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For All Mankind Season 1

Red Moon

For All MankindJune 26, 1969: Around the world, people gather to watch live television coverage of the first moon landing carried out by human beings from Earth. The coverage is of particular interest to those at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, where Mission Control is packed with engineers and Apollo astronauts, watching as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to set foot on the surface of the moon.

Everyone from the American public to President Nixon demands answers – what happened to NASA’s commanding lead in the race for the moon? Chief astronaut Deke Slayton and Wernher von Braun, the architect of NASA’s Saturn V rocket, find themselves facing the questions of the press. Apollo 10 astronaut Ed Baldwin, like many of the rest of his fellow astronauts, spend the following weekend drowning their sorrows and frustrations at the bar…but Baldwin makes the mistake of opening up to a reporter about how timid and risk-averse he feels NASA has become. When his comments make headlines, Baldwin is pulled from the flight rotation, losing his seat aboard Apollo 15…assuming there is an Apollo 15 following both the Soviets’ surprise victory. NASA and the rest of America continue to pin their hopes on the upcoming Apollo 11 mission, though any talk of ramping up that mission’s schedule is squelched by the need for the crew to not land in total darkness. If, for any reason, Apollo 11 fails, the American space program will likely fail with it.

For All Mankindteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Ronald D. Moore & Matt Wolpert & Ben Nedivi
directed by Seth Gordon
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Colm Feore (Wernher von Braun), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Ben Begley (Charlie Duke), Rebecca Wisocky (Marge Slayton), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Jeff Branson (Neil Armstrong), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Ryan Kennedy (Michael Collins), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Daniel Scott Robbins (Hank Poppen), Deniz Akdeniz (Paul Santoro), Brandon Bales (Winston Blake), Dave Power (Frank Sedgewick), Nick Wechsler (Fred), Steven Pritchard (Pete Conrad), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Tony Lewellen (Coop), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), William Lee Holler (young Jimmy Stevens), Graciana Rosales (Vanessa Lyon), Jeffrey Muller (Del), Max Barsness (Tommy), Christopher Wallinger (Harvey), Paolo Cesar (Guide), Christopher Kohls (Control Officer), Curtis Fortier (Reporter #1), Brian Houtz (Reporter #2), Laura Patalano (Teresa), Frank Gallegos (Angel), Margarita Reyes (Elena), Colton Castaneda (Jim)

For All MankindNotes: Best described as an alternate history of what would have unfolded following surprise Soviet steps on the lunar surface, For All Mankind is an exercise in total speculation and facts that have come to light since the real Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who had already made history as the first human spacewalker, was indeed the Soviets’ choice to command their first lunar mission, though repeated spectacular failures of the real N-1 rocket kept the Soviets from ever putting cosmonauts in lunar orbit, let alone landing there (launch attempts were made in February 1969, as noted in this episode’s dialogue, July 1969, June 1971, and November 1972). Additionally, Nixon’s speech – written for him in the event of the death of the Apollo 11 crew – was indeed real, written by White House speechwriter Bill Safire; the original document, repeated word-for-word in this episode, can be seen online in the National Archives.

Replaced by fictional alternates for dramatic purposes in this story were the actual crew of Apollo 10, astronauts Thomas Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young; of the three, only Stafford was still alive at the time this episode aired. Gene Kranz was indeed the lead flight controller on duty for the Apollo 11 landing, though he would become more famous for his relentless push to get the men of the doomed Apollo 13 mission home in 1970, which is the actual source of his quote, “Failure is not an option.” The Apollo Applications Program was a real program as well, and while it perhaps wasn’t as “sexy” as landing on the moon, it wasn’t viewed as “Siberia”, as it would beget such real missions as the Skylab space station program and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Apollo Applications was simply a typically dry name for a program that would have put the Apollo technology originally For All Mankinddeveloped for the moon landings to use for practical applications both closer to Earth, and further away, including long-duration lunar missions and even an audacious crewed orbital mission to Venus in an uprated Apollo command/service module, a mission which never left the drawing board; in real life, Apollo Applications would fall victim to President Nixon’s aggressive push for what was hoped would be a more cost-effective, reusable vehicle called the Space Shuttle.

Co-created by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Battlestar Galactica writer Ronald D. Moore, For All Mankind is staffed behind the scenes with a considerable number of alumni from both series, including writer/producers Naren Shankar, David Weddle, and Bradley Thompson, producer Steve Oster, technical consultant Michael Okuda, and casting director Junie Lowry-Johnson.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

He Built The Saturn V

For All MankindSeptember 1969: Thanks to the lopsided but miraculously survivable landing, and later successful return, of Apollo 11, NASA is still in the business of going to the moon, but when the CIA obtains blueprints for a Soviet lunar military base, the stakes get higher. Wernher von Braun and the rest of NASA have new marching orders from President Nixon to do whatever is necessary to beat the Soviet Union to this goal, beginning with Apollo 12. von Braun ridicules the idea; Apollo is meant to be a civilian scientific endeavor in his eyes. This doesn’t sit well with Nixon, however, and in Washington the wheels begin turning to oust von Braun from his very secure seat at NASA. One person who becomes key to this plan is grounded astronaut Ed Baldwin, but when invited to offer public testimony before Congress, Baldwin takes responsibility for sticking to Apollo 10’s non-landing flight plan, and then resigns from NASA to rejoin the Navy. And when von Braun is invited to testify, he is ambushed with accusations that he had full knowledge that Jewish slave laborers were worked to death to build his V2 rockets during World War II. The launch of Apollo 12 is moved up from December to September 1969, but the Soviets launch another lunar mission of their own just before Apollo 12’s liftoff, again upstaging NASA – this time by putting the first woman on the moon.

For All Mankindwritten by Matt Wolpert & Ben Nedivi
directed by Seth Gordon
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Colm Feore (Wernher von Braun), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Saul Rubinek (Rep. Charles Sandman), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Ben Begley (Charlie Duke), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Jeff Branson (Neil Armstrong), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Ryan Kennedy (Michael Collins), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Daniel Scott Robbins (Hank Poppen), David Andrews (Admiral Scott Uken), Nick Wechsler (Fred), Steven Pritchard (Pete Conrad), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Teya Patt (Emma), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), William Lee Holler (young Jimmy Stevens), Shaw Jones (Capcom), Jeffrey Muller (Del), Max Barsness (Tommy), Jason Denuszek (Magazine Photographer), Rita Khrabrovitsky (Anastasia Belikova), Rachel Rosenbloom (Doris), Jessica Amlee (Ginger), Krystal Torres (Cata), Janelle Froehlich (Pauline), Laura Long (Trish)

For All MankindNotes: Though it provides a very dramatic visual, the non-remote-controlled television camera attached to Eagle‘s descent stage could not have panned, tilted, or otherwise followed the ascent stage of the lunar module without someone still being on the ground to control it, nor could it have been detached to offer a wide-angle view of Eagle itself. Remote-controlled cameras capable of following the ascent stage up weren’t part of any Apollo mission’s standard equipment until the later missions equipped with lunar rovers (Apollo 15, 16, 17).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Nixon’s Women

For All MankindJanuary 1970: With the Soviets having put a woman on the moon with their second lunar landing, the White House orders NASA to make it a priority to do the same. 20 women are selected as astronaut candidates: some already experienced pilots, some already working for NASA, some of them previously considered during NASA’s brief period of testing women as potential Mercury astronauts. One of the more controversial choices is Tracy Stevens, wife of Apollo 15 astronaut Gordo Stevens and herself a pilot with light aircraft experience, though she hasn’t flown since getting married and starting a family. But for political and PR purposes, Tracy has “most favored nation” status among the candidates, something which earns the scorn of the other women selected when she keeps making the cut despite scoring the lowest. When one of NASA’s Lunar Orbiter satellites detects ice in a crater – an ingredient for long-term stays on the moon, including the lunar base Nixon is demanding.

For All Mankindwritten by Nichole Beattie
directed by Allen Coulter
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Cass Buggé (Patty Doyle), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Brian Stepanek (Shorty Powers), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Teya Patt (Emma), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), Benjamin Seay (Ray Schumer), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Devin McCarthy (Janice), Kate Rodman (Megan), Leia Hurst (Barbara), Benjamin Burton (Murph), Nick Echols (Chaddie)

For All MankindNotes: The incident in which Neil Armstrong had to punch out of the lunar landing research vehicle (nicknamed the “flying bedstead”) because it was about to crash was real and well-documented. Ironically, while water ice has been detected in shaded craters on the lunar surface, the first such detection took place when samples returned by the Soviet Luna 24 lander, launched in 1976, were analyzed on Earth. Confirmation of that find can be credited to NASA instruments which were carried to the moon on India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe in 2009. Given the fictitious hunt for a suitable spot for a lunar military base that is part of this series’ alternate-history plotline, it’s likely that in such a circumstance, the real Lunar Orbiter program – which scouted suitable Apollo landing sites in the span of just over a year between 1966 and ’67 – would have been extended beyond five orbiters.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Prime Crew

For All Mankind1971: The ongoing race to establish the first permanent human presence on the moon has now claimed casualties – one of the women in NASA’s astronaut training has died, and a Lunar Orbiter satellite spots debris from a failed Soviet lunar landing – debris indicating that the Soviets were ready to start building a base on this flight. Nixon again realigns NASA’s goals to favor a moon base, and the plan to land a woman on the moon is all but cancelled…except that Deke Slayton assigns the four surviving female candidates to the Apollo program, and reassigns Molly Cobb to the upcoming Apollo 15 flight, bumping Gordo Stevens from his seat. While this wins NASA points with women, it earns Slayton the most powerful enemy he could possibly have in Washington. And in the weeks leading up to liftoff, Ed Baldwin, who was reinstated to the Apollo 15 prime crew after his contrite Congressional testimony, begins to wonder if his new crewmate is ready to fly.

For All Mankindwritten by Naren Shankar
directed by Allen Coulter
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Brian Stepanek (Shorty Powers), Dave Power (Frank Sedgewick), Lenny Jacobson (Wayne Cobb), Edwin Hodge (Clayton Poole), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Daniel Scott Robbins (Hank Poppen), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Matt Battaglia (John Glenn), Teya Patt (Emma), Tony Lewellen (Coop), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), William Lee Holler (young Jimmy Stevens), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Tracy Mulholland (Gloria Sedgewick), Darin Cooper (Businessman), Krystal Torres (Cata)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Into The Abyss

For All Mankind1971: A flyover of Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole reveals a much higher concentration of water ice than exists at Apollo 15’s planned landing site at Mare Frigoris. With pressure from both mission commander Ed Baldwin and from the White House itself, concerned that finding water ice on the lunar surface could jumpstart plans for a permanently occupied lunar military base ahead of the Soviets, Apollo 15’s flight plan is changed late in the game, but Baldwin and Cobb still manage to bring their lunar module in for a safe landing…but on the rim of the crater, rather than inside it, where so little sunlight hits the crater floor that it’s impossible to see. But the ice isn’t on the rim in the sunlight, and another major change to the mission plan is made: one of the astronauts must rappel into the crater with a makeshift harness made of items that were never intended to serve that purpose. Molly Cobb, pointing out that she’s lighter, is the ideal candidate…but the search for the all-important ice could become a life-or-death mission.

For All Mankindwritten by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Lenny Jacobson (Wayne Cobb), Edwin Hodge (Clayton Poole), Dave Power (Frank Sedgewick), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Daniel Scott Robbins (Hank Poppen), Nick Wechsler (Fred), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), William Lee Holler (young Jimmy Stevens), Tracy Mulholland (Gloria Sedgewick), For All MankindBenjamin Seay (Ray Schumer), Korey Simeone (Doctor Chase), Nick Heyman (Sentry)

Notes: In the alternate timeline of For All Mankind, the Apollo missions upgrade to something a bit more modern than the DSKY computers that powered the real Apollo missions. In reality, ice wasn’t discovered to be likely in Shackleton Crater until 2012, when NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter detected signs that nearly a quarter of the surface material in the crater was probably water ice.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Home Again

For All Mankind1974: As women across America celebrate the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, a launch pad accident results in the explosion of the Saturn V rocket that would have carried the Apollo 23 astronauts to the moon, where they were scheduled to exchange places with the crew of three already occupying the Jamestown lunar habitat at the moon’s south pole. The Apollo 23 crew is lifted to safety by their capsule’s escape tower, but when the capsule comes down hard on land instead of at sea, the crew still suffers major injuries. In the months that follow, NASA launches a technical investigation, while the FBI conducts inquiries into whether Soviet agents might have sabotaged the Saturn rocket, a scenario that NASA’s own investigations have already debunked. An independent technical report is made available to NASA, but only if it is personally handed over to Margo Madison by its author – Wernher Von Braun, whom she has no interest in seeing again, and with whom NASA refuses to publicly associate itself. The gap between flights also gives the Soviets time to establish their own permanently crewed lunar habitat, Zvezda, only eight miles away from Jamestown at Shackleton Crater. It quickly becomes apparent that the FBI, while supposedly looking for treacherous communist sympathizers in NASA’s ranks, is also taking this opportunity to find and expose homosexuals there as well. Margo learns from Von Braun’s report that political trade-offs led to a change of contractors, ultimately leading to the Apollo 23 accident…and then learns that this information is to be classified.

For All Mankindwritten by Stephanie Shannon
directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Colm Feore (Wernher Von Braun), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Ben Begley (Charlie Duke), Leonora Pitts (Irene Hendricks), James Urbaniak (Gavin Donahue), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Ryan Kennedy (Michael Collins), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Megan Dodds (Andrea Walters), Martin Grey (Scott Kraus), Tait Blum (Shane Baldwin), Mason Thames (Daniel Stevens), Michael James Bell (Principal Mike Russell)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Hi Bob

For All Mankind1974: The weeks have turned into months since the Apollo 23 accident, and the crew of NASA’s Jamestown lunar habitat has yet to be relieved. Continued delays and incidents on the ground have kept the three astronauts on the moon for much of 1974 with no relief in sight, while the Soviets’ Zvezda base, mere miles away, continues to function normally. Ed Baldwin, the mission commander, is growing paranoid about what the Soviet crew might be doing, while Gordo Stevens is gradually becoming more unhinged as his frequent video calls with Tracy on Earth make it seem like a divorce is inevitable, and he begins taking unscheduled, unauthorized walks on the lunar surface. Danielle Poole, the first African-American woman on the moon, is stuck between the two extremes, trying to make sense of both of their behavior. On Earth, the growing FBI scrutiny of everyone at NASA is poised to claim not one victim, but two, unless Larry Wilson and astronaut Ellen Waverly take very public steps to debunk the FBI’s claims about them – though those steps will have an immense personal cost for Ellen. When Baldwin finds evidence that the Zvezda cosmonauts have indeed been “visiting” the vicinity of Jamestown, his paranoia seems justified.

For All Mankindwritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by Meera Menon
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Edwin Hodge (Charlie Duke), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), James Urbaniak (Agent Gavin Donahue), Andrea Walters (Megan Dodds), Tait Blum (Shane Baldwin), Michael James Bell (Principal Mike Russell), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Benton Jennings (Judge), Matthew Downs (Police Officer)

For All MankindNotes: Writer and series co-creator Ronald D. Moore, who got his start writing for television after submitting a spec script to Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1989, peppers this episode with 1960s Star Trek references aplenty, including Poole’s TV trivia knowledge that actor John Fiedler had played Mr. Hengist in an episode of Star Trek (1967’s A Wolf In The Fold, to be precise), and Baldwin and Stevens remarking that nearly everywhere they go on the moon is “where no man has gone before”. Baldwin’s delivery of Poole and Stevens to a waiting (unoccupied) service module in lunar orbit via a LEM would imply that, in For All Mankind’s alternate timeline, LEMs are reusable, and the problem of relighting long-dormant, cold rocket engines – a problem that has plagued spacecraft engineers in real life through the present day – has been solved.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Rupture

For All Mankind1974: Ed Baldwin’s son, Shane, has been left brain-dead after being hit by a car while trying to ride his bicycle to a school basketball game. Ed’s wife, Karen, makes the decision to take the burden of decision-making about Shane onto herself and also insists that Ed – now the lone American on the moon – not be told about his son’s condition. Ed does have a full plate on the lunar surface, gathering increasing evidence that the Soviet crew of the Zvezda lunar station is encroaching on the vicinity of the Jamestown station, of which Ed is now the sole occupant. As the preparation for Apollo 24 continues to run into delays, Karen Baldwin must begin facing the possibility that her son will never recover…and that she will have to tell Ed that not only is all not wall at home, but that things are in fact catastrophically bad.

For All Mankindwritten by Nichole Beattie
directed by Meera Menon
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Rebecca Wisocky (Marge Slayton), Leonora Pitts (Irene Hendricks), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Stephen Oyoung (Harrison Liu), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), John Rubenstein (Doctor Marsten), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Megan Dodds (Andrea Walters), David Gautreaux (Barry Newsome), Scott Alan Smith (Dr. David Josephson), Tait Blum (Shane Baldwin), Germain Arroyo (Anthony), Tracy Mulholland (Gloria Sedgewick), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Brian D. Johnson (Grush), Jeff Denton (Pendle), Krystal Torres (Cata), Kevin Glikmann (Jerry Biddle), Jan Munroe (Dr. Weddle)

Notes: Deke Slayton requalifying himself for flight status isn’t science fiction; he did, in fact, do this, but in preparation for the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight, a joint rendezvous and docking mission with a Soviet Soyuz vehicle. As is also the case in For All Mankind’s fictional narrative, his requalification came after long-standing concerns about Slayton’s cardiovascular health (which had left him grounded since the Mercury program) were re-evaluated by NASA flight surgeons.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Bent Bird

For All MankindChristmas 1974: Apollo 24 finally lifts off, but a faulty circuit board in its Saturn V rocket prevents it from executing an engine burn to put it on course for the moon. Apollo 25, whose crew was already preparing for a satellite repair mission in low Earth orbit, is given a new mission: repair Apollo 24’s booster in orbit. While it may sound simple on paper, the repair procedure involves extensive spacewalks and previously untried procedures. Worse yet, the moment that the new component of Apollo 24’s booster is installed, the rocket fires, dragging the Apollo 25 command/service module along with it; Apollo 24 astronaut Harrison Liu is killed. Molly Cobb, still tethered to the Apollo 24 booster, untethers the Apollo 25 command module and then herself, necessitating an unplanned rescue mission with razor-thin fuel margins. Apollo 24 is out of contact with Houston, and according the best estimates of its trajectory, will miss the moon completely, continuing on into deep space and dooming its crew. On the moon, now more than seven months into his stay, Ed Baldwin comes face-to-face with a Soviet cosmonaut who has been making unauthorized use of Jamestown Station’s ice extraction equipment. When that cosmonaut knocks at Jamestown’s base, short on oxygen and in need of refuge, Baldwin could make the obvious choice to help his fellow man…but doesn’t.

For All Mankindwritten by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
directed by John Dahl
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Mark Ivanir (Mikhail Mikailovic), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Rebecca Wisocky (Marge Slayton), Lenny Jacobson (Wayne Cobb), Stephen Oyoung (Harrison Liu), Charlie Hofheimer (Dennis Lambert), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), James Urbaniak (Agent Gavin Donahue), Megan Dodds (Andrea Walters), Mason Thames (Daniel Stevens), Tracy Mulholland (Gloria Sedgewick), Aria Song (Cecelia Liu), Carin Chea (Penny Chen), Theo Iyer (Carl Reid), Brian McGrath (Sam), Ben Solenberger (LMSYS)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

A City Upon A Hill

For All MankindChristmas 1974: Astronaut Ellen Waverly, command module pilot of Apollo 24, regains consciousness. One of her crew members has been lost; the other, Slayton, is injured and has to be hauled back into the command module by his tether. The booster finally runs out of fuel, but Apollo 24 is so far off course that Waverly has to burn every drop of fuel left in the command/service module to bring its speed down enough to capture by the moon’s gravity…and even then, she comes up short. A plan is devised to have Ed Baldwin launch from the moon to rendezvous with – and refuel – Apollo 24, but he has his hands full with a cosmonaut found lurking outside Jamestown Station, and Baldwin has maintained radio silence with Houston since learning of the death of his son. Slayton’s condition continues to worsen, and NASA resorts to desperate means to get Baldwin’s attention. With time running out to save Apollo 24, Baldwin must contemplate the unthinkable – trusting his Soviet counterpart to cooperate with him in the rescue effort.

For All Mankindwritten by Matt Wolpert & Ben Nedivi
directed by John Dahl
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Mark Ivanir (Mikhail Mikailovic), Pam Horton (Meghan Leathers), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Rebecca Wisocky (Marge Slayton), Lenny Jacobson (Wayne Cobb), Charlie Hofheimer (Dennis Lambert), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Megan Dodds (Andrea Walters), Mason Thames (Daniel Stevens), Zakary Risinger (Jimmy Stevens), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Krystal Torres (Cata), Penny Chen (Carin Chea), Theo Iyer (Carl Reid), Brian McGrath (Sam), Ben Solenberger (LMSYS), Alex Skinner (Telex Guy), Mel Fair (Reporter 1), Stephen Jared (Reporter 2), Chi-Lan Lieu (Reporter 3), James Thomas Gilbert (Protest Man), Clint Culp (Guy at Bar)

LogBook entry by Earl Green