for him. I've

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seen the stars clearly. But more than this, I've seen

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the earth there where I have lived and loved. I

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have known it better than any man, and loved it better,

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and known its children better. Goodbye. I have a better

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tomb than the greatest conqueror Earth ever bore.

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Speaker 5: Do not disturb, No come down for blast off? Why

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or pray? Two one.

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Speaker 4: Anders tape three two three. We're in the press operation

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room of godded Field. The rescue rocket has been aloft

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fifty three minutes plus. Its calculated time of arrival is

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fifty four minutes. You will hear the voice of General

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Beauregard Finch on a direct pickup from the rescue vessel,

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which has been named unofficially the LFE SAB. Silent crowds

335
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have collected at the outer perimeter of the rocket base,

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as if by their presence they might help it. The

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next voice you hear will be General Finch aloft in

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the rescue ship. The voice quality may not be good.

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He's speaking over a throat mic in his PreCure suit.

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Speaker 11: Mark three the base.

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Speaker 5: This is finch and secure than.

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Speaker 11: You're just secured to the airlock of McMillan's ship. I'm

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now entering the lock. The inner doors closed. I have

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closed the outer door. The inner door is cycling now it.

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Speaker 5: Is open, bringing those bottles. The bulkhead of the control.

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Speaker 3: Room is open.

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Speaker 5: It's all right, come on, what's happening?

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Speaker 11: Tenant McMillan is dead. He died heroically, waiting till all

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hope was gone, until every oxygen gage to the zero,

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and then well, the airlock was open when we arrived.

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Speaker 5: In accordance with his own wish.

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Speaker 12: His body will be left here in its eternal orbit.

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I'm going to leave long. My feet will be the

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last to touch this stick. Lieutenant macmillan is in his

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control chair, staring out towards the stars. I'll leave the

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airlocked doors open behind me.

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Speaker 11: Let the airless, frigid arms of space protect and preserve

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for all eternity.

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Speaker 5: This man, they would not let go.

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Speaker 4: Well, that's the show bill bill you remember at the conference,

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we hadn't made up my mind whether to pick anything

362
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up from the celebration last night after the news of

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the Mars landing. I said it was the right end

364
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for Rev McMillan's story. You said it was old stuff.

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Every kid knew the sequence. The ship's built to rescue revues,

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to set up the satellite base, from the base to

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the Moon and now to Mars. Well, I went out

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with a mini tape last night and I've got the

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end of the story here it is. This is Harry

370
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Anders in Times Square. The Neon rocket ship at the

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top of the Times billing has just flashed into brilliant

372
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light the signal that the landing signal has been received

373
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from the rocket. Rev McMillan, the third Man has landed

374
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:17,400
on Mars, and a holiday crowd here in Times Square

375
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is celebrating like a thousand New Years rolled into one.

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I'm I'm being tossed and pushed and clapped on the

377
00:25:23,839 --> 00:25:25,759
back all at once. Let's see what the man in

378
00:25:25,799 --> 00:25:28,160
the street thinks about Man on Mars. You are you, sir,

379
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I'm broadcasting home now.

380
00:25:29,839 --> 00:25:30,640
Speaker 5: How do you feel about it? So?

381
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Speaker 4: How do you feel tonight about man's conquest of space

382
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:33,440
of the planet?

383
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:36,319
Speaker 3: Just a few words of the look you get your

384
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hands off me.

385
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:38,759
Speaker 5: Ton't me, I'm not in Wait a minute.

386
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Speaker 4: Wait, wait, wait, Rev Red, come back here.

387
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Speaker 5: Rev.

388
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Speaker 4: You think I could listen to that voice over and

389
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:50,160
over in a tape editing room and not know every vowel,

390
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:54,160
every consonant. I'm telling you, Bill, I saw him Rev McMillan.

391
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The black hair was gray and those Clark ave leers

392
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,200
were pinned back. But that's a simple operation. I played

393
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:03,000
that piece of tape over and over. It was, Rev.

394
00:26:03,039 --> 00:26:04,960
Speaker 5: I know it. He isn't up there. He's alive.

395
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:07,599
Speaker 4: We've got it billed, We've got it on our show,

396
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,799
Will break It. Rev McMillan is alive. I haven't written

397
00:26:11,799 --> 00:26:13,119
it yet, but we finish it off with this with

398
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,960
a question, why did they announce he was dead. I'm

399
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:18,599
in the tape editing room now, I've got the real

400
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:23,279
ready to record the answer. Hey, Hey, just a minute,

401
00:26:23,279 --> 00:26:25,559
I'm recording. You better see the page outside of the dess.

402
00:26:25,599 --> 00:26:27,039
Speaker 5: I'd like to talk to you for a moment. If

403
00:26:27,079 --> 00:26:28,200
I have a letter of.

404
00:26:29,799 --> 00:26:32,039
Speaker 4: Just a minute, I'll be through in a minute. Look, Bill,

405
00:26:32,039 --> 00:26:36,039
I've got the answer now. Last night they landed on Mars,

406
00:26:36,519 --> 00:26:39,440
but that first ship, the one that circles up there. Now,

407
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,960
there isn't anybody on it. There never was except a

408
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,839
thirty days recording and a transmitter, that's all. He was

409
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,200
never up there. They didn't have the money for a

410
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,119
manned rocket. They wanted a crash program all out, so

411
00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:54,519
they sent a decoy up and we all broke our

412
00:26:54,559 --> 00:26:58,119
hearts to rescue the man who wasn't there. Oh he

413
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:02,079
must be laughing, General Finch in them the ones that you. Yeah,

414
00:27:02,079 --> 00:27:05,000
I guess they had a problem what to do with Rev.

415
00:27:06,079 --> 00:27:08,079
I wonder if he slipped away from whatever gods they

416
00:27:08,079 --> 00:27:09,599
have around him to see the celebration.

417
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,160
Speaker 5: He looked a little sad.

418
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:15,839
Speaker 4: I think sometimes he must wish he was really up

419
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,839
there in the cave of night, seated in the icy

420
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:23,160
control room, one thousand and seventy five miles above the earth,

421
00:27:23,279 --> 00:27:28,680
staring out at the stars. Mister and I must insist, Oh, Bill,

422
00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:32,319
look as if I won't have to worry about editing

423
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:32,839
this tape.

424
00:27:34,039 --> 00:27:35,519
Speaker 5: My friends are from Washington.

425
00:27:35,799 --> 00:27:38,319
Speaker 4: I'd like to call your attention to the last paragraph.

426
00:27:38,519 --> 00:27:40,559
Oh no, no, no, no, it's very simple. You won't

427
00:27:40,599 --> 00:27:44,039
have to burn it. It's easy to destroy recording tape.

428
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,480
I throw this switch. When the tape goes through the

429
00:27:47,519 --> 00:27:50,480
erasing heads, it's gone forever.

430
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 5: Too bad. Would have made one fine show. Okay, So along, Rev.

431
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 4: You have just heard X minus one, presented by the

432
00:28:09,079 --> 00:28:14,160
National Broadcasting Company in co operation with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine,

433
00:28:14,519 --> 00:28:18,279
which this month features an exciting serial slave Ship by

434
00:28:18,319 --> 00:28:19,240
Frederick Paul