Year: 1998

In the wake of the fire that claimed the lives of the crew of Apollo 1, NASA places new emphasis on crew safety and emergency procedures. An evacuation drill catches Wally Schirra and his two Apollo 7 crewmates off guard, as well as a visiting documentary film crew led by skeptical director Frank Burns. Following the intense public scrutiny of NASA that the Apollo 1 investigation brought, Burns and his team are granted unprecedented access to the astronauts and their ground crew in the weeks leading up to the critical launch that will hopefully get the Apollo program back on track. But as Burns and his team find out, there is nothing routine about the flight – and Wally Schirra is concerned enough about the safety of his crewmates to scrub the mission at any moment, even right up to the final countdown.

written by Remi Aubuchon
directed by Lili Fini Zanuck
music by Mark Isham

Cast: Krista Adair (Jo Shirra), Jay T. Becker (Jim Lewis), Virginia Ellen Chappell (Concerned spectator), Marcelo Durnt (Documentary cameraman), Joe Farago (Dr. Fred Kelly), Lowell Fenner (Russ Lawrence), Keith Graham (Skip Chauvin), Mark Harmon (Wally Schirra), Holland Hayes (Tech #1), Steve Hofvendahl (Thomas Stafford), George Hoggard (Evac supervisor), Jay Honeycutt (Launch Director), Peter Horton (Documentary director), Daniel Hugh Kelly (Gene Cernan), Frederic Lane (Walt Cunningham), Ann Magnuson (Dee O’Hara), Joshua Malina (Tim Messick), Cindy Maranne (Deke’s secretary), John Mese (Donn Eisele), Mati Moralejo (Editor), Philip Nolen (Nerd #1), John Posey (John Young), Steve Purnick (Clyde Teague), Mark Rolston (Gus Grissom), Steve Sands (Nerd #2), Nick Searcy (Deke Slayton), Brandon Smith (John Healey), Randy G. Stephens (Curious spectator), Max Wright (Guenter Wendt)

Note: Is it a M*A*S*H homage or is it a blooper? In a brief shot of the documentary crew’s clapperboard, the name “Mark Burns” is clearly visible under “director,” contradicting the character name Frank Burns heard throughout the episode – a name shared by Larry Linville’s paranoid M*A*S*H character. To add to the confusion, the character, played by thirtysomething star Peter Horton, was billed simply as “documentary director.” Writer Remi Aubuchon later pitched a series idea to the Sci-Fi Channel that became the Battlestar Galactica spinoff Caprica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Spy satellite photos prove to Washington that the Soviets may be ahead of America in the race to create a heavy-lift launch vehicle that could propel a manned spacecraft toward the moon, and when Grumman falls behind its timetable on deliver the lunar module, it appears that the United States is preparing to condede yet another vital milestone in the space race. NASA managers devise a startling and very risky plan to keep America ahead – two missions will be swapped. Apollo 8, a mission planned to take the first lunar module into lunar orbit for a no-landing test of its control systems, will be postponed, becoming Apollo 9. A new Apollo 8 mission is created, taking only the command and service modules along. The Apollo 8 crew is led by Frank Borman, who was instrumental in the investigation of the Apollo 1 fire. But as the events of 1968 grow darker with each month, with the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, Borman’s wife Susan becomes increasingly convinced that her husband’s mission, like everything else that has happened that year, will end in tragedy.

written by Al Reinert
directed by David Frankel
music by Michael Kamen

Cast: Brandon Ambrose (Edwin Borman), Sam Anderson (Thomas Paine), David Andrews (Frank Borman), Robert John Burke (Bill Anders), Maury Covington (CIA #2), Tim Daly (Jim Lovell), Keith Dickerson (Engineer), Steve DuMouchel (NASA rep.), Cary Elwes (Michael Collins), Tracy Frenkel (Rocco Petrone), David Drew Gallagher (Retro), Andrew Heller (CIA #1), Jim Howard (William Schneider), Steve Howard (Capcom), John Carroll Lynch (Bob Gilruth), Andy Milder (GUIDO), Holmes Osborne (George Low), Eric Paisley (BBC news reader), Mike Pniewski (Surgeon), Robert Quinn (EECOM), Michael Roddy (FIDO), Stephen Root (Chris Kraft), Nick Searcy (Deke Slayton), Brian Shields (Fred Borman), Kurt Smildsin (Flight Director #1), Lane Smith (Emmett Seaborn), Graham Timbes (Flight Director #2), Kristian Truelson (Kurt Debus), Robert Walker (GNC TELMU), Rick Warner (Julian Bowman), Norbert Weisser (Wernher Von Braun), John Wickersham (FIDO), Rita Wilson (Susan Borman), Steve Zurk (George Hage)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

In 1962, Grumman Aerospace wins the contract for the construction of the lunar excursion module which will land on the moon with two astronauts. And getting the contract is the only easy part of the project. Over the next seven years, Grumman’s engineers, and project manager Tom Kelly, race against time to create a vehicle that has never been imagined before, using materials and methods that have never been conceived before. If the finished LEM isn’t delivered to NASA on time, Kelly and his employees could lose their jobs…but if NASA gets a LEM that isn’t spaceworthy, astronauts could lose their lives in the quest to reach the moon safely.

written by Andy Wolk
directed by Graham Yost
music by Mason Daring

Cast: Remi Aubuchon (Engineer Bob), Redd Birney (John Houbolt), David Brisben (Allyn B. Hazard), Max Brown (Glennan), Matt Craven (Tom Kelly), Brett Cullen (Dave Scott), Keith Borman (Kelly’s assistant), John Drew (Mylar engineer), Dann Florek (Robert Seamans), Randell Haynes (Houbolt’s critic #1), Steve Hofvendahl (Tom Stafford), Clint Howard (Paul Lucas), Daniel Hugh Kelly (Gene Cernan), Paul Kiernan (Glennan’s assistant), Brian LaFontaine (Young engineer), Mark Lainer (Doubting engineer), Matthew Lussier (Arnold Whitaker), Phillip Martinez (John Coursen), Fred Mooneyham (Houbolt’s critic #2), Kieran Mulroney (Rusty Schweickart), Dean Napolitano (Seaman’s assistant), John Nutten (Colleague #1), Conor O’Farrell (James McDivitt), Holmes Osborne (George Low), Stan Petter (Colleague #2), Alan Ruck (Tom Dolan), Nick Searcy (Deke Slayton), Grant Shaud (Bob Carbee), Russell Warner (John Rigsby), Norbert Weisser (Wernher Von Braun), Graham Yost (Engineer Dave)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

As soon as the Apollo 11 mission is slated for the first lunar landing, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins are thrust into the media spotlight, despite the fact that they are undergoing some of the most intensive training that the U.S. space program has put a crew through. And in some cases, such as a jet-powered landing simulator which almost kills Armstrong, even the training is a hazard to the crew. But despite their devotion to their duties, even the crew is not immune to contemplating the historical nature of their mission – especially not Buzz Aldrin, whose desire to be the first man to set foot on the moon makes a policy decision necessary months beforehand. And when Apollo 11’s lunar module, the Eagle, begins its final descent toward the surface of the moon, it seems as though the training simulators’ worst-case scenarios may all come back to haunt Aldrin and Armstrong at once.

written by Al Reinert, Graham Yost and Tom Hanks
directed by Frank Marshall
music by James Newton Howard

Cast: Sam Anderson (Thomas Paine), David Andrews (Frank Borman), Roger Bernard (Control), Betsy Brantley (Jan Armstrong), Tom Brooks (Jack Garman), Dan Butler (Gene Kranz), Joe Candelora (Cameraman), Bryan Cranston (Buzz Aldrin), J. Downing (Capcom), Cary Elwes (Michael Collins), Timothy A. Franta (Surgeon), David Drew Gallagher (RETRO), Tony Goldwyn (Neil Armstrong), Dan Hagen (Honeycutt), Don Harvey (Flight director), Bill Leavy (GNC), Mikki McKeever (Pat Collins), Timothy McLaughlin (TELMU), Andy Milder (GUIDO), Jeffrey Parrish (Booster), Michael Rafferty (Back room man #1), Roger Ranney (Back room man #2), Diana Scarwid (Joan Aldrin), Nick Searcy (Deke Slayton), Robert Serwatka (EECOM), Lane Smith (Emmett Seaborn), Jack Swanson (Priest), John Wickersham (FIDO), Rita Wilson (Susan Borman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12 is launched, almost becoming the first Apollo mission to abort in mid-launch after lightning strikes the command module. Even though mission control and the crew manage to get the situation under control again, nothing else about Apollo 12 follows the serious and even stately precedent set by Apollo 11. Lunar module pilot Al Bean, a member of the third “class” of astronaut recruits whose ranks have dropped due to deaths in aircraft accidents (and, in Roger Chaffee’s case, the Apollo 1 fire), feels especially priveleged to share the trip to the moon with Dick Gordon and practical joker Pete Conrad. Apollo 12’s crew are more than colleagues – they’re friends. But Bean also has a clumsy streak, which could endanger everything from a new color TV camera to vital scientific experiments. With the whole world watching (well, perhaps not, after he fries the TV camera by pointing it into the sun), he tries not to let his country or his crewmates down.

written by Paul McCudden, Erik Bork and Tom Hanks
directed by Jon Turteltaub
music by Mason Daring

Cast: Jeff Breslauer (Technician), David Clyde Carr (Gerry Griffin), George Colangelo (“Buck” Willoughby), Dave Foley (Al Bean), Jim Leavy (C.C. Williams), Ben Marley (Roger Chaffee), Paul McCrane (Pete Conrad), Geoffrey Nauffts (Ed Gibson), Mike Pniewski (Flight Surgeon), Shawn Pyfrom (Ten year old boy), Gary Rorman (Geologist), Lane Smith (Emmett Seaborn), John Travis (John Aaron), Tom Verica (Dick Gordon)

Note: Pete Conrad is the only astronaut played by two different actors in the series; here he’s played by Paul McCrane, but was originally portrayed by executive producer Tom Hanks’ former Bosom Buddies co-star Peter Scolari.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

On April 13, 1970, veteran TV journalist Emmett Seaborn hits the airwaves with the terrifying news that an unknown accident has crippled the Apollo 13 command module, forcing its three crewmembers into the cramped lunar module. Seaborn’s experience in covering the space program keeps his audience glued to the set, but his failure to grease the palms of his network’s new management opens the door for Brett Hutchins, a determined young reporter with his eyes on history, to dig for a story by any means necessary. Hutchins takes matters into his own hands, following leads and stories, breaking NASA rules for journalists, and burning bridges along the way. But the space agency, realizing how critically its public relations are suffering during the failed mission, is reluctant to shut the young reporter out. As the chances of returning home gradually start to look better for the crew of Apollo 13, Emmett Seaborn feels his own career fading away.

written by Peter Osterlund & Amy Brooke Baker
directed by David Frankel
music by Brad Fiedel

Cast: Tammy Arnold (Sarah), Rus D. Blackwell (Joel Kruger), Brian Brightman (Editor), Dan Butler (Gene Kranz), Jack Carroll (Reporter #3), Colette Piceau Colangelo (Reporter #4), Heather DeOreo (Doris), Steve DuMouchel (Jeff Jordy), Jeff Evans (Director), Billy Flanigan (Suit #2), Harold Fletcher (Dr. Swigert), Tim Goodwin (Mr. Radio), Erich Hoffelder (Brett’s sound man), John Hostetter (Ralph Cooper), Clint Howard (Paul Lucas), Key Howard (Reporter #5), John M. Jackson (Hal Deacon), Kathy Karol (Shirley), David Kaufman (David Gibson), William Larson (Seymour Rosen), William Laskin (Larry Thompson), Christopher Miles (TV #3), Jay Mohr (Brett Hutchins), Jeff Moldovan (Reporter #7), Dennis Neal (Suit #1), Don C. Noderer (TV #1), Conor O’Farrell (James McDivitt), Janet Peterson (Mrs. Swigert), Ethan Phillips (Stanley Craig), Ric Reitz (Reporter #8), Brett Rice (Sam Langfitz), Stephen Root (Chris Kraft), John Rothman (Warren Moburg), Paul Rouffa (Mr. AP), Gerard Russell (Suit #3), Nick Searcy (Deke Slayton), Lane Smith (Emmett Seaborn), Catherine Stork (TV #4), Jan Taylor (TV #2), Todd Thompsom (TV #5), Doug Truelson (Mr. UPI), Cyndi Vicino (Reporter #2), Dave Wagner (Anchor), George Wilson (Reporter #6)

Notes: Clint Howard also had a role in the movie Apollo 13, as NASA technician Sy Liebergot. Ethan Phillips took time off from his role as Star Trek: Voyager’s Neelix to appear here.

LogBook entry by Earl Green