anyone on the outside knew what was going on. it shows the confidence the public had in us. we got a team together to point out the failures and fix it. >> his testimony to congress helped convince the government and the public that though there would always be risks, nasa could learn from its mistakes, and the apollo program should go ahead. pa paradoxically, it may have let them get to the moon faster than schedule. >> we had the opportunity to learn from that mistake, very tragic and sad. but to accelerate the program. and i'm not alone in having said that the fire really did make it possible to meet kennedy's goal to land on the moon by the end of the decade of the '60s. >> nasa never designated any flights apollo 2 or 3. apollo 4, 5, and 6 were unmanned missions to test the safety of the rockets.