Jeri Jacquin
Coming to PBS July 8th-10th from
American Experience and Academy Award Nominee writer/director/producer Robert
Stone is the six-hour series celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the
moon landing with CHASING THE MOON.
Part One – A Place
Beyond the Sky begins the series in the 50s and 60s with the thoughts of
astronauts regarding going to space. Neil Armstrong made his indelible and
small speech before planting his boot on the moon surface and in his words ring
true today. Little did he realize it is used in so many other forms to
recognize that we are in a very big universe.
There was a time when people could not fathom “being born on
this planet and then taking off for another world”. The world was taking on a
new identity and the people in it reflecting on how nothing could possibly ever
be the same.
Beginning with Russia
and Sputnik, it pushed the US
to do one better than the enemy. It also brought fear of war and destruction.
When Sputnik II was launched, the American fear becomes even greater as rumors
of what they could do next before the US – the moon.
The Vanguard Project was sent up first followed by Jupiter
C. Scientist Wernher von Braun from Germany was considered a hero and
not a hero all at the same time. World War II brought 120 of the best
scientists from that country to be part of looking for a way to space. Becoming
a consultant on films about space, von Braun would even help Walt Disney with
his theme park.
Project Orion and Freeman Dyson were called in to work on
it. Flights and living for years exploring space was their goal. Russia also
brought in German scientists to expand their space program. When it didn’t work
out, the Germans are sent home which benefitted the US. In 1959, Nixon and Khrushchev
talked between each other in harsh terms at the Worlds Fair in Moscow about space.
Then the introduction of the Mercury astronauts with John H.
Glenn, Alan B. Shepard, Virgil I. ‘Gus’
Grissom, Malcolm S. Carpenter, Leroy Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, and Donald
K. Slayton. As the training of these men goes on, Russia sends a cosmonaut up in
1961. President John F. Kennedy isn’t happy and von Braun tells him they can
make it to the moon first. The Saturn rocket then comes into being.
Alan Shepard starts as the first man in space and makes sure
it is done live. Still, another cosmonaut makes his way into space and
President Kennedy gives NASA the money to get to the moon. Construction in Florida brings people out
in droves because of NASA. The excitement builds as John Glenn is the first US astronaut to
go into orbital flights.
Television and journalists like Walter Cronkite brought
space into homes of the average American. The intensity of interest from the public
was kept in the forefront. Bobby Kennedy wanted to bring an African-American
astronaut on board as Capt. Edward Dwight was brought into training.
In Houston,
the families came to live and formed their own ‘space’ family. The Mercury men
were young pilots and had to be watched. It was 1962 when the decision was made
to go from the earth to the moon while transporting a vehicle for moon
exploration. President Kennedy thought to have joint missions to the moon with
the Soviets as both sides wanted it to happen. All of that changed on November
22, 1963. After that the idea was silenced.
In Part II – Earthrise
– President Lyndon Johnson took up the mantle for the space program, even
picking up the JFK mantle of Soviet cooperation. Now, the Soviets were behind
the US
in the space race. The Gemini Project brings computers aboard in outer space. A
serious problem was that reporters were starting to question why space and at
what cost? NASA had to do what they could to keep the public relations good
with the public.
With each Gemini launch, NASA was getting closer to the
moon. The Gemini 8 launch was the first craft to have problems as the ship
rolled out of control. Neil Armstrong brought it all home with his cool head
and abilities. The final Gemini 12 launches with Buzz Aldren and James Lovell
and becomes successful in teaching how to train for space.
The first Apollo mission crew is announced with Gus Grissom,
Ed White, Roger B. Chaffee. Then tragedy as none ever expected even though the
astronauts all knew it was possible. The affect on the other astronauts caused
stresses that went down to family members. They were a family and now their
family was broken.
NASA dealt with a media nightmare that once again brought
into question of ‘why space?’ But 1968 brought civil unrest and wars to the
forefront of life yet NASA still wouldn’t let go. The Saturn 5 was conceived to
put men on the moon.
And what a show! Now the interest in once again peaked by
the media and a shot of the moon to beat the Russians right in front of them.
The accelerated Apollo 8 brought an orbit of the moon. One person there from
the beginning was also the first woman, Poppy Northcutt, in a very serious job.
Now Anderson, Borman and Lovell, who are inside the powerful rocket, finally bring
a dream to reality. Of course doing it at 25,000 miles an hour. Once in space,
there would be a television camera on board that give the people of Earth a
good look at what they had all been waiting for.
Once home, people celebrated and cheered after a year of
sadness in the country.
Part III – Magnificent
Desolation – brings the question involving von Braun in World War II that
were never asked before because he was helping the US get to the moon. Once they
questions started being asked from the media, von Braun had to take each
question carefully, especially when the questions dealt with Nazi atrocities.
The US
was also changing as protests grew on college campuses while soldiers continued
to fight overseas and this applied to astronauts. Russia
was still a hot topic and they were also trying to get a man to the moon before
the US.
Dealing with failures, the N1 Project took it all step by step. Col. Borman was asked about Russia landing on the moon and he agreed that
they were just as motivated as the US.
Now, the Apollo 11 crew was being introduced with Buzz
Aldren, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong making the trip. This was going to
be the crew to land on the moon as 2 out of the 3 actually stepping on the
moon’s surface. Russia
had ideas of their own launching an unmanned craft to the moon at the same
time.
People converged near the landing pad to witness the next
Apollo launch. Some were even protestors who were unhappy about social
injustice. On July 16, 1969, the promise of President Kennedy made about
reaching the moon is one rocket launch away. Countries around the world were
also glued to watch the launch. Waiting for the lunar module to land on the
moon was the culmination of a dream turned reality. On July 20th,
1969, the cameras are on and rolling as the world see Neil Armstrong descend
the lunar ladder and say, “one small step for man – one giant leap for
mankind”.
Soon he would be joined by Buzz Aldren as the two men walked
on the moon and the world in their line of sight celebrated this monumental
achievement. The celebration continued when the astronauts landed safely back
on Earth. Their lives have been completely changed and they could never have
imagined how much to this day.
So where do we go from here now that we’ve been shown the
beauty of our own world from the surface of another? Of course Mars holds the
mystery now as the moon once did so perhaps that is our next man made
challenge. There are so many worlds, so much beauty and a dash of charm about
the space that surrounds our Earth.
I wonder who will be next in planting their foot on the
surface of another world!
Filmmaker Stone says of this experience, “As a 10-year-old
kid in England
in July 1969, my mother woke me up in the middle of the night to watch two
Americans set foot upon another world, the Moon quite literally staring at us
through the window above our television set. I’d recently seen Stanley
Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and the one-two punch of those two intensely
visceral experiences ignited a fire in my mind that’s stuck with me ever
since.”
“It’s when I first began to want to be a filmmaker. In many
ways Chasing the Moon is a
culmination of a lifetime of thoughts that have been churning through my mind
about this extraordinary period in which I grew up, about the boundless
ambition and promise of a brighter future that space travel inspired, the
belief that anything is possible if we join together in a common goal, and the
urgency it ignited to preserve and care for our home planet. Having PBS as a
partner to take this film out worldwide is a real honor for me”.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE executive producer Mark Samuels says
about Chasing the Moon, “When we
think of that breathtaking moment of the 1969 moon landing, we forget what a
turbulent time that was. The country was dealing with huge problems in Vietnam,
poverty, civil rights – and there was a lot of skepticism about the space
program. Chasing the Moon explores
the unbelievably complex challenges that NASA was able to overcome. Not a week
goes by when someone doesn’t say, ‘Why can’t we do something today as
ambitious, as grand as putting a man on the moon?’ It was a century-defining
achievement, and our film tells a familiar story in an entirely new way”.
Ballantine Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, also
has a book Chasing the Moon by Stone
and writer/researcher Alan Andres that expands on the stories told in the
documentary. The details found in the book are absolutely riveting to the point
that I couldn’t put the book down. The surprise to me is that I knew I have
always been interested in NASA, I just didn’t realize how much until page after
page I was wanting to know more.
For 30 years, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE has been television’s
most-watched history series. Their documentaries have been honored with every
major broadcast award including 30 Emmy Awards, four DuPont-Columbia Awards and
17 George Foster Peabody Awards. The series received an Academy Award
nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 2015 for Last Days of Vietnam.
For more information please visit pbs.org/americanexperience.
Along with AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Chasing the Moon, PBS brings viewers the universe with SUMMER OF
SPACE, a multiplatform experience that includes six new science and history
programs, all commemorating
America’s
journey into Space. The celebration kicks off July 8 with a new space-themed
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW
Out of This World,
NOVA specials
Back to the Moon on
July 10,
8 Days: To the Moon and Back on
July 17,
three-part
Ancient Skies on July 24 and
The
Planets on July 24. For more information please visit
www.pbs.org.
Chasing the Moon is
a three-part experience that allows those involved to tell their stories and
personal experiences. Listening to them share also opens up behind the curtain
of NASA during a time when every move they made was dangerous. Everyone wanted
to get to space and the moon but I’m sure no one then realizes the cost of
making that dream come true.
As outsiders, we only witnessed the results of years of
dedication and ingenuity but Chasing the
Moon allows us to know so much more. This is a stunning way to celebrate
the 50th Anniversary of the 1969 walk on the moon. A way to remember
where we have been and what is absolutely possible for space in the future.
Gather the family around the same television that families
50 years ago gathered around except this time to listen and learn about one of
the greatest human achievements ever.
In the end – it took millions of steps to make one giant
leap!
