Buzz, an audio drama for iHeart Podcasts starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Arran as buzz Aldren.

This series is based on real events.

However, certain characters, names, incidents, locations, and dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

Chapter eleven, you look.

Lousy, Lieutenant, which you tell Captain D'Angelo.

Then unless we change the site of Columbia's splashdown, we're looking at a disaster.

And he reminded me that I don't have clearance to even discuss Project thirty five.

My doing so would jeopardize the classified status of the satellite and the lives of sixty Air Force pilots who are about to attack.

The North Vietnamese.

What do we do?

You're not doing anything.

You're gonna go around Di Angelo to the Vice Admiral.

I don't know.

I'd put you on a pretty thin I said.

I don't know.

All I know is we're running out of time.

Once re entry begins, mission control will lose contact with Columbia and any chance of saving them will be gone.

Colombia, Houston looks like you're in VHF range.

Stand by for radio check.

I read you on VHF.

Telemetry shows that the CMRCS thrusters look fine.

What do we do for rein Dream eleven Central stand by waiting badly?

Thirty three minutes on my.

Mark copy, Houston, Mark copy, mister Krantz, call for you from Captain Willard Houston at Fleet Weather Station Pearl Harbor.

He's calling about the Columbia splashdown.

He says, it's urgent, Lieutenant Houston.

This is Flight Director Gene Krantz.

What's the problem, sir?

Apollo eleven cannot land in the target area selected?

It can and it will.

No, I mean, sir, there's a storm at those coordinates.

There are storms in the Pacific all the time.

These are typhoon conditions, sir.

Thirty foot seas and winds at altitude.

Little Rip eleven's parish himself before they can deploy.

The command module will at the water at two hundred miles an hour.

The crew would be killed instantly.

Lieutenant, where is this information coming from?

I'm not at liberty to say.

Sir, you'd better explain that.

It's a matter of national security.

Sir.

Why is this the first I'm hearing of it?

And why is it you I'm hearing it from instead of the Vice Admiral in charge of the recovery operation.

Sir, going through a chain of command has proven impossible.

Let me understand this, Your violating chain of command telling me to alter the site of Columbia's splashdown, an operation of immense complexity and cost, based on information whose source you won't reveal.

I can't reveal it, sir.

Gene, Come in, Chris, Lieutenant Houston, I'll get back to you.

Stay by the phone, yes, sir, what's wrong, Gane?

During pre flight of Apollo one, someone decided to fill the module with flammable instruction manuals and velcro fasteners, which accelerated the fire that killed Grisome, White and Chat.

And there was no time to vet that decision with the Change Review Board.

What's that got to do with, Hi, Lieutenant at weather Station Pearl wants me to change the site of Columbia's splashdown because of typhoon conditions.

That would be a death sentence to Neil, Buzz and Mike.

And there's no time for the Change review Board now either.

How reliable is the forecast?

Lieutenant says, it comes from a classified source.

It couldn't name.

Because of its national security implications.

In other words, you're supposed to change the splashdown side based on nothing, but this kid say so not.

In other words, those are the words.

Now, what would you.

Do if Columbia sinks?

That's three more funerals.

Not to be cold blooded.

It probably mean the end of the Apollo program?

What would you do?

Chris?

You're in the job I used to have, the job I loved.

I've been jealous of you as decision makers since the minute they kicked me upstairs.

I'm not jealous anymore.

I'm Buzz Aldron and this is the story you think you know, but you don't.

Ignition sequence five ft five four.

Don't I have one.

Them do with the quality?

Babe here, I ain't a pet Paul Tramp for man Mark by a plan.

You're listening to, Buzz.

This is the story of my Greatest achievement, Chapter eleven.

It was the night before Christmas in seventy seven.

My liquor store felt like a wee bit of heaven.

More scotch, I demanded, though already loaded forgetting my credit was all, but he wrote it.

I'll pay you next week right now.

I'm shore Hey, come back when you grow.

Come on, Freddy, how about some cheer for the holiday season.

Oh ho ho, no cash, no cary.

God, damn it, man, it's Christmas.

Yeah, we've established that.

Turn around.

You prick on a wall right there, picture of me signed by me personally.

Your old man said, but it was his most prized possession.

He was an idiot.

Plus he's dead.

A few blocks down the street, I ran into some guys who were ringing in the New year early in the spirit of Christian charity.

They shared their spirits.

One of them wore a sweatshirt that said no future, and we discussed our limited prospects.

Late into the otherwise silent night, the phone woke me, but I didn't answer.

It was the darkest Christmas morning I never saw.

Then I remembered blackout curtains.

Bob Hopes Christmas Show was on from Vietnam.

His guest of honor was Neil, the first Man on the Moon.

Bob didn't bother to mention Mike or me.

Oh, I lost my last friend when the goldfish died.

So I had no idea who was at the door, and no intention of finding out.

Bud, it's me, Joe, I called before.

I hear the TV.

Open up broughts of food.

You can heat it later or come to the house.

The kids want to see you and be alone today bus.

I waited.

I was sure she had gone, but there she was.

Hey, Hey, come on in, God, this place is disgusting.

I've been meaning to dust.

I dust.

You need napal do I come to your house and make snide remarks.

You need help.

You need to stop drinking.

I'm cutting back mush.

Because this is no life.

You need to start going to meetings.

I'll go with you.

I go every day.

Tears came to her eyes and to mine.

I told her I would We both knew I wouldn't.

I was going to tough it out alone, even though no one ever does.

This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News at Cape Kennedy.

Apollo eleven will soon re enter the Earth's atmosphere, surrounding the command Module Columbia with temperatures nearing five thousand degrees, with only a thin he hield keeping the module from burning up.

Lieutenant Houston, this is Gene Kranz Admission Control.

Sir, don't chames the splash downside.

No, and I have no intention of doing so.

Mister Krantz, I can't stress too.

Strongly, and I'm not about to ask a vice admiral to alter the recovery profile of his carrier group, which has been planned for months, based on nothing more than your hunch.

Sir, I'm telling you what I know.

If I told you how, i'd know, i'd be court martialed.

But if that's what he'll take, I'll do it.

We've heard, we're.

Heard, Lieutenant.

Are you a career man a flue ride?

Sir?

You'd be willing to sacrifice that ride and face legal charges?

I would, well Son, That's all I need.

To know, Parler.

Revan Houston, We're going to move your aim point down range one hundred and fifty nautical miles.

I will a shift at this stage of things.

Repeat Houston, Columbia.

This is flight.

We need a hundred and fifty mile adjustments so we can guarantee up list control.

That's out of range of the recovery carrier, but.

Hopefully not of its helicopters.

Hopefully.

Why the hell are we just learning about this now?

Can't really go into that.

Eleven Columbia is not a submarine.

Houston, we go down.

We're not coming back up.

Roger Buss.

The USS Hornet is at full speed to the new aim point designation.

Houston will lose you in communications as we re enter plasma, and that's a matter of minutes from now.

How will we know if the rescue choppers will make.

We're doing our best, Columbia.

The new coordinates are thirteen degrees nineteen minutes north one six nine or ten minutes west over.

Copy ten eleventh century.

I've got it.

Update for about four items on your entry pad.

You are max G zero six to three, your gamma at four hundred K six four eight, your range to go on the EMS one four zero three three, and your retro time for v circular zero.

Two one four over copy.

We see you getting ready for service module separation.

Your go for pyro.

Arm jettisoning in three two one Houston.

We've got the service module going by a little high and to the right.

Apolloa revenue, Houston, You're cleared for landing, about to enter Earth atmosphere.

Communications blackout for the next ten minutes.

Those choppers are on the way.

Every minute's gonna count.

Eight Shield registry eight hundred degrees twelve hundred.

Fourteen climbing.

The communications blackout between the three astronauts and flight control in Houston has begun, and the temperature surrounding the Command module's heat shield will reach approximately five thousand degrees.

Boys, we're in full comms blackout.

Anything you want to say that nobody in the world can ever hear.

I'm done with the fireworks.

Let's get this bucket home.

I need a shower and a proper meal.

Buzz Buzz.

I found myself on Pacific Coast Highway with no memory of how I got there.

As I looked at the moon, lots of things ran through my mind, planting the flag, the ticker tape parades, the metal of freedom.

You know what you have to do.

I turned toward the voice.

I instantly recognized my mother stood at the edge of the cliff.

She'd committed suicide ten years before.

It's time you join me.

I don't want to, not yet.

It's because of you I had to leave.

I know that's what you wanted me to think.

It's true.

I'm sorry, don't be I'm glad.

Why come along now, Buzz.

You've been keeping me waiting long enough.

Command Module Columbia will remain in communications blackout for roughly six more minutes.

All we can do is guess at the tension that the engineers of Mission Control must be feeling.

Not to mention the families of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike.

Collins Uss Hornet, this is Mission Control, Houston.

Do your choppers have any sign of the command module.

You send that's a negative roger?

How far are they from Arabic siting?

Approximately fifteen miles from information we're getting from mission control is that the Columbia's heat shield is now over the five thousand degree mark.

An e malfunction of the shield will be catastrophic at this point.

Columbia, this is Houston.

Do you read.

Come in Colombia, Colombia, please acknowledge.

This is mission control.

You've got a room full of guys afraid.

To move.

Colombia.

This is flight Please acknowledge.

Hornet.

Do you have visual negative Houston?

Zero?

Visual capcom change frequency to one four.

This is all eleven our position one three three zero one five?

Do you copy?

It's good to good to hear you.

Neil.

What's your altitude and condition?

Were okay?

One thousand, five hundred feet and shoots out?

Do you have a visual on the recovery helicopters negative.

Houston, Apollo eleven, twelve hundred feet still no visual on the choppers.

Repeat, no visual, Hornet, this is Houston.

What's the position of recovery helicopters.

Proceeding towards the side?

Houston splashed down?

Where are the choppers?

One hundred feet.

Fifty splash down.

We've just heard from mission control that Colombia has splashed down, repeating that Columbia has splashed down in Pacific waters as calm as.

A bathtub, Houston, Columbia, we're upside down, repeat, upside down in the ocean.

Water's coming in through the hatch.

Roger, Mike, inflate your flotation bag.

Roger, flotation bags activated.

Houston.

We've turned right side up.

Waters stopped coming in, but there's a good foot and a half in the module.

Columbia.

Recovery helicopters are putting their divers in the water.

In several moments, the module's hatch will open so that the Apollo eleven crew can get their first breath of fresh air.

You know, almost a week.

We were given sterile flight suits in case we brought lunar contaminants back to Earth.

Then what seemed like the entire crew of the Hornet, all five thousand welcomed us.

The nail, Buzz and Mike.

I say this not only because I had the honor to be President of the United States, but particularly because I have the privilege of speaking for so many and welcoming you back to Earth.

This is the greatest week in the history of the world as the creation.

As a result of what you've done, the world has ever been closer together before.

They kept us in quarantine for twenty one days.

We were poked, pricked, prodded, debriefed, details defoliated, able to see our wives through the windows of the lunar receiving laboratory, but unable to touch or talk to them with any degree of privacy.

When the quarantine was over, we toured America and the world, where we were treated like heroes, even though we weren't.

Then it was over, I planned my life for one thing.

Now that thing was done, but I still had to live.

You've seen that I didn't do it very well, at least not as well as Neil and Mike.

It's my pleasure to present to the faculty of the University of Cincinnati, our newest professor of Aeronautics, the first man to set foot on the Moon.

Bil Armstrong.

Beat Mike Collins, Apollo eleven astronaut and now curator of the Aeronautics and Space muse here at the Smithsonian Institution.

I said I wanted to make money sitting on boards of directors, and I did.

But boards want winners on their teams.

I started an engineering consultancy business, but I looked at customers through a haze of depression when I could see them at all.

By seventy eight, I found myself in a phone booth on the Pacific Coast Highway, calling the woman who had been right about me all.

Along, Rich Ludwig.

Buzz Aldrin.

Surprised, only then it's taken so long.

I need to quit drinking.

I was hoping you could help me.

How badly do you want it?

People think Apollo eleven was my greatest accomplishment, Not even close.

It's forty five years of sobriety.

Those half million miles through space were nothing compared to the discovery of the unchartered territory that was buzz Aldrin.

I like to think I'm a better father, a better man than I was before.

Have I mellowed you be the judge.

Bart Sibril, a conspiracy theorist who claims the Apollo eleven moon landing was a hoax, yesterday, confronted former astronaut Buzz Aldron outside a hotel in Beverly Hills.

Why don't you.

Swear on this bible that you walked on the Mirth Hotel?

Cybril she the bible in Aldren's face as the encounter escalator.

Will you get away from from swear on you?

You don't know what you're talking.

Raveman died during the Apolloble race.

You on the night and I'm more inside.

You're a.

Buzz, starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey errand is created by Stephen Cronish and directed by John Scott Dryden.

It is written by Stephen Cronish with Matt Graham and Thompson Evans.

Original music is by Sasha Putnam, editing and sound design by Elouise Widmore.

The part of buzz Aldren is performed by John Lithgow and Jeffrey errand Neil Armstrong by David Menken, Mike Collins, Taylor Napier, Joan Aldren, Julie Sardo, Gene Krantz, Philip Demel, Chris Kraft, Nathan Osgood, Dieke Slayton, Patrick Paletti, Doctor Rachel Ludwig, Jennifer Armour, Walter Cronkite, Carrie Shale, Sir Bernard Lovell, rufus Wright, Brian Duff, a Key, Katabi, Jen Armstrong, Natasha, Aaron Cheney and Pat Collins Valentina Arena.

Other parts are performed by Eric Myers, Laurel Lefkoe, Greg Lockett, Christopher Ragland, Adam Cina, Philip Boscha, Eric Sirikayan and Flynn Ivo.

The children are Sadie Mitchell, Hugo Dryden and Julie Zarkovich Huff.

Script editing by Mike Walker.

Additional material at Script supervision by Alex Lanch.

The technical consultant is Matthew H.

Hirsch.

Studio engineers were Matt Clark and Paul Clark.

The trailer's producer is Jack Soper.

Buzz is produced and cast by Emma Hearn.

The executive producers are Jeremy Fox, John Scott Dryden, Stephen Cronish, Howard Springer and Jason English.

Buzz is a production of Thoroughbred Studios, Goldhop Productions and iHeart podcasts,