Pet Peeve – Painting a Moon Rocket (Wrong)
Why does it seem so difficult for cinema and television to get the roll pattern on the Saturn V correct? The most famous of the incorrectly painted Saturn V’s is from the movie “Apollo 13.” Just as in so many other screen appearances, the Saturn V is painted incorrectly for a flight vehicle (including Apollo 13). Why? The launch of … Read More
The Blog is Back!
The new Spacecraft Films blog is now live, with new features and content. Our initial schedule for our new features: Every Thursday check in for a rotating feature – “Pet Peeves” and “Oddities,” pointing out mistaken or misleading space history, as well as unusual topics we’ve run across in our research. Every Friday check in for the weekly quiz. This week … Read More
Take the Real Space In Cinema Quiz
Welcome to our quizzes! Every Friday we’ll present a different quiz; some will feature cultural questions on spaceflight, some hardware, some operations, some history. Some quizzes will be easy, and some will be very hard. Each week we will select winners from the highest scores (that take the quiz before Monday) for a special prize(s). Since this is the first … Read More
Live From The Moon Available On Demand
Our acclaimed documentary Live From the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television is now available online, through Vimeo’s on demand feature. The program has a runtime of 98 minutes. The program is presented in HD, and has never been seen on television in the United States. (It has appeared in many other countries, Japan, the Middle East, and several others). Live … Read More
Hawaii and the Apollo Astronauts
Recently a story made the circuit telling of rare photos of the astronauts on geology field training, particularly in Hawaii. Despite some rather massive “never-before-seen” hyperbole by the press (they’ve been around for years); the story appears to have originated from Rob Kelso, executive director of the Pacific International Space Center. Kelso went on search for the photos to document … Read More
The Strange Case of the Zambian Space Program
Edward Makuka was an optimist. Beginning in 1964, Makuka headed up a space program started by newly-independent Zambia – a program designed to land an African on the Moon, and catch up to the Soviet Union and the United States in the space race. After serving with the British in World War II, Makuka became a grade school teacher. After … Read More
Are you a Turtle?
The Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles began in World War II among pilots. Legend traces the order to the 8th Air Force in England, among pilots flying daytime bombing missions over Germany. The Turtle Creed: “Turtles are bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, fearless and unafraid folk with a fighter pilot attitude. They think clean, have fun a lot, and recognize the fact … Read More