posted 10-18-2018 04:40 PM               

"Chasing the Moon," a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort.

The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which has never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played key roles in these historic events.

Among those included are astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Frank Borman and Bill Anders; Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet premier and a leading Soviet rocket engineer; Poppy Northcutt, a 25-year old "mathematics whiz" who gained worldwide attention as the first woman to serve in the all-male bastion of NASA's Mission Control; and Ed Dwight, the Air Force pilot selected by the Kennedy administration to train as America's first black astronaut.

posted 02-03-2019 12:31 PM               

In 1969, we made one small step.

In 2019, join American Experience and PBS to relive the journey that defined a generation in "Chasing the Moon." "Chasing the Moon," a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which has never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played key roles in these historic events.

posted 04-08-2019 01:31 PM               

Member Evening featuring "Chasing the Moon"

April 11, 2019 | 8:00pm
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

"Chasing the Moon," a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the Moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The three-part series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses, and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which has never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played key roles in these historic events. Join us to see advance clips of the series before it airs on PBS stations in July and hear from the experts involved, including:

• Roger Launius, former Associate Director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs at the Museum who has written or edited more than 30 books on aerospace history.
  
• Poppy Northcutt, a "mathematics whiz" who gained worldwide attention as the first woman to serve in the all-male bastion of NASA's Mission Control at age 25.
  
• Robert Stone, a multi-award-winning, Oscar-nominated and Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker.

This event is for members of the Museum's National Air and Space Society and their guests. There is no charge to attend, but advance reservations are required and seating is limited.

posted 04-20-2019 10:33 AM               

I noticed as I was looking through the PBS website for the film that one of the people profiled is Poppy Northcutt, who was the first female engineer to work in mission control (during Apollo 8). Her Wikipedia entry states that the crater "Poppy" on the moon was named for her, although Gene Cernan said himself a number of times that the crater "Poppie" was named by him in honor of his father Andy (who was called "Poppie" by his daughter Tracy).

Here is an entry from the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal where, in an interview, Cernan states that the crater has been misspelled as "Poppy" instead of "Poppie", and he gives the actual origin of the naming of the crater (with no mention of Ms. Northcutt).

posted 05-03-2019 07:01 AM            

On May 2, Stone also appeared on the Public Radio Hour on WLRH, Huntsville in program that also included an interview with Arthur Hullett, one of the early African-Americans working in a technical field at Marshall Space Flight Center during the Apollo program.

This evening National Geographic Theater at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Hunstville will host a preview screening and panel discussion with Stone; Dr. Margrit von Braun, daughter of Dr. Wernher von Braun; and Susan Bellows, Senior Producer with PBS’s American Experience.

Future events: Washington, DC's Newseum on May 8, including a panel with Stone, Bellows, and Joel Banow, director the CBS News coverage of the Apollo 11 landing.

posted 07-15-2019 06:45 PM               

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Originally posted by ColinBurgess:
Far superior to many of the other fault-riddled programs on the Apollo subject that have recently screened on Aussie TV.

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posted 07-18-2019 04:26 AM               

I had never heard the Apollo fire audio before and it is unbelievably shocking and upsetting. The producers are to be commended for the respectful way it’s used. (Is it the first time this audio has been heard in public?)

Susan Borman is a classy lady but to see her shaking uncontrollably (in the newly found footage of the family watching the lift-off of Apollo 8 at home) really shows the risky nature of that mission.

posted 07-18-2019 06:27 AM               

I also have to give a lot of praise to the quality of the material used in the documentary, not just in selection but also in clarity. So much of this footage looked like it was shot or aired yesterday. There were times when film clips seemed to have the frame-rate clarity and freshness of videotape, and it really gave a "you are there" feeling, like history was coming out of the books and happening in front of you. That really helped set this documentary apart for me.

Stone's decision to use the Apollo 1 audio was not surprising; if you've seen some of his other films ("Radio Bikini," for instance) you know he will include hard truths. I muted the audio when I knew it was about to follow, but I did think it was handled with appropriate solemnity. I don't know if it's the first time the audio has been aired (there are stories a certain ABC science editor aired it during a Shuttle launch delay or scrub in the early '80s), but it didn't surprise me when that moment came. And the footage of Susan Borman during Apollo 8 can be hard to watch, not to mention the backstory of how it happened making me cringe a little, but it conveys a human side of the space race you very seldom see.

My personal favorite moments were the clips of network coverage I haven't seen often, and the recollections from those who worked in the news business. Hearing unvarnished opinions about Jules Bergman was a hoot. Hearing Joel Banow talk about being inspired by "2001" in developing how CBS covered Apollo 11, to the point of hiring Douglas Trumbull, and developing the HAL 10,000 to "talk" to Walter Cronkite (and Stone even managed to find a clip of HAL "talking" to Uncle Walter!).

posted 07-18-2019 03:38 PM               

I, too, thought I'd seen it all and I watched part of one just to see what it was about. I had a reaction almost as I did for the recent CNN Apollo 11 film. There is indeed an immediate quality of this documentary that I'd never seen other than the previously mentioned CNN film. If you bought or recorded one on video, you'll surely want the other for the same reasons.

After seeing just the one partial episode that discussed Apollo 8, I knew I'd want the rest on video, so I bought the Blu-Ray and loved every minute of it.

Just when you think you've seen it all...

posted 07-18-2019 05:29 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by astroborg:
I was slightly disappointed to see the LM-5 Eagle ascent stage coming back up from the surface with its image flipped left-right. I hope this might be able to be corrected in the final copy of the film, in July.

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I just finished watching the series on BBC4, and was disappointed to see that the films of both the undocking and docking of Eagle were still flipped. This occurs in so many documentaries. Surely somebody would have corrected it by now!

Also, why were the last two episodes called "Magnificient Desolation"? Is Magnificient (not Magnificent) a real word?