New Apollo 11 documentary coming soon

[AS_501]

Great movie.  I think the launch was actually Apollo 15 or 16.  Reentry view out the CM window was puzzling.  Did the CM roll during part of the reentry?  That might have been the Apollo 9 reentry.  Also, I think the Apollo 11 reentry occurred in darkness.

[zubenelgenubi]

Did the CM roll during part of the reentry?

IIRC, yes.  Rolling the CM moved the off-set-from-axial-center of gravity, and allowed some steering of the entry trajectory from a simple ballistic entry.

[TomH]

WOW!..........just WOW! That really took me back. I was there for the launch and was a complete space nerd at 14 y.o. What we accomplished! I loved that every last element was primary source. It brought back so many details...so many feelings of pride in our engineering and technology.

I saw us reach Luna in my childhood and hope to feel that same pride and excitement once again in my old age by seeing SpaceX place astronauts on Mars.

[Fequalsma]

I got to see Apollo 11 today in IMAX - it was... amazing!
F=ma

[goretexguy]

Took my sons (ages 12 and 14) to see this. Best moment: the launch sequence, during which my boys were frozen, mouths open and staring at the screen, with popcorn slowly falling from their motionless hands into their laps.
After getting home, they spent hours watching related videos on YouTube and talking about the documentary.
Thank you to those who worked so hard on this film. It gave my boys a sense of awe, wonder and interest in the monumental achievements that their lives are built upon.

[MATTBLAK]

Took my sons (ages 12 and 14) to see this. Best moment: the launch sequence, during which my boys were frozen, mouths open and staring at the screen, with popcorn slowly falling from their motionless hands into their laps.
After getting home, they spent hours watching related videos on YouTube and talking about the documentary.
Thank you to those who worked so hard on this film. It gave my boys a sense of awe, wonder and interest in the monumental achievements that their lives are built upon.

If I could double like your post; I would!! You're bringing them up right, Sir!

[Star One]

Any update if this is getting a U.K. release as would rather see it on a big screen than just waiting for it to come to disc or streaming?

You guys are going to love this. Or then again; maybe not...

Myself and a friend have been making enquiries at my countries only IMAX theater, to see if there are plans to play the movie here. The manager said sorry, no.

But then he asked: "What's the film about?"
Me: "Apollo 11 - the first manned lunar landing in 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin".
Manager (confused): "Er... Don't you mean 'First Man', that film about Neil Armstrong? That's been and gone months ago and is out on DVD now."
Me: "Yes, I know. I'm talking about a documentary made from restored, archive 70mm footage."
Manager: (Pause, then more confusion) "Documentary?! You mean, that character than Ryan Gosling played was a real person?!"
Me: (Sighs) "Yes. And the Moonlandings - all six of them - actually happened between 1969 and 1972. How old are you, mate?"
Manager: "I'm 33. Look; I'm sorry... I saw a documentary on TV a couple years back about how the Moonlandings were faked and I thought that was accurate and real!."

You just cannot make this sh1t up...

This is weird. I was born after Apollo had finished but I’ve never thought they were fake. So I don’t see he can use his age as an excuse.

[rob2507]

Amazing. That was the only word I could think of to describe this movie. I've stood underneath the rocket at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, but seeing it in the movie, vertical, fueled and ready for flight? That was just amazing.
The theater probably had about 50-60 people, mostly couples; the woman sitting two seats over from me was literally on the edge of her seat for the countdown and liftoff.
Looks like the movie is only in IMAX through the end of this week--go see it if you can.
(When this comes out on video, I'm going to buy a 60 inch tv so that I can stop at just about every scene and really take it all in!)

[Thorny]

I envy all of you who get to see it in theaters. A quick check of locations shows the nearest theater to me is 5 hours away in Dallas. 

[woods170]

45-Minute version coming to my part of the world on May 21.

https://twitter.com/berendr/status/1100033170219692032

[Oersted]

I can't accept that I would have to settle for a shortened version here in Europe. Time to pester all nearby IMAX theatres for them to get this!

[MATTBLAK]

Any update if this is getting a U.K. release as would rather see it on a big screen than just waiting for it to come to disc or streaming?

You guys are going to love this. Or then again; maybe not...

Myself and a friend have been making enquiries at my countries only IMAX theater, to see if there are plans to play the movie here. The manager said sorry, no.

But then he asked: "What's the film about?"
Me: "Apollo 11 - the first manned lunar landing in 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin".
Manager (confused): "Er... Don't you mean 'First Man', that film about Neil Armstrong? That's been and gone months ago and is out on DVD now."
Me: "Yes, I know. I'm talking about a documentary made from restored, archive 70mm footage."
Manager: (Pause, then more confusion) "Documentary?! You mean, that character than Ryan Gosling played was a real person?!"
Me: (Sighs) "Yes. And the Moonlandings - all six of them - actually happened between 1969 and 1972. How old are you, mate?"
Manager: "I'm 33. Look; I'm sorry... I saw a documentary on TV a couple years back about how the Moonlandings were faked and I thought that was accurate and real!."

You just cannot make this sh1t up...

This is weird. I was born after Apollo had finished but I’ve never thought they were fake. So I don’t see he can use his age as an excuse.

I've met people in their fifties who saw that 'documentary' and now believe in the 'Hoax'. And there are plenty of people in this world of all ages who don't care about space and may not ever have been to a Planetarium or even seen a real documentary - except while channel surfing. Plenty of people thought or do think that NASA shut down when the Shuttles did, or that SpaceX is actually the 'space program'...

[Eric Hedman]

I can't accept that I would have to settle for a shortened version here in Europe. Time to pester all nearby IMAX theatres for them to get this!

A short version will be better than no version.  But there is nothing I would want edited out of the version I saw.

[Star One]

Any update if this is getting a U.K. release as would rather see it on a big screen than just waiting for it to come to disc or streaming?

You guys are going to love this. Or then again; maybe not...

Myself and a friend have been making enquiries at my countries only IMAX theater, to see if there are plans to play the movie here. The manager said sorry, no.

But then he asked: "What's the film about?"
Me: "Apollo 11 - the first manned lunar landing in 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin".
Manager (confused): "Er... Don't you mean 'First Man', that film about Neil Armstrong? That's been and gone months ago and is out on DVD now."
Me: "Yes, I know. I'm talking about a documentary made from restored, archive 70mm footage."
Manager: (Pause, then more confusion) "Documentary?! You mean, that character than Ryan Gosling played was a real person?!"
Me: (Sighs) "Yes. And the Moonlandings - all six of them - actually happened between 1969 and 1972. How old are you, mate?"
Manager: "I'm 33. Look; I'm sorry... I saw a documentary on TV a couple years back about how the Moonlandings were faked and I thought that was accurate and real!."

You just cannot make this sh1t up...

This is weird. I was born after Apollo had finished but I’ve never thought they were fake. So I don’t see he can use his age as an excuse.

I've met people in their fifities who saw that 'documentary' and now believe in the 'Hoax'. And there are plenty of people in this world of all ages who don't care about space and may not have been to a Planetarium or even seen a real documentary - except while channel surfing. Plenty of people thought or do think that NASA shut down when the Shuttles did, or that SpaceX is actually the 'space program'...

That’s just depressing, but I already know the truth of what you are saying.

[OxCartMark]

Just got home from seeing it.  In short, awesome, go see it tonight or tomorrow or you'll only be able to see the cut down version.  Go see it now.

Observations / Thoughts -

- Its worth $13 to see the launch or even the crawler transporter footage
- The long (time) shot of the rocket as you go up the elevator is priceless
- I'm curious if the launch sound was real or recreated, not what I was expecting
- The stick figure animations to explain what was happening were oversimplified to the point of being misleading
- I was surprised at how rapidly the LM came down.  They had a display with altitude and remaining fuel and it was truly scary.  Like, 3:00 and 40k feet.  Very rapid descent between 40k and 1k feet.
- During CM or LM burns there were 'real time' speed indicators but I wasn't convinced they were real, reasons benig a) increases in acceleration happened more rapidly than I would expect for fixed mass vs. propellant mass present in those scenarios, b) acceleration continued to taper off for 5-10 seconds after shutoff, it doesn't take this long does it? (Falcon 1)
- Scenes of the naval recovery fleet in action at sea (and the folding of their aircraft) was interesting
- Clothing, cars, cameras, hair styles from that period were interesting to see again.  Real, high res, not from Hollywood.
- Interesting to see the floor of VAB full of workers that had made it possible gathered to see and hear it happening.
- Rows and rows of paper strip chart recorders and the people that tend them.  Not sure its done that way anymore.
- I've always heard the story about diverting over the boulder field but hadn't seen it and it makes total sense.
- The approach of LM to CSM was shockingly fast, ~ 1 minute from it being a fly at arms length to being feet away.  Shocking in contrast to how visiting vehicles approach ISS or the speed at which anything controlled by NASA moves now.
- One key takeaway for me was hearing Kennedy's May 1961 speech in which he said;
       "and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold."
  That word bold stood out to me.  Apollo was bold, vastly bold.  And it seems that most of what NASA has done since then has gone against Kennedy's advice, seems they are striving for not screwing up.  We need Bold.  In the mean time I'll be over watching the SpaceX channel.

Go See This Movie!

edit March 7th:  Went back and saw it again this afternoon.

[leovinus]

Just back from the Smithsonian Air & Space IMAX here in DC where we saw the movie. Wow, just wow.

I was only three when the Eagle landed. After seeing all the still pictures and reading books about Apollo as a kid, making photos of the moon with my 6” telescope, this documentary brings it all together, alive actually.

The endless rows of consoles in launch control, going through maxQ in crisp detail, flying over the moon and perceiving depth in the craters was glorious. The landing with the sequence of 1202 overrides, gripping.  The newfound films and original audio in IMAX just blew me away. The amount of small and new details in there will need time to digest. The LM chasing CSM, the reentry flames, the crawler moving, etc.

And when you leave the Smithonian then an Apollo lander is waiting for you as bonus.

Engineering, team work and inspiration in spades.

Ad astra

[flyright]

I was living in Japan during Apollo 11 and watched it on Japanese TV with an occasional bit of audio getting thru in English. It was great to relive this experience in vivid IMAX.
Glad I brought ear protection. 

[joema]

... Two particular sequences that jumped out at me were the long shot of Eagle approaching Columbia on ascent, and the shot of the engine firing for TLI. I know the whole point of this film is that much of this footage had never been seen before, but I wasn't even aware the TLI shot could be possible....

I had the same reaction. The very brief TLI shot was nothing like this ground-based TLI shot of Apollo 8 from a telescope: https://airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/callout_half/public/images/editoral-stories/thumbnails/Apollo%208%20TLI%20-3.jpg?itok=3o2Cv-xN

It was much more detailed and apparently shot from beneath/behind the S-IVB. There was no sign of atmospheric distortion, so it must have been shot from another spacecraft. I don't think it was a recreation as the filmmakers seemed consistent on using only period material.

I don't remember the ground track at TLI, but if it was over Hawaii it's theoretically possible the Air Force ARPA Midcourse Optical Station (which was active then) could have imaged it using large telescopes at over 10,000 ft. However adaptive optics did not exist then so I doubt it was from this source: https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/amos

There is a similar shot obtained during Apollo 9. Maybe it was that: https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-g7kvt6s/0/47324c1e/X3/i-g7kvt6s-X3.jpg

Re the long film sequence of Eagle approaching Columbia during lunar rendezvous, I think that was just the usual 16mm Maurer film camera. The 130-ft film magazine would last 3.6 minutes at 24 fps and 7.2 minutes at 12 fps. It's interesting the film was very grainy and the filmmakers apparently did not use modern noise reduction methods in post production on that sequence. This was certainly an intentional artistic choice, maybe for authenticity or improved shot-to-shot consistency with other film that would not respond similarly.

[jongoff]

That was great. I'm glad someone talked me into watching that on IMAX. I took my boys (14,12, and almost 10). I had seen bits and pieces of Apollo footage, but I was born almost a decade after the Apollo program wound down, so this is the closest I've ever gotten to being there to watch one of those missions.

The  boys all really enjoyed it, though admittedly I spoiled them young by letting them watch one of our flights at Masten from waaaaaaay too close.

~Jon

[jgoldader]

Saw it tonight, what a wonderful tribute to all who made it happen.  The angle right below the rising Saturn just took my breath away.  Here’s hoping a 4K release is coming!