Summaries

Synopsis

The story of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives. It captures both the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment, and the lesser-seen bottom-up perspective of what it was like from an excited kid's perspective, living near NASA but mostly watching it on TV like hundreds of millions of others. It's ultimately both an exacting re-creation of this special moment in history and a kid's fantasy about being plucked from his average life in suburbia to secretly train for a covert mission to the moon.

In 1969, At an elementary school in El Lago, Texas, where young Stanley (Milo Coy) goes to school. Bostick (Glen Powell) & Kranz (Zachary Levi), NASA officials approach Stanley and inform him that he has been selected for the moon mission as the lunar module was built too small for an average adult. Stanley athletic, a good student and fit. He is prohibited to talk about this to anyone, including his family. Secret training starts end of school yr. As cover, Stanley is enrolled into summer camp.

In 1962, NASA was relocated to Houston and the same year Hosuton built the Astro Dome, the first domed stadium with an Astro turf and a huge, animated display, the first of its kind in the world. The heart transplant was being perfected. It was feasible that within a generation, humans would be living on the moon or mars, and living beyond the age of a hundred.Stanley has siblings Vicky (Natalie L'Amoreaux), Steve (Josh Wiggins), Jana (Jessica Brynn Cohen), Greg (Sam Chipman) and Stephanie (Danielle Guilbot). US was at war with Vietnam. The brood lives with Mom (Lee Eddy) and Dad (Bill Wise).

New housing projects were coming up every day. But the land had no drainage, so every time it rained, the whole city flooded. Dad was in charge of procurement and supplies at NASA. Stanley wishes that his dad did something cool at NASA, instead of being a paper pusher.

Stanley's mom got contraceptive pills after Stanley was born. Their neighbors, the Pateks didn't, and they were still pushing out one baby each yr. Stanley was not in any family photos or home movies and his siblings teased him that he was adopted. The Stanley family lived frugally, and each child had their chores. They never went out to eat and mom knew how to stretch the home budget. School lunch sandwiches were made every Sunday night, and frozen, to be thawed out every night before school.

Dad's parents were as frugal as them. Mom's mother was a conspiracy theorist (JFK didn't die that day in Dallas). Overpopulation and pollution were real issues when Nixon signed the clean air and clean water acts. It was illegal to litter.The generation was taught to duck and cover in case the Soviets attacked with a nuclear strike. But NASA was at the forefront of the optimism around the future.

It started with the mercury program and then followed by Apollo. But 3 astronauts Gus Grisson, Roger Chaffee and Ed White, died on the launchpad during a routine test of the Apollo 1. Apollo 8 took the first photo of the Earth from Lunar orbit. Science was all about the space, the astronauts, the moon and so on. It was exciting and exhilarating. Kids theorized that although other solar systems and planets haven't been discovered yet, the odds of humans being alone and next to zero. There are a 100 Bn galaxies in the universe.

TV was a struggle for control as there were too many good shows. Reception was not very good. Great shows, shows that never made past the 1st season and syndicated shows (reruns of past hits). Saturday mornings were cartoons. and Saturday nights were creepy nights.Sunday nights were Disney night. Color TV brought a new innovation to living rooms all over the USA.

The housing society had many similar families with kids of the same age. They all played together. Everyone had a cast on one time or the other. The kids were still punished in school with a pan handle. Mr Cowen was the school principal.safety standards were lower as there were no seat belts, pools were chlorinated and roasted eyes, kids chased after DDT spewing trucks and houses were nerve gassed to kill termites and roaches. School games resulted in horrific injuries. Kids were good at fixing bike and car tires.Classic board games rule the nights. Vicky got a job at Baskin Robbins, offering 31 different flavors. Archies had the biggest hit of 1969.

The girls were in Ouiji boards, and the guys were into Raquel Welch. Steve had a stash of playboys. Songs had girl's names in them, and not so many boys. It was the prank call era.The family watched movies at a seedy theatre called the Majestic. They watched a astronaut movie where the Americans reach the moon to find that the Russians already crash landed there. They saw scary movies too.

Coming back to the present, Stanley starts his training. Stanley was trained in survival techniques such as hunting and fishing and making clothes from his parachute. He is then trained to fly the module called Apollo 10 1/2. He also operated the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle or LLTV. Finally, integrated simulations, with training to land the lunar module on moon. The sim supervisors give a 1201 and a 1202 alarm (the ones Niel actually gets in his lunar landing). The controller takes a call to abort, only for the Sim Sups to yell at the team that these alarms were not an abort.

Stanley proceeds with the mission and comes back without any incident. Apollo 11 proceeded subsequently. Stanley lives through his own launch experience as Apollo 11 launches. The launch was flawless, but it was still a 4 day ride to the moon. The family went to a drive-in movie theatre and then to the beach. The beach was full of jelly fishes, barnacles, and oil spills. and an undercurrent that was ever present to pull you into the gulf of Mexico.On the day of the landing, Dad takes everyone to the Astroworld, as he had some free passes which were only good for the day. This was Houston's version of Disneyland. The most popular was the Alpine Sleigh ride. It had a 45 min wait.

Meanwhile on the moon, NASA gives the go ahead for powered descent. The descent gets the 1201 and the 1202 alarms, just like in the sims. The final approach is very rocky, and the astronauts have to take manual control and land the lunar module. Apollo 11 lands on the moonAt the time there was a huge debate about how much the moon program was costing and how that money could be used differently to eradicate poverty in America.

Long before Niel walked on the moon, it was Stanley. Over 400,000 people worked on the Apollo program. 600 MM people watched the first moonwalk. From 1969 to 1972, 12 men walked on the moon.