The tragic death of Apollo's first three astronauts during a pre-launch test haunts the spacecraft's designers, as they struggle to come to terms with what happened, and find a way to save the moon program.

NASA takes its boldest and most controversial step—an attempt to fly men around the moon and back for the first time in history—at the end of one of the most cataclysmic years of the century.

Engineers at Grumman Aviation work with NASA and the Apollo 9 astronauts to design, build, and finally test-fly the world's first true spaceship—a “lunar module” which will hopefully land the first humans on the moon.