Leave Earth News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

With the number of UFO sightings going up across the country, and the confirmation by the U.S. government that there are

>> a lot of people said, you didn't understand the situation. >> reporter: another crisis. carbon dioxide levels were getting dangerously high. ground control fixed that by instructing the crew to build a make-shift rig they called the mailbox, to purge the deadly gas from the craft and keep oxygen levels safe. the crew were running low on water and food. >> you lost 14 pounds? >> i didn't realize i'd lost 14 pounds. i guess i -- i was all charged up. >> reporter: they were sick freezing and tired, but safe for now. mission control's next chance was to get the broken-down craft out of the luna...

It was months behind schedule. instead of falling further behind the soviets nasa officials had a bold idea. >> the lunar module unfortunately was delayed considerably. and so nasa again in one of the, i think one of the great strokes of management substituted apollo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. >> reporter: if it worked, america would actually leapfrog the soviets in the space race an astronaut, not a cosmonaut, would be the first to fly around the moon. >> it was one of the big gambles that nasa at the direction of the president took in order to establish that am...

Just six months ahead of the deadline jfk had set at the beginning of the decade. it was left to another president to congratulate the astronauts. >> one priceless moment in the whole history of man all the people on this earth are truly one. >> reporter: armstrong aldrin and collins splashed down. the space race was over. the stars and stripes were on the moon. coming up, in the 1960s, there was a hit tv show "lost in space" and a movie "marooned." as long as humans explored the heavens, they shuddered at the possibility of never getting back. the astronauts of apollo 13, that nightmare almos...

They fired the third stage and sent them hurling on the three-day journey to the moon. >> what does the old moon like? >> the moon is essentially gray, no color. >> as we came into earth rise we were shocked, dumbfounded almost to see this earth coming up. we hadn't seen it before. we weren't briefed about it. and so there was a scramble for cameras. >> reporter: on christmas eve while orbiting the moon this picture was photographed by the landers. this shot has become one of the most reproduced space photographs in history. >> it was the only thing in space that had any color. everything else...