Spy satellite photos prove to Washington that the Soviets may be ahead of America in the race to create a heavy-lift launch vehicle that could propel a manned spacecraft toward the moon, and when Grumman falls behind its timetable on deliver the lunar module, it appears that the United States is preparing to condede yet another vital milestone in the space race. NASA managers devise a startling and very risky plan to keep America ahead – two missions will be swapped. Apollo 8, a mission planned to take the first lunar module into lunar orbit for a no-landing test of its control systems, will be postponed, becoming Apollo 9. A new Apollo 8 mission is created, taking only the command and service modules along. The Apollo 8 crew is led by Frank Borman, who was instrumental in the investigation of the Apollo 1 fire. But as the events of 1968 grow darker with each month, with the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, Borman’s wife Susan becomes increasingly convinced that her husband’s mission, like everything else that has happened that year, will end in tragedy.
written by Al Reinert
directed by David Frankel
music by Michael KamenCast: Brandon Ambrose (Edwin Borman), Sam Anderson (Thomas Paine), David Andrews (Frank Borman), Robert John Burke (Bill Anders), Maury Covington (CIA #2), Tim Daly (Jim Lovell), Keith Dickerson (Engineer), Steve DuMouchel (NASA rep.), Cary Elwes (Michael Collins), Tracy Frenkel (Rocco Petrone), David Drew Gallagher (Retro), Andrew Heller (CIA #1), Jim Howard (William Schneider), Steve Howard (Capcom), John Carroll Lynch (Bob Gilruth), Andy Milder (GUIDO), Holmes Osborne (George Low), Eric Paisley (BBC news reader), Mike Pniewski (Surgeon), Robert Quinn (EECOM), Michael Roddy (FIDO), Stephen Root (Chris Kraft), Nick Searcy (Deke Slayton), Brian Shields (Fred Borman), Kurt Smildsin (Flight Director #1), Lane Smith (Emmett Seaborn), Graham Timbes (Flight Director #2), Kristian Truelson (Kurt Debus), Robert Walker (GNC TELMU), Rick Warner (Julian Bowman), Norbert Weisser (Wernher Von Braun), John Wickersham (FIDO), Rita Wilson (Susan Borman), Steve Zurk (George Hage)
LogBook entry by Earl Green