FOR ALL MANKIND: A WHAT-IF FOR SPACE NERDS

What if the Soviets had reached the moon first?

Back before the heady, early days of the space program and NASA, Americans and their glacially slow government were shocked into entering the space race by the Soviet launch of their space satellite Sputnik in 1958. Three years later, in 1961, President John Kennedy vowed to send Americans to the moon by the end of the decade. NASA accomplished that goal in an incredible nine years, landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon’s surface on July 20, 1969.

Believe it or not, the “space race” between the U.S. and the USSR pretty much ended there, and in the Seventies and the early Eighties era of glasnost (openness) both countries turned to other matters. The push for manned exploration of space lost momentum, especially after the Challenger shuttle tragedy.

But imagine for a moment that things had gone differently. You’re a young’un or a teenager (like I was) in the summer of 1969, glued to the television watching the first man stepping onto the surface of the moon. But it’s June, not July, and his name is Alexei Leonov, not Neil Armstrong. He sticks the red Hammer and Sickle flag of the USSR in the gray dust of our beloved satellite and claims it not for all mankind, but for the greater good of Marxism. That’s the opening scene of Apple TV Plus’s For All Mankind, a high-concept alternate history of space exploration created and written by Ronald D. Moore of Battlestar Galactica and Outlander fame, along with Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi. The three also serve as executive producers, with production handled by Sony Pictures Television and Tall Ship Production. Since the show requires a fair amount of production in the way of effects and set design, it needs all that backup.

The opening scene, with everyday Americans watching glumly as the Russians win the moon, was a real hook for me, because I remember that broadcast from the moon vividly. And I couldn’t figure out as I watched For All Mankind, why everyone was so unhappy until the last killer moment. Moore gives you a hint, of course, by sticking up a title card with the date (I think it was June 26) in front of the scene, which I knew was “wrong,” but the shock of the twist hit hard.

Once the Russkies land first, President Nixon and NASA and its astronauts must decide whether to go ahead with their planned launch in July. But Tricky Dick wasn’t about to let the Russians get the better of him. So the race is still on, not only to land on the moon, but to establish a permanent presence there. To mine its resources (first water ice, then lithium). And, eventually to use the moon as a launching pad to Mars. At each stage of the race, conflict escalates. Indeed, it becomes increasingly inevitable. Those agreements that were made to demilitarize space and declare it an international zone in our past are never made in this version of history. (Although at one point, the USSR and the U.S. are forced to divide the moon into distinct territories to avoid outright war.)

What is ironic about this is that Nixon’s once mere grudging support for the space program (because it was Kennedy’s baby) becomes enthusiastic as space becomes yet another theater of the Cold War. Resources flow to NASA (that in the real course of history were denied), new astronauts are recruited (including a whole new class of women), the Apollo program eventually launches up to 75 flights (the real-life Apollo program ended at 17, running from 1961 to 1972), new rockets and shuttle designs abound. The military sticks its nose in, too, sending Marines to the moon (where, no surprise, incidents arise) and arming shuttles with missiles. But, what the heck, the Republicans love it! (While Democrats aren’t so sure.) By the 80’s, new President Ronald Reagan is a huge fan, and the solar system is the limit.

But this is just the plot framework for the character development that is the heart of the show. (Season One covers the Seventies, Season Two starts in 1983 and Season Three works around the 1995 landing on Mars.) We meet the major characters we will be following as the show progresses in Episode One: Astronauts Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman), their wives, Karen Baldwin (Shantel VanSanten) and Tracy Stevens (Sarah Jones), Chief of the Astronaut Office Deke Slayton (a real character, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, played here by Chris Bauer), Mission Control officers Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt), Larry Wilson (Nate Corddry) and Bill Strausser (Noah Harpster). In a seemingly unrelated segment, we also meet a young Mexican girl, Aleida Rosales (Coral Pena), crossing the border illegally with her family. (She later goes on to become a senior NASA engineer.) Finally, we meet the annoying Nixon Cabinet officer overseeing the space program, Thomas Paine (Dan Donohue).

Ed Baldwin is a pain who will forever regret he didn’t land Apollo 10 (which he commanded) on the moon to beat the Russians. This would have violated orders and probably gotten him and his partner killed, but he’s a former test pilot so those things don’t really figure. Gordo Stevens drinks too much and cheats on his wife, a pattern he eventually passes on to his son, Danny (played in Seasons Two and Three by Casey W. Johnson). Gordo’s first tour of duty on the moon base Jamestown is a disaster—he freaks out and causes the injury of another astronaut—but he later makes a solid comeback and eventually dies a hero. Baldwin, on the other hand, must suffer the indignities of growing older and facing the possibility of his own irrelevance in a young man’s game.

Personal tragedy also strikes the Baldwin family, a fact that plays into Karen’s search for meaning throughout the show. In Season Two, an Elon Musk-type entrepreneur, Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) recruits her to snag talent for his company, something she’s quite good at. And suddenly the race for Mars is a three-way battle between private enterprise, NASA and the Russians.

In Season One we meet the first class of female astronauts in an episode titled “Nixon’s Women.” Despite pushback from NASA and the male astronaut corps, Nixon is adamant after the Russians show the smiling face of the first female cosmonaut beaming from the moon. According to this alternate history, NASA calls back several pilots from an original Mercury 13 group of women recruited and trained along with the Mercury 7 astronauts but dismissed and never allowed to go into space. (The real story is that 13 women were indeed put through the same training as the Mercury 7 astronauts by a private businessman, William Randolph Lovelace II, in the early Sixties. Despite lobbying Congress to be part of NASA’s program, they were rejected. One of the 13, Wally Funk, eventually went to space on a Blue Origin flight in 2021 at the age of 82, making her the oldest woman in space.)

Daredevil pilot Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) was one of those originally trained, and she stays at the head of her astronaut class, with Ellen Waverly (Jodi Balfour) right behind her. Token Black “AsCan” (or astronaut candidate) Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) gives them a run for their money. But the most surprising name on the AsCan list is Tracy Stevens, Gordo’s wife. She gave up her pilot’s wings when she got married and had two children, but now she sees her chance. She struggles, but she refuses to give up. And, though for political reasons she’s sometimes given some slack, she eventually earns her astronaut pin legitimately.

But the most interesting character of all for me is flight engineer Margo Madison, a quirky, socially awkward nerd who is fiercely dedicated to NASA and the space program. She has no life. She sleeps in her office. Her only real friend is her Russian counterpart, Sergei Nikulov (Piotr Adamcyzk), who may like and respect her, but who is being forced by his Communist superiors to squeeze her for technical information to enhance his own space program. Their relationship comes to a head in Season Three, with dire consequences.

Some of what happens in For All Mankind is admittedly over the top. I can more easily forgive the tendency to overdo it on the action front, because, truly, a lot can go wrong in space. As astronaut-turned-Chief of the Astronaut Office Molly Cobb says, “Space is an unrelenting bitch!” And Ron Moore is never one to shy away from piling on the problems to keep his viewers watching.

I have less patience, though, when the characters’ personal problems descend into soap opera hysterics. Karen Baldwin, in particular, makes some big errors in judgment in Season Two. That whole arc lowers the standard for the show by a substantial ick factor.  The writers go off on other tangents that aren’t worth exploring, too. Stick to the point—we’re talking about space here, after all, and the people that explore it—and the show flows much better.

The first three seasons of For All Mankind are available to stream on Apple TV Plus now. The show has been renewed for a fourth season according to the announcement made at ComicCon June 10.

Cheers, Donna

 

 

60 Years in Space: NASA Celebrates First 6 Decades

Though it may have been lost in the shuffle of political debate and controversy these last few weeks, I think it's important to note a major milestone in space exploration history that may have slipped by us:

NASA officially celebrated its 
60th Anniversary on October 1, 2018!

Check out the special Anniversary Logo unveiled by Space.Com on Twitter

NASA's New 60th Anniversary Logo Depicts 'Historic Past and Inspiring Future' https://t.co/AoICWSp7uu pic.twitter.com/vm84NCd4b0

— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) January 4, 2018

On July 29, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed NASA’s founding legislation, the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act. The agency, however, considers October 1, 1958 to be its official birthday, because the agency actually opened for business on this day. Being a former military budget director, I can tell you this is because October 1st is when the new federal fiscal year actually begins and funding becomes available. And opening the doors of such an agency only a little over two months after the legislation authorizing it was approved is nothing short of a herculean feat!

First Space Walk: Photo Credit NASA

But it wouldn't be NASA's last herculean feat. I'll touch on some of those early highlights below.

As an author of Science Fiction Romance, I owe a great debt of gratitude to NASA. The agency continues to push the envelope of the exploration of our own solar system with both manned missions and unmanned probes, and these new discoveries often fuel the fires of our ideas and imagination. I often study these real life missions for inspiration for my novels.

To really appreciate the obstacles NASA faced and overcame in its early years, here are just a few eye-opening accomplishments:

-- On May 5, 1961, Lieutenant Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. of the US Navy was the first American in space in a suborbital Mercury Program flight aboard Freedom 7, but he wasn't the first in space. His historic flight was preceded by a Russian dog, an American chimp and a Russian cosmonaut in an automated craft. NASA was scrambling to catch up, and after several tension-filled delays, Shepard demanded of Mission Control, "Let's light this candle!" They did, and he reached an altitude of 116 miles on a flight that lasted 20 minutes. Over 45 million Americans watched. Shepard's flight answered critical questions about if humans would be able to breathe or swallow and perform basic tasks in space. No one knew the answer until he and NASA proved it could be done.

-- In a speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy set a goal to put a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. At this point in time, NASA had the sum total of 20 minutes of spaceflight experience! In just eight short years, NASA not only accomplished this impossible dream, but even more monumentally, they did it without a single loss of life in space.

-- After the Mercury Program, NASA forged ahead with the Gemini Program, a mission to build a craft that would put a pair of men in space. But there's a problem. A more powerful rocket is needed to launch a two-man capsule. The Air Force was developing the new Titan missiles but had difficulties adapting missile rockets to the manned Gemini vehicle. The Titans are initially a disaster: One out of every five fails catastrophically. Astronauts watch as the rockets explode again and again, knowing their odds aren't good. Engineers attacked the problems and created safeguards and backup systems to make the rockets safer. Finally, NASA launched two rockets in a row that didn't explode with the unmanned Gemini 1 and Gemini 2 capsules. John Young and Gus Grissom ride the next into space aboard Gemini 3. Their primary goal? Test the brand new rocket and capsule and return...alive. If anything goes seriously wrong with the launch, Young and Grissom will be killed on live television with millions watching. In a moment of optimism, Grissom names the Gemini 3 capsule The Molly Brown after the Broadway hit "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." The Molly Brown is the last NASA vehicle to be named by an astronaut. On March 23, 1965, the launch aboard the converted ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) goes flawlessly. The rocket stages fall away and the Gemini 3 capsule reaches orbit. Grissom and Young become the first Americans to fly together in space. They make three successful orbits of the Earth testing important maneuvers and altitude changes that are essential first steps in reaching the Moon.

-- NASA's next question had to be answered: How will the human body react to free-floating in space traveling at 17,500 in Earth orbit? No one knew. Can a man mentally and physically function in zero gravity? No one knew that either. The astronaut's suit would be the difference between life and death in a place where the temperature can fluctuate from +250 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun to -250 degrees in the shade. The greatest concern of all was the vacuum of outer space. If a suit fails, rips or tears, the differences in pressure will kill an astronaut in seconds when liquids within his body vaporize. The EVA is originally planned for the Gemini 6 mission, but after Russia forges ahead, a decision is made for Gemini 4 to perform the EVA, and Ed White to be the astronaut to perform it. If White's EVA is successful, it will move the space program much closer to its goal of reaching the Moon and help the USA keep up with the Russians. The astronauts train for the EVA in secrecy, often at night and in isolated conditions. Only a handful of people realize what America is about to attempt. NASA announces the first space walk will be part of the mission just a few days before the launch. Many, including some of the astronauts, wonder if NASA is moving too fast and putting the astronauts lives in jeopardy. A problem during the EVA could set back the space program and end all chance at reaching the Moon before 1970. Gemini 4 becomes the longest spaceflight, and the June 3, 1965 EVA the most dangerous venture attempted by the space program, to date. It's a complete success.

-- In just a little over four years later, the first man stepped foot on the Moon--Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969. Between 1968 and 1972, there were nine manned missions to the Moon or Moon orbit conducted by NASA as part of the Apollo program. Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to enter orbit in December 1968, and was followed by Apollo 10 in May 1969. Six missions landed men on the Moon, beginning with Apollo 11. Apollo 13 was intended to land, however it was restricted to a flyby due to an explosion aboard the spacecraft. All nine manned missions returned its astronauts safely back to Earth.

Footprint on the Moon: Photo Credit NASA

It's actually quite difficult to grasp the scope of all that NASA accomplished in those early days of the space program and in the six short decades since, when NASA began to turn its sites to more distant shores.

Pluto and Charon: New Horizons
Mission - Photo credit NASA

We now know more than we could have ever imagined about some of our systems' outlying worlds and our own resident star--the Sun. We've sent multiple rovers to Mars to explore the horizons of what can potentially become humankinds' second planetary residence, and we've sent probes to our other neighbor, the hellish nightmare world called Venus.

We've seen miraculous photos of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus...and even distant Pluto, with images of the far distant dwarf planet so stunning that they took our breath away.

We've explored the 120+ moons of the gas giants and found a high potential that liquid water exists on Europa, Enceladus and Ganymede, as well as the amazing vistas of very Earth-like landscapes that came into sharp focus on the once hazy moon of Saturn called Titan.

The Voyager probes were the first man-made vessels to venture outside of our little neighborhood of planets and into the great unknown of interstellar space. They've been outward bound for more than 40 years now.

Atlantis Lift Off: Photo Credit NASA

And, of course, NASA's remarkable Space Shuttle Program has come and gone in the decades since, but it did so much to enhance our understanding and further scientific and technological advancement. (See NASA Technologies Benefit Our Lives )

I am completely energized by the recent upsurge in interest and attention by the powers-that-be in Washington for our once-withering space program. I consider space exploration to be one of the most important things we can tackle as a species. The advances in science due to NASA and space exploration cover the spectrum in areas that benefit all people--health, medicine, food production, renewable energy, the environment--and include many products we use everyday.

But even with all those benefits, we must always keep in mind that the universe is a very volatile place and having all our eggs in one basket, so to speak, is an invitation to oblivion. I think Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield once summed it up best:

"The dinosaurs are extinct because they didn't have a space programme."

Congratulations, NASA, on six decades of spectacular achievement.

P.S. If you missed Donna Frelick's movie review of First Man (the just released motion picture of Neil Armstrong's historic Moon landing) be sure to check it out just below or by clicking the "First Man" link above.

Have a great week...and keep reaching for those distant stars!

FIRST MAN? HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM

It should be no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I’m a fan of movies about space. Space adventure, like Star Trek. Space horror, like Alien. Near-future space, like Gravity. Even space comedy, like Guardians of the Galaxy.

But I’m happiest when I’m in the theater watching truly inspiring space history: The Right Stuff; Apollo 13; Hidden Figures. What made these films not only interesting and watchable for space nerds like me, but among the most acclaimed and well-loved movies for audiences at large, is that they made the heroes and heroines of the American space program known to us as real people. Those high flyers we had only seen in glossy magazine photographs, or blurred images from impossibly far away (or not at all, in the case of the NASA “computers”) solidified into human beings in those films, thanks to the actors and the filmmakers.

The real first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, in 1969.

Not so, I’m sorry to say, for the latest film biopic of astronaut Neil Armstrong, First Man. Even the formidable acting skills of Ryan Gosling as Armstrong, first man on the moon, are no match for the post-modern, emotionally-detached filmmaking style of Damien Chazelle (LaLaLand). Instead of coming across as a strong-but-silent type trying desperately to hide the pain of the loss of his young daughter from cancer early in the film, Gosling too often goes through his scenes like an expressionless zombie. Claire Foy (The Crown), as Armstrong’s wife Janet, is normally solid, but here she overbalances on the shrill side in a vain attempt to get some reaction out of her partner.

I don’t blame the actors; I certainly don’t blame Armstrong, because I don’t believe for a minute that he was that kind of guy. I blame Chazelle, and this recent tendency to remain distant from the subject that is overtaking film. The camera may close in on its subject, but it remains emotionally at arm’s length. Even though we see Armstrong at his most private, vulnerable moments, it is though we are  mere flies on the wall, unable to empathize. Point of view, in fact, is a problem here. It really should be Armstrong’s film, from his POV. We should feel his emotions, but we never do.

There are times when this lack of POV works like the cinema verité of old and serves the film well. When we’re in the cockpit of an X-15 going beyond the stratosphere, or in the Gemini capsule being launched into space. When something goes wrong after docking with a second (unmanned) vehicle in space and both capsule and docking cylinder start spinning out of control. And—most spectacularly—when Armstrong and Aldrin land on the moon.

In those moments we in the audience can truly feel as if we are there. Those jolts of adrenalin alone may be worth the price of admission.

But we are soon down to Earth again, where we may be grounded for some time, searching for the inspiration to head into space again.

Cheers, Donna