Minute 008: Where’s My Mountain?

07/04/18 • 24 min

1 Listener

Marilyn and Jim Lovell are in their backyard, in lounge chairs, after the Apollo XI Moonwalk party is over. Jim holds his thumb up, obscuring the distant Moon.

“Where’s my mountain?” asks Marilyn.

“Well, it -” begins Jim, “It’s right up by the — okay, you see where the shadow crosses — the white area there? That’s the Sea of Tranquility. And your mountain’s right there on the edge of that. Your mountain. Your mountain, Marilyn: Mount Marilyn.”

Marilyn looks up at the Moon. “I don’t see it,” she says, shaking her head.

Jim looks over at her. “Well, you’ve got to look harder,” he replies. “You – -look harder.” Jim rolls out of his chair and crawls into Marilyn’s chair. Marilyn starts laughing as he climbs on top of Marilyn. The song “Cruisin'” by Smokey Robinson starts playing as the scene fades.

An aerial view of the Vehicle Assembly Building fills the scene.

TITLE: “VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING, CAPE KENNEDY, FLORIDA, OCTOBER 30, 1969”

Jim Lovell is narrating a tour.

“The astronaut,” he says, “is only the most visible member of a very large team, and all of us -”
IN THIS MINUTE:

Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks
Marilyn Lovell: Kathleen Quinlan

Marilyn and Jim Lovell are in their backyard, in lounge chairs, after the Apollo XI Moonwalk party is over. Jim holds his thumb up, obscuring the distant Moon.

“Where’s my mountain?” asks Marilyn.

Marilyn looks up at the Moon. “I don’t see it,” she says, shaking her head.

An aerial view of the Vehicle Assembly Building fills the scene.

TITLE: “VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING, CAPE KENNEDY, FLORIDA, OCTOBER 30, 1969”

Jim Lovell is narrating a tour.

“The astronaut,” he says, “is only the most visible member of a very large team, and all of us -”
IN THIS MINUTE:

Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks
Marilyn Lovell: Kathleen Quinlan

Previous Episode

Minute 007: Just Sixty Nautical Miles Down

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Marilyn and Jim Lovell are in their backyard, after the Apollo XI Moonwalk party is over.

“When you were on far side on Eight, I didn’t sleep at all,” says Marilyn, leaning into her lawn chair, “I just vacuumed, over and over again.”

“Christopher Columbus,” says Jim, looking at the Moon, “Charles Lindbergh... and Neil Armstrong.” He laughs. “Neil Armstrong!”

Marilyn laughs, too. Jim climbs into his lawn chair.

Looking back at the Moon, Jim says, “From now on, we live in a world where Man has walked on the Moon.” He turns and looks at Marilyn. “And it’s not a miracle. We just decided to go.”

He looks back at the Moon. “On Apollo 8, we were so close,” he says. “Just sixty nautical miles down. And what’s it like to just – – step out, and walk on the face of it? I want to go back. ”

IN THIS MINUTE:

Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks
Marilyn Lovell: Kathleen Quinlan

Next Episode

Minute 009: Give Me a Lever Long Enough

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Guest Host: Jennifer Levasseur
Curator, National Air & Space Museum

Jim Lovell is narrating a tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building. He explains that astronauts are only the most visible members of a very large team.

” — right down to the guy sweeping the floor, are honored to be a part of it,” explains Lovell. “What did the man say? ‘Give me a lever long enough and I’ll move the world?’ Well, that’s exactly what we’re doing here. This is divine inspiration, folks. It’s the best part of each one of us – – the belief that anything is possible. Things like: a computer that can fit into a single room, and hold millions of pieces of information. Or the Saturn V rocket.”

A group of VIP visitors stands on a balcony high inside the VAB. Overhead, an S-IV-B stage is about to be mated to an S-II stage in the high bay.

“Now, this is the actual launch vehicle that will be taking Alan Shepard and his crew on the first leg of the Apollo Thirteen mission,” explains Lovell.

“When are you going up again, Jim?” asks a Congressman.

“I’m slated to be the commander of Apollo Fourteen, sometime late next year,” replies Lovell.

The Congressman grins. “If there is an Apollo Fourteen,” says the Congressman.

Lovell smiles weakly.

“Now, Jim,” continues the Congressman, “People in my state have been asking, why we’re continuing to fund this program, now that we’ve beat the Russians to the Moon?”

“Imagine if — if Christopher Columbus had come back from the New World, and no one returned in his footsteps, ” replies Lovell.
IN THIS MINUTE:

Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks
Congressman: Roger Corman
NASA PAO Henry Hurt: Xander Berkeley