Heather and I finished watching the last episode of “From The Earth To The Moon” this week.
It concludes a small tangent we took, exploring the glory days of the space program, that has been really interesting.
It all started when I found out that “The Right Stuff” was on Netflix streaming. It was a movie I have heard reference from time to time, and always wanted to see. The movie is *over three hours* long, so Heather didn’t stand a chance, and I had to break it into more than one session, but I found it really, really interesting. Heather enjoyed what she saw, and I think she caught a big chunk of it. The movie stars with test pilots in the early jet aircraft prototypes after WWII, and progresses to the end of the Gemini program. As long as it was, I feel like they had to skim over so much.
I happen to have mentioned something about the movie at work, and a co-worker brought my attention to “From The Earth To The Moon.” It, like “Band Of Brothers” (a favorite of Heather and mine) was made after Tom Hanks did a movie about the subject, got interested in the larger story, and partnered with HBO to make a multi-part TV series. The Moon-race set being inspired by “Apollo – 13” and the WWII set being inspired by “Saving Private Ryan.” Band of Brothers was done second, and I would consider it to be a somewhat better product, although the subject matter is far more intense… not for everyone I suppose.
Going back to “From The Earth To The Moon,” They briefly cover most of “The Right Stuff” in the first few minutes, and then lay the context for the Apollo program, then follow it through to the last mission. All I can really say is that I am still in awe of what they managed to pull off in such a short time. If you have Netflix, or a local rental place that had a good collection of older classic movies and TV (I can’t imagine many having a TV mini-series from 1998… but Netflix does!) I highly recommend you check both the movie and the TV show out!
I think it is fair to say I had more interest in the subject than Heather did, but it was still really fun to get to share learning new things about the space program with her. Although we hadn’t actually finished all the episodes when we were in Chicago, the trip provided a sort of climax when we got to see the Gemini capsule from Jim Lovell!
Jim Lovell was also the commander on Apollo – 13, and had donated a few items from that mission… gloves, helmet, flight manuals, etc. Getting to actually see the hardware, in the middle of reviewing the history was a fun treat!
Now that we have finished “From The Earth To The Moon” I am pushing to wrap things up with “Apollo – 13,” but after 15 hours of space oriented viewing, I think Heather may be ready for a break!
-Jordan
Nelsons 