I wanted to take a second to mention that I was able to see, as part of the Seattle International Film Festival, a new documentary called "In the Shadow of the Moon". The film is about the Apollo missions, but is unique to others like "Apollo 13" and "From the Earth to the Moon" because it contains a lot of footage that has, to my knowledge, never been seen before by the public -- as well as interviews with 8 of the 9 living astronauts that were involved in the lunar landings.
The footage is fantastic and amazing -- including a shot taken by a camera aboard a discarded Saturn V booster stage (I think) as the Apollo spacecraft headed off to the moon. The camera and film magazine, we were told, was jettisoned from the booster stage for reentry into our atmosphere, where it was caught by aircraft towing
nets. Amazing.
After the film, there was an impromptu question-and-answer session with the director and Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders -- photographer of the famed
Earthrise photograph. It turned out that I was sitting next to him and his wife throughout the movie. He talked about how he's not sure that we could accomplish what the Apollo program did today because of bureaucracy and how, even then, the program lost support with politicians the very moment that Apollo 11 landed on the moon. That was a bit disappointing, of course, but perhaps it's not far off the mark.
A few years ago, I also had the opportunity to meet Gene Cernan -- the last human being to walk on the moon. Being in the same room as these guys is electrifying and I left the theater last night telling a friend, "I'm going to send something to the moon." I mean it.
The film is expected to have a wider release in September, we were told, so if you see it playing nearby, you ought to go see it. It's been a long time coming that someone chronicled the stories of the men who've been to the moon and back and every bit of the 90 minutes is fascinating and entertaining. Alan Bean, particularly, is hysterical and FIRST ought to see what they can do about getting him to come see us or something.
So, yeah. Movie's awesome. Astronauts rock.