Man’s exploration of space and its climax in the American moon landings have provided the world with iconic sounds and images of the late twentieth century. Travelling across millions of miles, these sounds and images have become lodged in the public conscious as the most powerful of collective memories. They speak both of breathtaking technological achievement and of the courage of the men, and woman, who risked their lives in striving to be more than human and to be more than just of this Earth. As John F. Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the Moon, not because it is easy but because it is hard."


This is the first comprehensive exploration of the role played by film and television systems in enabling these feats of interplanetary exploration to be witnessed by audiences of hundreds of millions of people. Using material from the NASA archives, expert and enthusiast Michael Allen traces the parallel development and interdependency of space and media technologies during the Space Race -- of satellite surveillance and interplanetary probes, early Russian successes and the American missions that landed men on the moon. He also chronicles the part played by film and television in recording what was, and is, man’s greatest leap: the exploration of outer space and other planets.