.]
This is Alpha Control.
We are at six minutes, 40 seconds and holding.
We have encountered an electrical power failure in our computer at the Bermuda tracking station.
Six minutes, 40 seconds and holding.
[ Computers Continue Tabulating .]
This is Alpha Control resuming countdown.
We are at six minutes, 40 seconds and counting.
Power has been restored at our Bermuda tracking station six minutes, 30 seconds and counting.
The spaceship's electronic brain will take over for the balance of the century-long hibernation during which it will be traveling at the almost unimaginable speed of light.
Here now is the Gemini 12, the culmination of nearly 40 years of intensive research and the most sophisticated piece of hardware yet devised by the mind of man.
Bold in concept, brilliant in execution this most delicate, yet most colossal of instruments makes possible man's thrust into deep space and will, in approximately five minutes set out on its quest for a new world.
Heading the expedition will be Dr.
John Robinson Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Stellar Dynamics now seen on your screen.
With him, marking the first time in history that anyone but an adult male has passed the International Space Administration's grueling physical and emotional screening for intergalactic flight will be his wife, Dr.
Maureen Robinson the distinguished biochemist of the New Mexico College of Space Medicine.
Their daughter, Judith, aged 19, who has rather heroically postponed all hopes for a career in the musical comedy field for the next two centuries, at least.
Their son, Will, who recently was graduated from the Camdo Canyon School of Science at the age of nine with the highest average in the school's history.
And their daughter, Penny, age 11, I.
Q.
, 147 hobby, zoology.
Their assistant, Dr.
Donald West graduate student from the Center for Radio Astronomy is the same young man who last year rocked the scientific world with his theory regarding other planets' fitness for human habitation.
[ Beeping Rapidly .]
Electromagnetic miracles now come into play.
This cosmic glow, induced through the genius of advanced technology will put the Robinson family in a state of limbo enabling them to make a lifetime flight while aging but a second in the time of man.
From this moment on, the Family Robinson and their assistant are in a state of suspended animation, which is to last for the next 98 years.
- And now-- - [ Telephone Rings .]
- One moment, please.
- [ TV Announcer .]
Ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States.
Fellow Americans, friends all over the world upon the success of this mission will depend whether the explosive increase of population on this planet will ultimately lead to a disaster from which none will be exempt or to a new dawn of plenty for all of humanity.
None can predict the outcome of this audacious venture to the very stars.
To those who have staked their lives upon this bold expansion of man's horizons I humbly say: Go in peace.
The prayers of mankind are with you.
[ Man Over P.
A.
.]
