Review of “In the Shadow of the Moon”

Got to check out this inspiring documentary last week, just in time for the 50^th anniversary of Sputnik 1. The film wisely skips the Cold War dimensions of the Space Race, an historical context today’s generation can’t really relate to, and probably shouldn’t bother to considering the U.S.S.R. turned out to be a paper tiger. Instead, the focus is on the wonder of space flight, its novelty and how it influenced American 60s culture and briefly made all countries one world.

The film also brought out a number of details I was unaware of surrounding the Apollo program. For instance, I never knew atheist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair sued the Apollo 8 astronauts for reading aloud from Genesis during their mission. Or that a programming error “1202 program alarm” jeopardized the mission as the computer was unable to process both the landing and rendezvous data simultaneously and crashed.

In the event that the astronauts were unable to leave the Moon, Nixon was to read a contingency speech, which begins, “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.” The rest of it is pretty inspiring too.

Buzz Aldrin is Peeing in this Photo

Equally inspiring is Buzz Aldrin’s admission that on his way down the ladder to take his first steps on the Moon, he paused for a moment to alleviate his bladder, a moment immortalized in this photo.