Cigarettes & Rocket Fuel

It’s March 9, 1969: After a three-day delay, NASA astronauts Rusty Schweickart, Jim McDivitt and David Scott launched out of Earth’s atmosphere on Apollo 9. Their mission? Test the lunar module, which will eventually bring astronauts to the surface of the moon. With the mission going smoothly so far – despite a few vomit incidents – NASA must decide when to land on the moon. Will they bump the flight up to May from the original July date? Stay tuned. Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.com/?offerid=125&origin=newsroom&ipid=podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s March 2, 1969: the Vietnam War is rages on, campus unrest is at an all-time high and America’s new agency, NASA, is racing to put a man on the moon before the year runs out. But, they’ve had a hiccup. The launch of Apollo 9, the first test of the lunar module, has been delayed after the astronauts came down with a common cold. Will this delay U.S. footprints on the moon? Stay tuned. Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.com/?offerid=125&origin=newsroom&ipid=podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

*Cigarettes and Rocket Fuel* is a podcast from the past, a show-within-a-show and *that* show is an as-it-happens radio talk show on (fictional) radio station KHCN-AM 4747 — Houston, Texas — covering the 1969 Apollo missions and the final sprint in the race against the Soviets to set foot on the moon.  KHCN's *Space City Sunday with Alex and Andy* delivers a digest of the week's top news from the war in Vietnam, politics for Washington, D.C., items of local interest and valuable ads for our listeners. Come for the Apollo drama. Stay for the 39-cent bacon. Cigarettes and Rocket Fuel will lift off Feb. 28 and will continue weekly until America puts a man on the moon. Music: *Crayola Girl* by Ferrill Gibbs, produced by Brent Busby. Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.com/?offerid=125&origin=newsroom&ipid=podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.