posted 10-29-2020 03:16 PM               

In the episode that was broadcast in the final week of October, 2020 the small bit of story line that actually involved spaceflight was centered around the Mercury Redstone (MR-1) chuff...

posted 10-30-2020 06:00 AM               

'The Right Stuff' recap: Who is going to be first? ('The Kona Kai Seance')

Who will become the first American to launch into space — and how he is chosen — is answered in the fifth episode of National Geographic's "The Right Stuff."

Based on journalist Tom Wolfe's 1979 book by the same title, the Disney+ series sets the competition to be first to fly against the fallout from earthly temptations in "The Kona Kai Séance."

posted 11-06-2020 06:00 AM               

'The Right Stuff' recap: We are all asleep down here ('Vostok')

As the race to launch the first astronaut into space heats up, NASA faces more challenges — and delays — in the sixth episode of National Geographic's "The Right Stuff."

In "Vostok," now streaming on Disney+, the Mercury astronauts face bureaucratic scrutiny, technical setbacks and their own personal demons, which all threaten to derail the burgeoning space program.

posted 11-06-2020 09:55 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by KSCartist:
I want to see Slayton's story about being grounded and then the flight being awarded to Glenn's backup and not Slayton's.

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Which is a shame because the actor playing Deke Slayton captured the crushing disappointment. But at the wrong point in time.

From a story-telling standpoint, I always enjoyed Tom Wolfe's chapter on Aurora 7, Sigma 7 and Deke's grounding. It wove a lot of things about how NASA would come to operate concisely and Deke's grounding was a huge part of that. It wasn't in the 1983 film, and now if it's in the series that element is gone too.

posted 11-13-2020 07:06 AM               

'The Right Stuff' recap: Have you got what it takes to stand on the edge? ('Ziggurat')

The seventh episode of "The Right Stuff" borrows its title from a tower that journalist Tom Wolfe used to define who had "the right stuff."

In Wolfe's 1979 book about NASA's first astronauts — which serves as the basis and namesake for the National Geographic series now streaming on Disney+ — he wrote there was "a dizzy progression of steps and ledges, a ziggurat, a pyramid extraordinarily high and steep; and the idea was to prove at every foot of the way up that pyramid that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff and could move higher and higher and even — ultimately, God willing, one day — that you might be able to join that special few at the very top, that elite who had the capacity to bring tears to men's eyes, the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself."

In "Ziggurat," the penultimate episode of the series' first season, it is Alan Shepard who attempts to ascend that tower, both literally and figuratively.

posted 11-18-2020 08:12 PM               

...the not officially renewed The Right Stuff has been given $13.7 million to move from Florida to California. That makes the NASA series executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio the fourth-highest awarded relocating show ever under the CFC [California Film Commission] program.

posted 11-20-2020 05:15 AM               

'The Right Stuff' recap: Hey, let's get up there ('Flight')

The first season of "The Right Stuff" comes to an end with the flight of the first American into space.

But "Flight," the title of the eighth and final episode of the National Geographic series' inaugural run, now on Disney+, seemingly refers to more than just the Mercury astronaut's mission. It may also be a nod towards a different horizon, one that extends beyond the source material in Tom Wolfe's 1979 best-selling book, "The Right Stuff."

posted 04-03-2021 02:58 PM               

Warner Bros. Television, the studio behind "The Right Stuff," is shopping it to other outlets, with WarnerMedia siblings TNT and HBO Max considered logical potential targets. I hear the options on the cast expire tomorrow, and WBTV has asked for a two-week extension while the efforts to find a new home continue...

Disney+'s decision not to proceed with a second season of The Right Stuff, adapted from Tom Wolfe's bestselling nonfiction account of the early days of the U.S. space program, came after lengthy discussions with WBTV. I hear they examined different ideas for continuing the series, including a second season focused on a new mission from the 1980s, likely with a new cast.