# Moon Shot **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804 "2005-06-25T15:52:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804/1 "2005-06-25T15:52:59Z")
As you can probably figure out from [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=321150), I really like rockets. I was born in the ‘Space Age’. I ate it up, from _I Dream of Jeannie_ to _It’s About Time_ to _Star Trek_ to _Space: 1999_ and more, I loved space! I remember watching Walter Cronkite as he covered the Apollo missions. I had a plastic rocket on one of my birthday cakes. The body had a couple of levers on it that, when sqeezed, launched the Mercury capsule on a spring. I think I mentioned in the other thread that I have all of the Apollo mission patches mounted and framed hanging over my bed. Several years ago I bought [_Moon Shot_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/6303126707/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/102-7494886-0598511?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=video), a chronicle of the Apollo programme. I haven’t watched it in a few years now, but I’ve just noticed it on my video shelf. I think I’ll pull it out and watch it. Barry Corbin (astronaut ‘Maurice Minnifield’ on _Northern Exposure_) narrates as the late Donald ‘Deke’ Slayton. The archive footage is wonderful to watch. It reminds me of when I was a kid, watching the launches live. (As Freud said, ‘Oh, to be Jung again!’ But that’s a subject for another thread.) The coverage of the Apollo programme is excellent. Project Mercury first flew 44 years ago. America’s first astronauts, Alan Shepard, Jr., Walter ‘Wally’ Schirra, Jr., John Glenn, Jr., Virgil ‘Gus’ Grissom, M. Scott Carpenter, Donald ‘Deke’ Slayton, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., are no longer young test pilots. Some of them are dead. Grissom died in Apollo I. Shepard and Slayton died of illnesses. Gemini astronaut Pete Conrad died after a motorcycle crash in 1999, at the age of 69. If you’re interested in the Space Programme, this video is a must-see. The space pioneers are fading away. Watch and remember. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804/2 "2005-06-25T16:17:02Z")
I’ve got it – it’s very good. Also don’t miss the mini-series _From Earth to the Moon_, narrated by Tom Hanks, available on DVD. Good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804/3 "2005-06-25T16:22:49Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Also don’t miss the mini-series _From Earth to the Moon_, narrated by Tom Hanks, available on DVD. Good stuff. Got it. I didn’t like Ted Levine as Shepard, though. He has a ‘snuffly face’. (Weird description, but that’s how I think of it.) Overall, though, it’s a great series. The one bit that always comes to mind is the scene where they’re flying the Cessna. (Wrong year, BTW. You can tell by the skeg on the vertical stabilizer, and the landing gear.) I learned to fly in the Mojave Desert in a C-172, and seeing the Skyhawk over the barren landscape makes me ache. I really wish that _Moon Shot_ would be released on DVD. I, for one, would definitely buy it! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804/4 "2005-06-25T16:42:32Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Some of them are dead. Grissom died in Apollo I. Shepard and Slayton died of illnesses. Cooper, too, last October. “Who’s the best pilot you ever saw?” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804/5 "2005-06-26T16:24:35Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > Cooper, too, last October. > > “Who’s the best pilot you ever saw?” I _thought_ I was forgetting someone. I watched the show again yesterday. Still excellent. Now I have to find my X-15 tape. (I think it’s with my Pancho Barnes documentary.) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804/6 "2005-06-26T17:08:09Z")
_For All Mankind_ is another great flick about the space program, the director got access to the original film masters NASA has from the Apollo program, and I’ve not seen anything with the image quality of the film. And don’t forget the obvious flick: _Apollo 13_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804/7 "2005-06-26T17:44:47Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > And don’t forget the obvious flick: _Apollo 13_. Already have it, and I’ve ordered the Anniversary Edition. 😉 I also have _The Right Stuff_. I worked as an extra on that, since I was working at Eddie’s Air Patch at the time. Didn’t make it into the final cut, though. ☹ I thought Grissom was portrayed rather unfairly (after all, if he really did ‘screw the pooch’, then why would he have flown in Gemini and have been given command of the first flight of Apollo?), and so many years after its release, it’s a little too comical; but it’s still a fine film. Incidentally, I’ve just started a thread in MPSIMS that shows where you can get a replica of an ISS module. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-shot/309804/8 "2005-06-26T18:14:39Z")
[Other Space documentaries on DVD](http://www.thespacestore.com/dvds.html). Sad to say, I haven’t seen any of them. ☹