3109

To me the gold standard is From the Earth to the Moon

It is 12 episodes in length - while it is a dramatization, it is incredible.

3110

HBO announced last week that they’re going to re-release Earth to the Moon with 2019-era visual effects, in honor of the 50th anniversary! No more 1998-era CGI!

3111

When We Left Earth is excellent.

3112

My friend @spacemonkey gifted me that series. I love it so. I love the James Newton Howard score in particular. I particularly like the opening–which I understand was actually written by Michael Kamen, but I may be wrong–and that this friend would sing along simple lyrics to it. He had a tendency to do that for various themes.

“From the Earth to the Moon…is…where we’re…goin’.”

-xtien

3113

…and this is finally happening:

3114

As James Lovell would say, “NOICE!”

-xtien

3115

And Xtien…did you happen to see the recent Apollo 11 film? I found it pretty stunning…and I didn’t even see it in IMAX (which I confess I regret).

3116

I did not. Now I shall make it so. Thank you for the recommendation.

-xtien

3117

I bought the blu-ray. There is just so much new footage that blew me away…and it is in amazing shape. They basically built a new machine capable of transferring and digitizing the original film at a monstrously-high resolution.

3118

I’ll second that. I found it incredibly moving.

3119

I watched the first episode of Chasing the Moon on PBS last night and liked it a lot. It provides more of a cultural perspective, so instead of your standard views of the rockets lifting off, you get views of the various spectators and engineers watching the rockets lift off. It’s a nice compliment to the other series like When We Left Earth.

3120

It really is just ridiculously well done, and as @ChristienMurawski notes the score is spectacular. That series, incidentally, is based on Andrew Chaiken’s excellent A Man on the Moon, which is thoroughly researched and very easy to read.

I particularly appreciate that both the book and the series are not singularly preoccupied with Apollo 11, but instead give lots of time to the missions leading up to that great achievement, as well as the oft-neglected (but scientifically more important in most cases) missions that came after.

3121

Hey this is kinda cool! Might have to go down to the Mall and check it out.

3122

I think that would get me to double dip!

3123

If you have Apollo 13 on bluray or DVD check if you have it with commentary. There should be one by Howard and another one with Jim Lovell along with his wife Marilyn. It’s amazing.

3124

I watched Apollo 13 again the other night. It’s taken me I don’t know how many viewings to realize that the “actor” in the Navy captain’s uniform that Tom Hanks shakes hands with at the end of the film is Capt. Jim Lovell.

3125
3126

Looks like Hayabusa 2’s touchdown went well:


More detail here, but it’s paywalled:

https://www.ft.com/content/9c84bdbe-a383-11e9-974c-ad1c6ab5efd1

3127

Amazing that a probe launched over 40 years ago still functions in some capacity and that they still have equipment running to properly communicate with it.

3128

I watched most of Chasing the Moon, I’d like it a lot. It discussed a lot of the politics of going to the moon, all the Southern Democrats who had to paid off with program in their district. Example Houston space center. A very well done section on the Apollo 1 fire. The CNN film Apollo 11 was impressive in IMAX, but watching again on the little screen it was a little cold.

I’m so glad they will be re-releasing the Earth to the Moon, definitely the gold standard.