From the Earth to the Moon

Episode 01

Can We Do This?

Apr 5, 1998 · 60 min

NASA responds to John F. Kennedy's challenge of landing a man on the moon with a group of new astronauts for the Gemini Program, who work toward the eventual lunar voyage with a series of risky and groundbreaking earth-orbit missions.

Episode 02

Apollo 1

Apr 5, 1998 · 61 min

The tragic death of Apollo's first three astronauts during a pre-launch test haunts the spacecraft's designers, as they struggle to come to terms with what happened, and find a way to save the moon program.

Episode 03

We Have Cleared the Tower

Apr 12, 1998 · 60 min

A documentary film crew follows the final preparations for the first manned Apollo launch. Now behind schedule due to the Apollo 1 fire, astronauts and launch pad personnel bet their lives--and America's space future--on its success.

Episode 04

1968

Apr 12, 1998 · 55 min

NASA takes its boldest and most controversial step—an attempt to fly men around the moon and back for the first time in history—at the end of one of the most cataclysmic years of the century.

Episode 05

Spider

Apr 19, 1998 · 57 min

Engineers at Grumman Aviation work with NASA and the Apollo 9 astronauts to design, build, and finally test-fly the world's first true spaceship—a “lunar module” which will hopefully land the first humans on the moon.

Episode 06

Mare Tranquilitatis

Apr 19, 1998 · 57 min

The glare of the public eye, conflicts among the crew, disastrous simulations, and a series of harrowing last-minute crises threaten the Apollo 11 astronauts' success at pulling off NASA's crowning achievement—the first lunar landing.

Episode 07

That's All There Is

Apr 26, 1998 · 50 min

From the perspective of Astronaut Alan Bean, see how he made an unexpected journey to the moon and his friendship with his Apollo 12 crew mates.

Episode 08

We Interrupt This Program

Apr 26, 1998 · 49 min

As the life-threatening consequences of the Apollo 13 accident escalate in real time, so do the tensions among the NASA press corps covering it. Among them, a respected, old-school TV journalist questions the confrontational methods of a younger, slicker colleague.

Episode 09

For Miles and Miles

May 3, 1998 · 50 min

America's first man in space, Alan Shepard, is grounded with an inner ear disorder. A thankless new desk job starts to look permanent, until fate—and surgery—bring him a chance to rescue the space program.

Episode 10

Galileo Was Right

May 3, 1998 · 56 min

Geology guru Lee Silver helps Dave Scott and his Apollo 15 crew unravel the moon's mysterious origins by teaching them to become his lunar surrogates, and thus the first fully-trained “field observers” on another world.

Episode 11

The Original Wives' Club

May 10, 1998 · 58 min

A group of young military wives struggle with their new “jobs” handling both the national spotlight and a demanding home front. Meanwhile, their astronaut husbands lose themselves in the pursuit of a national goal alternately competitive, glamorous, and deadly.

Episode 12

Le Voyage dans la Lune

May 10, 1998 · 60 min

The bittersweet end of the Apollo program—and the final manned journey to another planet—is juxtaposed with a light-hearted recreation of the first cinematic imagining of such an endeavor, the 1902 French silent classic “Voyage to the Moon.”