In 10 years, NASA went from limited prospects to six Apollo moon landings. 12 episodes — framed by the famous HBO miniseries — answer the question: How?
From the Earth to the Moon: The Miniseries Companion, on Kindle
Also on apple books and many other ebook platforms -- Links below.
If you enjoyed this podcast, you will love our new book project!
Think you've read everything there is about the moon flights? Think again!
In 1998, the landmark television miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" was first broadcast. In 12 episodes, it told the daring story of Project Apollo-NASA's program to put humans on the moon. This book provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of each episode of the miniseries and covers Apollo from start to finish, and then some! More than a simple episode guide, this companion reviews the choices the filmmakers made regarding the actors, special effects, and historical accuracy. This book shows readers what each episode got right, got wrong, and what they didn't tell you about each of these historic missions.
Providing readers with a completely novel and unique approach to Project Apollo, this companion to the miniseries is packed with information.
Covers all manned Apollo missions, the creation of the lunar module, the Apollo 1 fire and aftermath, the personal and professional highs and lows of the astronauts and key NASA personnel, including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Pete Conrad, Al Worden, Donn Eisele, Wernher von Braun, Deke Slayton, Alan Shepard, James Webb, and others. Also includes descriptions of the author's personal interactions with some of the Apollo astronauts.
Bonus: Includes an in-depth interview with Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon, the book that was the basis for the entire miniseries. Also includes 35 stunning images.
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-the-miniseries-companion
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1523218640
https://www.scribd.com/book/468933487/From-the-Earth-to-the-Moon-The-Miniseries-Companion
From the Earth to the Moon: The Miniseries Companion, on Kindle
Also on apple books and many other ebook platforms!
If you enjoyed this podcast, you will love our new book project!
Think you've read everything there is about the moon flights? Think again!
In 1998, the landmark television miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" was first broadcast. In 12 episodes, it told the daring story of Project Apollo-NASA's program to put humans on the moon. This book provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of each episode of the miniseries and covers Apollo from start to finish, and then some! More than a simple episode guide, this companion reviews the choices the filmmakers made regarding the actors, special effects, and historical accuracy. This book shows readers what each episode got right, got wrong, and what they didn't tell you about each of these historic missions.
Providing readers with a completely novel and unique approach to Project Apollo, this companion to the miniseries is packed with information.
Covers all manned Apollo missions, the creation of the lunar module, the Apollo 1 fire and aftermath, the personal and professional highs and lows of the astronauts and key NASA personnel, including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Pete Conrad, Al Worden, Donn Eisele, Wernher von Braun, Deke Slayton, Alan Shepard, James Webb, and others. Also includes descriptions of the author's personal interactions with some of the Apollo astronauts.
Bonus: Includes an in-depth interview with Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon, the book that was the basis for the entire miniseries. Also includes 35 stunning images.
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-the-miniseries-companion
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1523218640
https://www.scribd.com/book/468933487/From-the-Earth-to-the-Moon-The-Miniseries-Companion
The Right Stuff (1983), Directed by Philip Kaufman.
Hey Ridley, you got any Beemans?
Crossposted from our other podcast, Popcorn Drink Combo.
First Man (2018), Directed by Damien Chazelle.
An intimate look at the inscrutable astronaut's Right Stuff'.
Our take on Ron Howard's blockbuster feature film, Apollo 13 (1995), Starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Gary Sinise.
Bonus episode, crossposted from our other podcast, Popcorn Drink Combo.
Our take on CNN Films' Apollo 11 documentary, 2019.
Bonus episode, crossposted from our other podcast, Popcorn Drink Combo.
The story of the final lunar mission, Apollo 17, is told as a pseudo-documentary set several decades after the fact. Simulated interviews of various characters such as Emmett Seaborn and flight director Christopher C. Kraft Jr., in old-age makeup, are included. The documentary is interspersed with the story of early French film maker Georges Méliès' creation of his vision of a trip to the Moon, the 1902 Le Voyage dans la Lune. Scenes from the original film are merged with the recreation of its filming.
Episode 12 links:
Le Voyage Dans La Lune (1902, B& W, complete)
Le Voyage Dans La Lune (1902, hand coloured, complete)
Apollo 17 LM Ascent Stage liftoff from moon
Apollo Lunar Surface Journal Apollo 17 page
Trailer for “The Last Man on the Moon” documentary about Gene Cernan
Shows the Apollo program from the point of view of the nine wives of NASA's second group of astronauts, from 1962 beyond the end of the program. The burdens placed on them include maintaining a home while presenting a positive image to the news media, shielding their husbands from any family concerns which could affect their position in the flight rotation or ability to return to Earth safely, and comforting each other in the face of tragedy as Elliot See and Ed White are killed. The episode is anchored by the Apollo 16 mission, during which recently married Ken Mattingly loses his wedding ring in the Command Module, and Lunar Module pilot Charles Duke finds it while Mattingly is performing a walk in deep space.
Episode 11 links:
Long article about Jan Armstrong
Telegraph article about Astronaut Wives Club
Interesting blog post about astronaut wives
Scientist astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, a geologist, persuades his mentor, professor Lee Silver, to train the Apollo astronauts in selecting appropriate rock samples to collect through field experience, rather than the boring classroom lectures NASA has been using. Silver takes the four Apollo 15 prime and backup landing crew members (David Scott, James Irwin, Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Schmitt) to the southwestern desert, while lunar geologist Farouk El-Baz trains the Command Module pilots (Alfred Worden and Vance D. Brand) in high-altitude recognition of geological features using airplane flights over Hawaii. Schmitt is disappointed to learn his own Apollo 18 flight will be cancelled, but he still believes the training of the other astronauts is vital. It pays off when Scott and Irwin find the "Genesis Rock", originally believed to come from the Moon's primordial crust. The title refers to Scott's reproduction of an experiment proving Galileo's hypothesis that gravity will cause bodies of differing masses to fall at the same rate in a vacuum, by dropping a hammer and a feather.
Episode 10 links:
British animated short about Apollo 15
FTETTM Hammer and Feather scene
Real Hammer and Feather on Moon
Apollo 15 EVA 1 complete TV transmission
Al Worden talking about 15, good and bad, including stamp incident
Apollo 15 In the Mountains of the Moon (saw this in elementary school-still well done!)
In 1964, while riding high on his fame as America's first man in space and his expected command of the first Gemini mission, Alan Shepard is suddenly struck with Ménière's disease, characterized by vertigo and nausea. Flight operations director Deke Slayton must ground him, but offers him the job of chief astronaut, effectively making Shepard Slayton's assistant as supervisor of all the astronauts. A few years later, a surgeon tries an experimental surgery which cures Shepard's symptoms, and he is returned to the flight rotation, commanding Apollo 14 in early 1971, which accomplishes Apollo 13's failed Fra Mauro landing. Shepard brings a six-iron golf club head on board, which he fastens to a soil-collecting tool handle and uses to hit a ball "for miles and miles".
Episode 9 links:
FTETTM Landing scene with computer hack
Apollo 14 onboard camera footage-very nice
This episode covers the perilous flight of Apollo 13 entirely from the ground point of view; the astronauts are only heard on radio. Veteran TV spaceflight reporter Emmett Seaborn (Lane Smith) is summoned to broadcast the breaking news of the in-flight failure, as young reporter Brett Hutchings (Jay Mohr) is pulled off of sports to help with the coverage. As the crisis unfolds, Seaborn finds himself at odds with Hutchings' style of sensationalizing its impact on the astronauts' families, and criticizing NASA. Seaborn starts to feel he is being marginalized when the network decides to leave Hutchings on location in Houston, while sending him back to headquarters to provide only background coverage. The last straw falls when, after the successful recovery of the astronauts, Hutchings horns in on his traditional post-flight interview with flight controller Gene Kranz. Seaborn leaves dejectedly, not to be seen again until the flight of Apollo 17 in the final episode.
Episode 8 links:
Apollo 13 news of measles exposure
Jules Bergman Apollo 13 Special Report: Initial Coverage of Explosion
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