Long lineups at Cape Kennedy. Every television channel playing the same breathless coverage. Shots of rockets, of men in spacesuits, and of course the ghostly image of people stepping on to the moon for the first time.
If you’re old enough to remember Apollo 11, this documentary above should bring back a lot of warm memories. And even if you’re not (which includes the writer of this article), it gives you a small taste of just how awesome the atmosphere must have been.
“Moonwalk One” is a 1970 documentary directed by Theo Kamecke, and now we’re lucky enough to watch it for free on NASA’s YouTube channel. As soon as you can spare a couple of hours, do watch it.
The first few minutes alone are fun, with dramatic shots of Stonehenge and the Saturn V contrasted with frantic shots of traffic and dancing and signs all over the Cape.
I watched this in five installments:
(1) Until 15:23
(2) Until 45:51
(3) Until 1:08:03
(4) Until 1:25:29
(5) Until 1:41:59 (start of credits)
I tried to make each installment a suitable length for my attention span, and to pause at what seemed like natural breaks in the narrative (insofar as that’s possible without knowing what the next scene is about). My choices worked for me, but it makes me wonder how divergent other people, with similar criteria, would be in their pause-button-pressing decisions.