Documentary
Space Documentary Chronicles Gene Cernan’s Mission As THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON
The Apollo program was a time when true space travel happened. The United States wasn’t just going into space and coming back, it was sending men to another celestial body in our universe. The stakes were very high.
Everything had to work – spacesuits could not leak, rocket engines absolutely had to fire, life support systems could not fail. When you’re a quarter of a million miles away from earth, there are no safety nets. No rescue missions were possible.
What started out as a presidential goal in the early 1960’s turned into the most impressive feat of all mankind. We did something no other country ever did or has done since. Not only once, but six times.
Now comes the story of Gene Cernan – one of the very few men who went to the moon not only once, but twice. He first went to the moon on the Apollo 10 mission. It was the dress rehearsal for Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. His next flight was Apollo 17, the last time men would go to the moon. Riding aboard a Saturn V rocket, the largest and most powerful and impressive rocket that ever successfully flew, he was on man’s last mission to explore earth’s closest neighbor. The first moon landing had one moonwalk which lasted a little over two hours. He had three moonwalks, averaging around 6 hours each. He drove an electric car on the moon, saw and recovered orange soil on the lunar surface, and stood next to lunar boulders that were larger than a house.
There is a small, elite club – with only 12 members. These are the men who actually walked on the moon. They were able to stand on the “ground,” and with their own eyes, look up and see the earth. He is one of them.
His first flight into space, aboard Gemini 9, gave him experience rendezvousing with target spacecraft. The ‘Angry Alligator’ gave him practice with what he would need to know later on when docking with the lunar landing crafts “Snoopy” and “Challenger” for his Apollo missions.
Mission patches from Gemini 9 (1966), Apollo 10 (1969) and Apollo 17 (1972).
Newspaper clippings from Dec. 1972.
THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON is powered by the same adrenaline, drama and raw emotions experienced by former NASA astronaut and Navy Captain Eugene “Gene” Cernan. When Cernan became the last man to step off of the surface of the moon in December 1972, he left his footprints and his daughter’s initials in the lunar dust. Only now is he ready to share his epic and deeply personal story of fulfillment, love and loss.
The film screened in March 2015 at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Sarah Ksiazek wrote in her review, director Mark Craig’s film “is beautifully done, equal parts Gene Cernan’s life and the space program of which he was a member. The visuals and the powerful score come together in such a perfect way.”
Five years in the making, the documentary unveils a wealth of rare archival footage and takes Cernan back to the launch pad at Cape Kennedy (now NASA Kennedy Space Center), to the Arlington National Cemetery, and to his Texas ranch where he tries to find respite from a past that refuses to let him go.
The film features exclusive interviews with former astronauts, such as Apollo 12 crew-members Alan Bean and Dick Gordon and Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell, as well as NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz and Director of Flight Operations Chris Kraft.
THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON will be released in theaters and On Demand February 26, 2016.
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