The Race to the Moon (History Channel)
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Movie Reviews of The Race to the Moon (History Channel)
Movie Review: Brilliant stuff
Summary: 5 Stars
I grew up with Sputnik (12 at the time) and the activities that followed. I closely followed all I could - first by radio and later by black and white TV. The focus was always centered around the Astronauts and Kosmonauts. Just by chance, I turned on my TV to a documentary cannel some weeks ago and into the middle of the first part of this History Cannel production. I got totally mesmerized by the stories told, now by the Mission Control people - headed by Gene Kranz, who is the key person in these documentaries. This production is so brilliant and fascinating. I felt I had to get hold of the DVD version and found it at Amazon. I warmly recommend it. Movie Review: A Strange Mix
Summary: 3 Stars
I was hard pressed to undestand the theory behind organizing this set. It combines "The Gene Kranz Fan Club" with a piece on the NASA project to send vehicles into deep space via nuclear explosions.
And then it talks about the space shuttle.
Each of these separate items has its own interest, but they seem very unrelated. If you like continuity, look elsewhere. That said, I liked hearing from Gene Kranz. And, if you watch his segment with the commentary turned on, you can hear him say everything twice!
Movie Review: Well made except very poor sound editing
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a fascinating part of history, but the documentary "Failure is no and option" could have been far better it the sound editing did not have the music so loud. The music completely overpowers the speech and makes it very difficult to listen to. I don't know why there is a trend to having the sound effects or music to be so much louder than the speech.
It was good to learn of the professionalism and hard work of mission control. The moon missions were incredible achievements, and equally amazing that capability was abandoned. Now after 35 years NASA almost has to start from scratch, even then it will take them longer to develop a system than in the 1960s.
Movie Review: MOCR the Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
"MOCR" is an acronym for Mission Operations Control Room and the 90 minute segment, "Failure Is Not An Option", is mainly about the people that worked behind the scenes in Mission Control.
Other than the dozens of Astronauts themselves, these men were working as a highly motivated team in Mission Control, as the NASA brain trust that made President Kennedy's vision to land a man on the Moon an astonishing reality.
I can't get enough of this kind of memorabilia from the space race era, and there are several excellent videos on this subject, but this one tells the story from the perspective of the Flight Director in Mission Control. The manned spacecraft flight controllers - all now long since retired NASA Engineers -guided the Astronauts 24/7 during the trials and tribulations of every mission, from Project Mercury to Apollo. These are the men featured individually and collectively in this DVD.
Their enthusiasium and sometimes apprehensions too, coupled with many emotional highs and lows, during those hectic space race years, are all well presented in this documentary; Gene Krantz, perhaps more well known if not leading Flight Director, most of all. Chris Kraft - Mr. Krantz's mentor - is also featured as quite instrumental in setting up a phenomenally bright group of often nerdish looking (personified by pocket protector wearing, slide rule touting and surprisingly young) Engineers.
All these MOCR Engineers with such specialty positions as EECON, FIDO, GNC, and the like, also clearly had the makings of the "right stuff". When this DVD was produced, these men, all in their late 60s or 70s, were extensively interviewed throughout the video. By today's standards, back in the late 60s, they were NASA's not-so-well-paid brightest spaceflight experts who literally wrote the book on how to get a rocket ship to the Moon. They planned, calculated, simulated, training step by step, right alongside the astronauts until the job was done. The men behind the dazzling lights and consoles in MOCR had to function under the most stressful, mentally challenging conditions, often making life and death decisions and perform all their jobs as a team absolutely superbly.
This movie is a tribute to these men and all of their extremely hard work and untiring dedication to putting not only one, but 12 different Americans on the Moon. BRAVO to all of these men for a job WELL DONE!
Movie Review: Great Set From The History Channel
Summary: 5 Stars
As I write this it is the 36th anniversary of Armstrong and Aldrin's moonwalk. In honor of that I thought it would be a good time to review this fine DVD set from the History Channel. This set is really a conglomeration of four separate programs on space, but one of them shines above all the rest. There are programs on Project Orion and the Space Shuttle, which I found to be modestly interesting, a quite good special on Apollo 13 (from the "Modern Marvels" series), and the absolutely thrilling view of the Apollo program through the eyes of Flight Control legend Gene Kranz, "Failure is not an Option." If you haven't read the book of the same title by Kranz, by all means purchase it immediately; your next order of business should then be to watch this documentary.
Much of the documentary footage has been seen before, but the interview footage of Kranz and others involved in Apollo is extremely well done and is frequently more emotional than might be expected (especially when discussing Apollo 1 and Apollo 13.) The Apollo 11 landing (program alarm) drama is told better here than anywhere else I have ever seen, and really underscores the value of the training program NASA had in place for Apollo (especially the simulator training.)
There is no doubt that the Kranz piece is the reason to buy this set, though the rest of the material is also interesting. If you have any interest in manned spaceflight whatsoever, you will love this set, especially "Failure is not an Option."
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