WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.600 Failure is not an option. I want you to just 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:05.120 let that phrase sit with you for a second. It 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:08.039 is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic sentences 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:10.679 in the history of exploration. I mean, maybe 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:12.699 even in the history of the 20th century. Say 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:16.280 those five words to anyone, anywhere in the world, 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:18.640 and what immediately pops into their head. It's 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.420 almost Pavlovian, right? You immediately picture 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:24.829 the the smoke -filled room of mission control. 00:00:25.170 --> 00:00:27.609 You see the tension, the white shirts, the skinny 00:00:27.609 --> 00:00:30.170 ties, the coffee cups just piling up everywhere. 00:00:30.230 --> 00:00:33.310 Yeah, exactly. And specifically, you see Flight 00:00:33.310 --> 00:00:36.469 Director Gene Kranz. He's standing there in that 00:00:36.469 --> 00:00:39.369 famous white vest, rallying the troops to save 00:00:39.369 --> 00:00:41.549 three astronauts stranded in space on Apollo 00:00:41.549 --> 00:00:44.570 13. It is the ultimate expression of the American 00:00:44.570 --> 00:00:47.369 can -do spirit. It's engineering prowess. It's 00:00:47.369 --> 00:00:50.509 grace under pressure. It is the definitive motto 00:00:50.509 --> 00:00:53.969 of NASA. But here is where we have to drop the 00:00:53.969 --> 00:00:55.990 hammer right off the bat. And this might actually 00:00:55.990 --> 00:00:57.789 hurt some of our space enthusiast listeners. 00:00:57.909 --> 00:00:59.829 Brace yourself. Gene Kranz never actually said 00:00:59.829 --> 00:01:02.310 that. It sounds completely unbelievable, doesn't 00:01:02.310 --> 00:01:04.430 it? Given just how ingrained it is in our collective 00:01:04.430 --> 00:01:07.269 memory, it feels like finding out, you know, 00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:09.170 Sherlock Holmes never actually said elementary. 00:01:09.530 --> 00:01:11.909 my dear Watson, in the books. Right. But you 00:01:11.909 --> 00:01:13.989 are absolutely right. If you go back to the transcripts 00:01:13.989 --> 00:01:17.489 of the Apollo 13 loop and we have literally thousands 00:01:17.489 --> 00:01:20.609 of hours of audio from April 1970, you will not 00:01:20.609 --> 00:01:22.849 find that sentence anywhere. Nowhere at all. 00:01:23.049 --> 00:01:25.409 So we have a massive historical mystery on our 00:01:25.409 --> 00:01:28.310 hands today. We are doing a deep dive into the 00:01:28.310 --> 00:01:31.890 true origins of failure is not an option. If 00:01:31.890 --> 00:01:34.340 Kranz didn't say it during the mission, Who did? 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:37.400 And how did a phrase that was never even spoken 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:40.120 become the defining creed of the entire space 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:42.140 program? This is exactly what I love about this 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:44.700 topic. We aren't just, you know, debunking a 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:47.640 quote to be pedantic. We are looking at how history, 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:50.540 memory, and storytelling all intersect. We are 00:01:50.540 --> 00:01:52.859 looking at how a false quote can sometimes tell 00:01:52.859 --> 00:01:55.319 the true story of an event better than the actual 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:58.120 facts can. Which is a wild concept to wrap your 00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:01.120 head around. It really is. And for our deep dive 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.500 today, we've pulled together the records on the 00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:08.360 1995 film Apollo 13, Gene Klantz's own autobiography, 00:02:08.620 --> 00:02:12.139 and the 2003 History Channel documentary to really 00:02:12.139 --> 00:02:14.400 trace this lineage. OK, so let's unpack this 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:17.199 because I think a lot of us feel a little betrayed 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:19.139 right now. I know I did when I first read the 00:02:19.139 --> 00:02:21.099 source material. If it wasn't said in the heat 00:02:21.099 --> 00:02:23.280 of the moment in 1970, when was it born? Are 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:26.639 we talking about a post mission press conference 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:28.280 or something? No, we actually have to look much 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:29.979 later than that. To find the origin, we have 00:02:29.979 --> 00:02:32.900 to fast forward about 25 years. We need to go 00:02:32.900 --> 00:02:35.479 from the life or death tension of 1970 to the 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:38.419 pre -production phase of the 1995 Hollywood movie 00:02:38.419 --> 00:02:41.740 Apollo 13. Wow. So the phrase is younger than 00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:43.979 the event it describes by a quarter of a century. 00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:46.990 That is a lifetime in aerospace years. Precisely. 00:02:47.150 --> 00:02:49.250 So the screenwriters for the film Al Reiner and 00:02:49.250 --> 00:02:51.050 Bill Broyles, they were doing their homework. 00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:53.189 They weren't just writing a generic sci -fi script. 00:02:53.509 --> 00:02:55.789 They really wanted it to feel authentic to the 00:02:55.789 --> 00:02:58.289 era. They wanted the real jargon, the real feel 00:02:58.289 --> 00:03:00.789 of the room. Exactly. So they traveled down to 00:03:00.789 --> 00:03:03.530 Clear Lake, Texas to interview the real people 00:03:03.530 --> 00:03:05.610 who were in the trenches during the crisis. And 00:03:05.610 --> 00:03:07.990 this brings us to a man named Jerry Bostic. Now, 00:03:08.090 --> 00:03:09.689 for those who don't know the organizational chart 00:03:09.689 --> 00:03:13.930 of NASA, who exactly is Jerry Bostic? Jerry Bostic 00:03:13.930 --> 00:03:16.849 is a legend in his own right. He was the Fido. 00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:19.139 That stands for the Flight Dynamics Officer. 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:21.680 In the intense hierarchy of mission control, 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:25.039 the FIDO is the person directly responsible for 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:27.599 the trajectory of the spacecraft. OK, so they 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:29.719 are the ones calculating the physics of how to 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:32.020 get from point A to point B. Right. Without bouncing 00:03:32.020 --> 00:03:34.819 off the Earth's atmosphere or, worse, drifting 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:37.780 off into deep space forever. So he's not just 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:41.020 some guy at a desk. He is the navigator. If he 00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:44.000 gets the math wrong by even a fraction, the astronauts 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.039 do not come home. The stakes are literally infinite 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:50.180 for a Fido. So the screenwriters Reiner and Broyles 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:52.400 are sitting down with Bostic. They are trying 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.439 to get inside the head of a flight controller. 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:56.759 And naturally, because they are screenwriters, 00:03:57.060 --> 00:03:59.120 they are looking for the drama. They want to 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:01.199 find that emotional breaking point. Right. They 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:03.759 need a movie moment. They want a scene of someone 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:06.599 throwing a chair or I don't know. Breaking down 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:08.719 in tears over a slide rule. Correct. They want 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.340 the human frailty. So they asked Bostic a very 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:14.439 specific, almost leading question. They asked 00:04:14.439 --> 00:04:17.639 him, weren't there times when everybody or at 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:20.480 least a few people just panicked? And honestly, 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:22.680 that seems like a totally fair assumption to 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:25.699 make. You've got an oxygen tank explosion. Power 00:04:25.699 --> 00:04:28.699 is dying. The cabin is freezing. The CO2 levels 00:04:28.699 --> 00:04:30.879 are rising. Surely someone in that room must 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:33.120 have freaked out. That's exactly what the screenwriters 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:37.360 assumed. Any normal person would panic. But Bostic's 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:40.980 answer was pure engineer. It was completely pragmatic. 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:42.779 I actually have his quote from the interview 00:04:42.779 --> 00:04:45.680 right here. He told them, no, when bad things 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:48.079 happen, we just calmly laid out all the options 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:50.670 and failure was not one of them. Let's really 00:04:50.670 --> 00:04:52.430 dissect that sentence for a second because it 00:04:52.430 --> 00:04:54.829 is the smoking gun of this entire deep dive. 00:04:55.350 --> 00:04:57.850 We calmly laid out all the options and failure 00:04:57.850 --> 00:04:59.750 was not one of them. It's just so bureaucratic. 00:04:59.810 --> 00:05:01.490 He wasn't trying to make a bumper sticker, a 00:05:01.490 --> 00:05:03.970 slogan. He was literally describing a procedural 00:05:03.970 --> 00:05:06.850 workflow. He was saying, we looked at option 00:05:06.850 --> 00:05:10.550 A, option B and option C. Failure simply wasn't 00:05:10.550 --> 00:05:12.709 on the list of options we were authorized to 00:05:12.709 --> 00:05:16.209 consider. It's a beautiful, unvarnished glimpse 00:05:16.209 --> 00:05:19.370 into the engineering mindset. To Bostic, he was 00:05:19.370 --> 00:05:21.829 just explaining their decision tree. You don't 00:05:21.829 --> 00:05:24.610 put the crude dyes as a branch on a decision 00:05:24.610 --> 00:05:27.670 tree. You only map out the viable solutions. 00:05:28.149 --> 00:05:29.970 And the funny thing is, according to the historical 00:05:29.970 --> 00:05:32.509 records, Bostic actually thought the interview 00:05:32.509 --> 00:05:35.149 was going terrible. Oh, really? He didn't realize 00:05:35.149 --> 00:05:37.610 he had just handed them pure gold? Quite the 00:05:37.610 --> 00:05:39.850 opposite. He said he sensed that Bill Broyles, 00:05:40.009 --> 00:05:42.209 the screenwriter, was getting restless and just 00:05:42.209 --> 00:05:44.889 wanted to leave. Bostic is sitting there talking 00:05:44.889 --> 00:05:48.350 about trajectories and calm, methodical procedures. 00:05:48.610 --> 00:05:51.269 And he naturally assumes Broyles is bored out 00:05:51.269 --> 00:05:53.970 of his mind because there's absolutely no drama 00:05:53.970 --> 00:05:55.990 in the story he's telling. That is hilarious. 00:05:56.209 --> 00:05:58.490 You're Jerry Bostic. You're thinking, man, I'm 00:05:58.490 --> 00:06:00.589 boring these Hollywood guys to tears with my 00:06:00.589 --> 00:06:03.529 technical talk. And meanwhile, Bill Broyles is 00:06:03.529 --> 00:06:05.769 sitting there and his storyteller brain is just 00:06:05.769 --> 00:06:08.550 starting to Bostic didn't even find out until 00:06:08.550 --> 00:06:11.149 months later. But apparently, as soon as the 00:06:11.149 --> 00:06:13.290 writers got into their rental car to leave the 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:16.009 Clear Lake facility, Royals just started screaming. 00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:18.430 No way. Yeah, he yelled, that's it. That's the 00:06:18.430 --> 00:06:20.990 tagline for the whole movie. Failure is not an 00:06:20.990 --> 00:06:23.949 option. That is the real aha moment. The iconic 00:06:23.949 --> 00:06:26.149 phrase wasn't spoken in the tense atmosphere 00:06:26.149 --> 00:06:28.870 of mission control in 1970. It was born in a 00:06:28.870 --> 00:06:32.149 rental car in 1995. What's so fascinating here 00:06:32.149 --> 00:06:35.769 is the translation process. Bostic provided a 00:06:35.769 --> 00:06:38.949 dry technical explanation of how they systematically 00:06:38.949 --> 00:06:42.110 solved problems by logically eliminating failure 00:06:42.110 --> 00:06:45.660 as a viable path. Broils, with his dramatic ear, 00:06:45.939 --> 00:06:48.459 heard a profound declaration of will. He took 00:06:48.459 --> 00:06:50.680 a descriptive sentence and weaponized it. Exactly. 00:06:51.060 --> 00:06:53.040 He took failure was not one of the options and 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.259 tightened it into the absolute imperative. Failure 00:06:55.259 --> 00:06:57.180 is not an option. It really is the difference 00:06:57.180 --> 00:06:58.839 between the passive voice and the active voice. 00:06:59.259 --> 00:07:01.360 Yeah. Bostic is saying, we didn't look at failure. 00:07:01.699 --> 00:07:04.699 Broils translates that into, we forbid failure. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.899 It's brilliant writing. One is a factual observation. 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:10.879 The other is a command. And just like that, a 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:12.839 slogan is born. But of course, it didn't stop 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:14.920 at the script. It had to be delivered to the 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.040 audience. And that brings us to the performance 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.399 that truly sealed the deal. We absolutely have 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:23.300 to talk about Ed Harris. The portrayal that completely 00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:26.100 defined Gene Kranz for an entire generation of 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:30.079 moviegoers. In the 1995 film Apollo 13, Ed Harris 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:33.259 plays Gene Kranz. And there's that pivotal scene. 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:36.129 The NASA director expressing doubt, worrying 00:07:36.129 --> 00:07:38.910 they might lose the crew, and Harris turns around, 00:07:39.290 --> 00:07:41.209 and the writers didn't just have him say the 00:07:41.209 --> 00:07:43.670 line casually over a cup of coffee. They gave 00:07:43.670 --> 00:07:46.110 it immense weight. They absolutely dramatized 00:07:46.110 --> 00:07:48.670 it for maximum impact. In the film, the character 00:07:48.670 --> 00:07:51.089 of Krantz says, we've never lost an American 00:07:51.089 --> 00:07:53.009 in space. We're sure as hell not going to lose 00:07:53.009 --> 00:07:55.750 one on my watch. Failure is not an option. Chills. 00:07:56.129 --> 00:07:58.470 Seriously, I get chills every time I hear that 00:07:58.470 --> 00:08:01.889 delivery. It's pure defiance. It is a phenomenal 00:08:01.889 --> 00:08:04.649 piece of cinema. But if you compare it to Bostick's 00:08:04.649 --> 00:08:07.529 original quote, you see the massive tonal shift 00:08:07.529 --> 00:08:10.430 we were talking about. Bostick was so calm. We 00:08:10.430 --> 00:08:13.009 just calmly laid out the options. Ed Harris is 00:08:13.009 --> 00:08:16.949 intense, commanding and highly emotional. So 00:08:16.949 --> 00:08:18.709 the general public sees the movie. The movie 00:08:18.709 --> 00:08:22.509 is a massive blockbuster hit. And suddenly millions 00:08:22.509 --> 00:08:25.110 of people think this is exactly what Gene Kranz 00:08:25.110 --> 00:08:27.449 actually yelled across mission control during 00:08:27.449 --> 00:08:30.569 the Apollo 13 crisis. It entered the cultural 00:08:30.569 --> 00:08:33.620 lexicon almost immediately. It became the tagline 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:35.879 for the film, appearing on all the posters and 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:38.379 theatrical trailers. It became the shorthand 00:08:38.379 --> 00:08:41.399 for that entire historical event. It moved directly 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:43.700 from a Hollywood screenplay into the history 00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:45.960 books, or at least into our collective memory 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:47.759 of history. But here's where the story takes 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:49.919 another turn that I find really surprising. Yeah. 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:51.840 Usually when Hollywood makes something up or 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:54.360 dramatizes an event, the real historical figures 00:08:54.360 --> 00:08:56.340 get pretty annoyed. They say, hey, that's not 00:08:56.340 --> 00:08:57.799 how it happened. I never said that. Don't put 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:00.559 words in my mouth. Right. You very often see 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:03.269 astronauts or historic figures publicly correcting 00:09:03.269 --> 00:09:05.909 the record trying to fiercely protect the accuracy 00:09:05.909 --> 00:09:08.850 of the official logs. But in this case something 00:09:08.850 --> 00:09:11.789 very different happened with the real Gene Kranz. 00:09:11.950 --> 00:09:14.330 Let's talk about his autobiography because this 00:09:14.330 --> 00:09:16.129 blew my mind when I read the source material. 00:09:16.279 --> 00:09:18.759 So let's fast forward to the year 2000. This 00:09:18.759 --> 00:09:21.139 is five years after the Apollo 13 movie comes 00:09:21.139 --> 00:09:24.399 out. The real Gene Kranz is writing his definitive 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:28.019 memoir about his long career in NASA. And what 00:09:28.019 --> 00:09:30.279 does he choose as the title of his life story? 00:09:30.860 --> 00:09:33.600 Failure is not an option. He adopts the fictional 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.360 Hollywood line as the title of his own factual 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:39.789 memoir. That is just amazing to me. He basically 00:09:39.789 --> 00:09:41.970 leaned all the way into the myth. He saw what 00:09:41.970 --> 00:09:44.330 Ed Harris did and said, yeah, I'll take that. 00:09:44.330 --> 00:09:46.750 That's me now. He absolutely did. And he actually 00:09:46.750 --> 00:09:48.870 explains why in the book, which I think is crucial 00:09:48.870 --> 00:09:51.250 for us to understand, he readily acknowledges 00:09:51.250 --> 00:09:53.610 that he didn't say it during the mission. But 00:09:53.610 --> 00:09:55.629 he says he chose the title because he liked the 00:09:55.629 --> 00:09:57.950 way it reflected the attitude of mission control. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:00.159 It's like he's saying, OK, I didn't say these 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:02.460 exact words in that exact order, but these words 00:10:02.460 --> 00:10:04.860 perfectly capture the vibe of the room. Exactly. 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:06.960 In fact, in the book, he goes a step further 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:09.379 than just liking the phrase. He refers to it 00:10:09.379 --> 00:10:11.860 as a creed that we all lived by. He formally 00:10:11.860 --> 00:10:15.679 calls it a creed. So life imitates art, which 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:18.279 was originally imitating life. It's a complete 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:21.179 feedback loop. Jerry Bostic describes the mundane 00:10:21.179 --> 00:10:24.399 reality to a screenwriter. The screenwriter dramatizes 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:26.799 it for an actor. The actor delivers it powerfully 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:29.580 to the world. And then the real -life inspiration, 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:32.340 Gene Kranz, looks at that dramatization and says, 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:35.779 yes, that is us. That is our creed. It solidifies 00:10:35.779 --> 00:10:38.799 the phrase as historical fact, even if it's technically 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:41.200 a retrofit. It's almost like the phrase was out 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:43.240 there waiting to be found. And its influence 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:45.779 didn't stop with Krantz's book. The phrase just 00:10:45.779 --> 00:10:49.500 continued to expand its territory. In 2003, the 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:52.019 History Channel produced a major comprehensive 00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:54.500 documentary. And you can probably guess what 00:10:54.500 --> 00:10:57.879 it was titled. Let me guess. Failure is not an 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:00.080 option. You got it. You really start to see the 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:02.740 pattern. By 2003, you couldn't even tell the 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:05.039 story of NASA without using those specific words. 00:11:05.659 --> 00:11:08.000 But this documentary wasn't just about Apollo 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.950 13, was it? No, and that's a key point to draw 00:11:10.950 --> 00:11:13.610 from the sources. The documentary significantly 00:11:13.610 --> 00:11:16.090 broadened the scope. It covered the U .S. space 00:11:16.090 --> 00:11:18.269 program all the way from the launch of Sputnik 00:11:18.269 --> 00:11:20.870 through the entirety of the moon missions. It 00:11:20.870 --> 00:11:23.269 used failure is not an option as the overarching 00:11:23.269 --> 00:11:26.490 umbrella theme for the entire era of the space 00:11:26.490 --> 00:11:29.309 race. And looking at the cast list for this documentary, 00:11:29.690 --> 00:11:32.990 it's a total who's who of NASA legends. It really 00:11:32.990 --> 00:11:35.250 is unparalleled. You have Chris Kraft, the original 00:11:35.250 --> 00:11:37.409 flight director. You have Jim Lovell, the commander 00:11:37.409 --> 00:11:39.980 of Apollo 13. You have Gene Cernan, the last 00:11:39.980 --> 00:11:41.960 man to walk on the moon, Wally Schera, Glenn 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:44.700 Lennie, Jerry Griffin, and of course, Jerry Bostic 00:11:44.700 --> 00:11:47.419 and Gene Kranz are front and center. So by voluntarily 00:11:47.419 --> 00:11:49.539 participating in a documentary with this title, 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:52.919 all these historical legends are essentially 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:56.419 cosigning the phrase. They are agreeing that 00:11:56.419 --> 00:11:59.000 this Hollywood invention is the accurate headline 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:02.120 for their life's work. It firmly frames the narrative 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:04.320 of the men and women behind the space program, 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:06.340 which is how the History Channel positioned it. 00:12:06.620 --> 00:12:08.620 It connects the dots between the guys in the 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:10.740 trenches, the flight controllers, the engineers, 00:12:10.940 --> 00:12:14.340 and that high -level almost philosophical concept 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:17.700 of refusing to accept defeat. I want to dig into 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:20.419 that concept for a minute, because failure is 00:12:20.419 --> 00:12:22.860 not an option. Sounds great on a bumper sticker 00:12:22.860 --> 00:12:25.659 or a t -shirt, but as a technical philosophy, 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:28.399 isn't it kind of dangerous? I mean, in the harsh 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:30.679 reality of physics, failure is definitely an 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:33.899 option. Things break. That is a fascinating nuance 00:12:33.899 --> 00:12:36.539 that the sources touch on. In a literal physical 00:12:36.539 --> 00:12:39.059 sense, yes, failure is always an option in spaceflight. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:41.139 Gravity doesn't care about your feelings or your 00:12:41.139 --> 00:12:43.860 slogans. If a valve sticks, you die. If the O 00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:47.279 -ring fails, the shuttle explodes. But the phrase, 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:49.700 as adopted by these specific engineers, isn't 00:12:49.700 --> 00:12:51.899 a statement about the laws of physics. It's a 00:12:51.899 --> 00:12:53.899 statement about their internal methodology. Ah, 00:12:53.899 --> 00:12:56.519 I see. So it's not hubris. It's a rigorous, unyielding 00:12:56.519 --> 00:12:59.980 process. Exactly. Look at someone like John Aaron, 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:02.429 who is prominently featured in that same documentary. 00:13:02.929 --> 00:13:05.549 He's the flight controller who famously saved 00:13:05.549 --> 00:13:07.730 Apollo 12 when it got hit by lightning shortly 00:13:07.730 --> 00:13:09.590 after liftoff. Right, the telemetry turned to 00:13:09.590 --> 00:13:11.190 total garbage, all the lights were flashing. 00:13:11.570 --> 00:13:13.509 Most normal people would have aborted the mission 00:13:13.509 --> 00:13:16.289 right there. Failure was literally staring them 00:13:16.289 --> 00:13:19.299 in the face on their monitors. But Aaron remembered 00:13:19.299 --> 00:13:23.080 a very obscure, specific switch setting from 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:26.059 a random simulation a year prior. The famous 00:13:26.059 --> 00:13:29.879 SCE2O moment. Yes. He didn't accept the failure 00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:32.679 of the systems as the final answer. He calmly 00:13:32.679 --> 00:13:35.440 found the one path where the systems still worked. 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.080 When you look at their specific contributions, 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:41.019 you see the actual mechanics of failure is not 00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:43.440 an option. It wasn't just macho bravado, it was 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:46.299 a highly systematic approach, where they literally 00:13:46.299 --> 00:13:48.919 removed the option of failure by always finding 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:51.600 a workaround, a backup, or a brand new procedure. 00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:54.039 So when the documentary uses that title, it's 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:56.240 not celebrating blind optimism, it's celebrating 00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:58.879 that specific type of relentless problem solving. 00:13:59.070 --> 00:14:02.590 Yes, perfectly stated, it shifts the focus from 00:14:02.590 --> 00:14:04.889 the astronauts, who are obviously the visible 00:14:04.889 --> 00:14:08.090 heroes in the capsule, to the unseen problem 00:14:08.090 --> 00:14:10.769 solvers on the ground. And that phrase, that 00:14:10.769 --> 00:14:14.220 creed, belongs entirely to the ground. It belongs 00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:16.779 to the people sweating at the consoles. It's 00:14:16.779 --> 00:14:18.539 funny when you think about Jerry Bostic sitting 00:14:18.539 --> 00:14:21.460 in that mundane interview room back in the 90s. 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:23.700 He probably thought he was just clearing up a 00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:25.899 minor misconception about panic in the workplace. 00:14:26.419 --> 00:14:28.700 He had no idea he was actively drafting the title 00:14:28.700 --> 00:14:30.620 for the next three decades of space history. 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:33.399 It really shows the power of a good editor, doesn't 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:35.879 it? Bill Broyles heard the gold hiding in the 00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:38.879 gravel. But I think it also raises a really profound 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:41.220 question about how we view history in general. 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:44.539 How so? Well, we often obsess over strict accuracy. 00:14:44.779 --> 00:14:46.419 Did he say it? Did he not say it? Let's check 00:14:46.419 --> 00:14:48.639 the tapes. And technically, as we've established, 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:51.659 no, Krantz didn't say it. But is the phrase actually 00:14:51.659 --> 00:14:53.960 false? That's a really tough one. Factually, 00:14:54.100 --> 00:14:56.860 yes, it's false. Emotionally, maybe not. Precisely. 00:14:57.200 --> 00:15:00.039 If Bostic, Krantz, and the rest of the mission 00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:02.960 control team universally agree and say, this 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:05.740 phrase is our creed, then it becomes true in 00:15:05.740 --> 00:15:07.860 a completely different way. It becomes a valid, 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:11.179 enduring summary of their core values. It's what 00:15:11.179 --> 00:15:13.980 we might call emotional truth. It's almost like 00:15:13.980 --> 00:15:16.179 the phrase was just lingering there in the atmosphere 00:15:16.179 --> 00:15:19.080 of the room in 1970, but it took a Hollywood 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:22.240 outsider in 1995 to finally give it a name. And 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:24.940 that's very often the vital role of storytelling 00:15:24.940 --> 00:15:28.500 in our society, to condense highly complex realities 00:15:28.500 --> 00:15:30.720 into something we can easily hold onto and pass 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:33.740 down. We calmly laid out all the options and 00:15:33.740 --> 00:15:36.000 failure was not one of them is the procedure. 00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:38.940 Failure is not an option is the myth. And the 00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:41.970 reality is human beings need both. We certainly 00:15:41.970 --> 00:15:44.230 do. It's wild to think about the butterfly effect 00:15:44.230 --> 00:15:46.509 of it all. If Jerry Bostic had phrased his answer 00:15:46.509 --> 00:15:48.750 just a little differently, maybe if he had said, 00:15:49.269 --> 00:15:51.490 we didn't consider failure a possibility, we 00:15:51.490 --> 00:15:52.909 might have had a completely different movie title. 00:15:53.250 --> 00:15:54.610 Failure is impossible. It doesn't quite have 00:15:54.610 --> 00:15:56.950 the same ring to it, does it? Or we don't do 00:15:56.950 --> 00:15:59.029 failure. No, broils definitely had the ear for 00:15:59.029 --> 00:16:01.350 the drama. And I think that's exactly why it 00:16:01.350 --> 00:16:03.649 resonated so strongly with Gene Kranz himself. 00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:06.840 Krantz was the conductor of that massive orchestra. 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:09.539 He had to keep everyone in that room believing 00:16:09.539 --> 00:16:12.440 that there was a solution, even when the telemetry 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:15.440 data strongly suggested there wasn't. The phrase 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.019 captures the heavy burden of command perfectly. 00:16:18.500 --> 00:16:21.820 So let's recap. this incredible journey for everyone 00:16:21.820 --> 00:16:24.840 listening, because it really is an amazing game 00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:27.120 of historical telephone that went right instead 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:29.019 of wrong. It starts with the absolute reality, 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:32.000 the calm methodical work of Jerry Bostic and 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:34.559 the engineering team during the actual Apollo 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:37.659 13 crisis in 1970. They were just running the 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:40.120 numbers, laying out the viable options. Then 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:42.759 25 years later, we get the translation phase. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:45.799 Screenwriter Bill Broyles hears Bostic's very 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:49.240 dry explanation and crystallizes it into a brilliant 00:16:49.450 --> 00:16:52.009 active tagline while sitting in a rental car. 00:16:52.649 --> 00:16:55.649 Then comes the performance. Actor Ed Harris delivers 00:16:55.649 --> 00:16:57.909 the line with the fierce intensity and defiance 00:16:57.909 --> 00:17:00.110 that forever defines the public image of Gene 00:17:00.110 --> 00:17:02.289 Kranz. Which directly leads to the endorsement. 00:17:03.049 --> 00:17:05.730 The real Gene Kranz adopts the movie line for 00:17:05.730 --> 00:17:09.390 his own autobiography, validating it as the emotional 00:17:09.390 --> 00:17:12.589 truth of the actual mission. And finally, we 00:17:12.589 --> 00:17:15.450 reach the legacy. The History Channel and the 00:17:15.450 --> 00:17:18.250 entire space community fully adopt the phrase 00:17:18.250 --> 00:17:21.170 as the definitive label for the golden age of 00:17:21.170 --> 00:17:24.490 NASA. It's a perfect closed circle. And it honestly 00:17:24.490 --> 00:17:27.289 makes me wonder, what other famous historical 00:17:27.289 --> 00:17:29.430 quotes are actually just really good screenwriting? 00:17:29.769 --> 00:17:32.009 Oh, probably a lot more than we'd like to admit. 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:34.400 But in this particular case, I think we can easily 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:37.460 forgive the factual inaccuracy because the end 00:17:37.460 --> 00:17:40.319 result is just so universally inspiring. It gives 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:42.859 us a necessary shorthand for complex heroism. 00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:46.119 Absolutely. When you are facing a massive looming 00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:48.420 deadline at work or trying to navigate a really 00:17:48.420 --> 00:17:50.819 complicated problem in your personal life, you 00:17:50.819 --> 00:17:52.500 don't look in the mirror and say, I'm going to 00:17:52.500 --> 00:17:54.940 calmly lay out the options. You say failure is 00:17:54.940 --> 00:17:57.420 not an option. Right. It actively rallies the 00:17:57.420 --> 00:17:59.859 human spirit. It completely changes your own 00:17:59.859 --> 00:18:02.660 internal psychology. What does this all mean 00:18:02.660 --> 00:18:05.900 for you, the listener, who probably isn't guiding 00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:08.799 damaged spacecraft to the moon today? Why does 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:10.640 this historical distinction actually matter? 00:18:10.779 --> 00:18:12.900 I think it's a really powerful reminder that 00:18:12.900 --> 00:18:14.920 we have the power to frame our own narratives. 00:18:15.579 --> 00:18:17.420 Jerry Bostic was just doing his job. He didn't 00:18:17.420 --> 00:18:19.539 see himself as a dramatic hero in an action movie. 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:21.920 He was just a guy trying to figure out a trajectory. 00:18:22.420 --> 00:18:24.180 But when you step back and look at the bigger 00:18:24.180 --> 00:18:27.059 picture, just like the screenwriters did, you 00:18:27.059 --> 00:18:30.779 can see the profound heroism in simple, everyday 00:18:30.779 --> 00:18:33.640 competence. That is a genuinely great point. 00:18:33.819 --> 00:18:36.079 Sometimes you really do need an outsider to look 00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:38.970 at your daily grind and say, Wow, what you are 00:18:38.970 --> 00:18:41.289 doing is actually incredible. And it also teaches 00:18:41.289 --> 00:18:43.490 us a lot about the nature of truth in history. 00:18:43.970 --> 00:18:45.789 We tend to strictly think of history as just 00:18:45.789 --> 00:18:48.829 a dry list of dates and audio transcripts, but 00:18:48.829 --> 00:18:51.230 history is also what we collectively feel about 00:18:51.230 --> 00:18:53.869 those events. Failure is not an option as historically 00:18:53.869 --> 00:18:57.230 false, but it is deeply emotionally true. And 00:18:57.230 --> 00:18:59.210 sometimes the emotional truth is what actually 00:18:59.210 --> 00:19:01.809 endures the test of time. It's the version of 00:19:01.809 --> 00:19:05.349 the story we need to survive. It turns a highly 00:19:05.349 --> 00:19:08.750 chaotic, terrifying event into a permanent lesson 00:19:08.750 --> 00:19:11.910 about human resilience. It truly is. And honestly, 00:19:12.150 --> 00:19:14.410 it's just a lot catchier than naming a documentary 00:19:14.410 --> 00:19:17.589 the retroactive application of a screenplay tagline 00:19:17.589 --> 00:19:20.170 to a historical event. Yeah, I really don't think 00:19:20.170 --> 00:19:22.009 that title would have sold as many books for 00:19:22.009 --> 00:19:24.539 Gene Kranz. Definitely not. Well this has been 00:19:24.539 --> 00:19:26.680 a truly fascinating look behind the curtain of 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:29.759 one of our absolute favorite quotes. It's a great 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:31.880 reminder to always check the original sources, 00:19:32.380 --> 00:19:35.359 but also to deeply appreciate the storytellers 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:38.339 who shape our world. And to appreciate the engineers 00:19:38.339 --> 00:19:40.440 who give the storytellers something amazing to 00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:43.119 write about in the first place. Without the actual 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:46.059 math, the movie ends very very differently. Amen 00:19:46.059 --> 00:19:48.740 to that. Before we go though, I do want to leave 00:19:48.740 --> 00:19:52.200 you with something to really chew on. We've universally 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:55.119 accepted failure is not an option as the reality 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:58.940 of Apollo 13. It is now the official creed. So 00:19:58.940 --> 00:20:02.359 here is the question for you. If a quote captures 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:05.099 the essence of a historical event perfectly, 00:20:05.539 --> 00:20:07.720 better than any actual sentence spoken at the 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:09.960 time, does it really matter that it was never 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:12.880 said? At what point does the Hollywood script 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:15.440 become more real to us and perhaps even more 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:18.220 valuable than the actual historical transcripts? 00:20:18.299 --> 00:20:20.740 That is a heavy, fascinating thought to end on. 00:20:21.259 --> 00:20:23.779 Does the legend become the fact? In this case, 00:20:23.940 --> 00:20:25.799 I think it just might have. Well, thank you all 00:20:25.799 --> 00:20:28.180 for listening to this deep dive. We hope you'll 00:20:28.180 --> 00:20:30.880 never look at that movie or that phrase the same 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:32.779 way again. Thanks for listening. We'll catch 00:20:32.779 --> 00:20:33.339 you on the next one.