Chasing the Moon

I have been watching this on PBS, presented in three 2-hour episodes on consecutive nights. I am a product of the 1960s, I was in college during most of the project to send men to the Moon. I clearly remember those days but what this program does is pull back the curtain, it shows us so many interesting things that were totally unknown to the general public in the 1960s.

I was particularly touched by the original footage inside the astronaut's home during a launch, the wife and kids knowing full well that the mission was not 100% safe, that there was a distinct possibility the rocket would blow up or the men would get stranded between the Earth and the Moon. The emotions the wives were experiencing, shown in extreme close-ups. This really humanizes the whole experience.

I know, six hours seems like a very long running time but it is packed with interesting programming, never getting boring. A nice point of interest is the lone woman, a 20-something Mathematician, who became the prime person for providing information and directing spaceship guidance for successful insertion into Moon orbit, then later successful return to Earth. Each maneuver and rocket firing a critical step with zero room for error. Having a female in that role turned out to be groundbreaking.

Extremely well made series, I'm sure it will be available for replay for a long time on PBS. My public library already has the program available on DVD, so anyone who missed this can check with their public library.

From the ultra-cool opening sequence, (the graphics, the historic images from the 50's and 60's, to the dramatic music) you knew well that American Experience was about to present us with a dazzling, fact filled and humane adventure. And a Thouroughly American adventure at that.

Looking back 50 years ago to all involved on every level. These brave, brainy, brilliant Americans were our contemporaries!

Just think about that for a moment. They are US! The best "us" we could ever hope to be.

It's all in "Chasing the Moon" - simply the finest documentary of it's kind.

A wonderful and at times deeply moving documentary that captures so much of the detail and feeling of what it was like to live through those exciting "moon" years.

The amount of footage from the period is also quite remarkable, and this is used very skillfully to tell a complex and engrossing story.

For those of us old enough to remember (I was just a boy at the time) it also brings back a lot of amazing memories. For those who did not experience those times, it should perhaps be even more enlightening and entertaining.

Well worth sitting through all 6 hours!

"Chasing the Moon" comprehensively covers the history of spaceflight from the closing days of WWII through the Apollo program in a way you've never seen before. It brilliantly blends five narratives. The recollections of the astronauts themselves, insights from NASA administrators and engineers, extensive broadcast TV clips and rare NASA footage, an appreciation of the Russian space program, and the politics that empowered these human and technological achievements. Viewers are transported through the era in a way that allows you to feel that you are there, watching it all unfold live before your eyes.

The six hour film is presented in three parts, so there is a bit of a commitment involved, but you will see oodles of rare newsreel footage that even a space junkie like me has never seen before in a documentary of this type (and I've seen 'em all). Despite its length, "Chasing the Moon" is riveting. Broadcast over PBS on three consecutive nights earlier this month, the film is currently available for viewing on the PBS website, or through the PBS app. Ten out of ten stars.

I always enjoy documentaries that just lay out the basic facts and avoid sensationalizing actual events. In the case of the 1960's space race between the Russians and Americans both countries faltered which had the most absolute deadliest of consequences. Astronauts were sacrificed for the space race and wives and children lost their husbands and fathers.

Why I mention the nostalgic approach was LIFE magazine had an exclusive with some of the astronauts of the Apollo missions and we were invited right into the astronauts family homes as the wives and children watched on their black and white television sets the flight missions along side their fellow astronaut families and family parish priests. What Life magazine provided to the astronauts for this exclusive was a $100 thousand dollar life insurance policy to the astronauts family in case of death in space. This is a bet you would rather LIFE magazine never had to pay out on.

This is a must see three (3) part documentary series that provides exceptional historical coverage of the earliest space missions culminating on the first landing of man on the moon. Who would have ever thought this was possible even in the year 2020?