Moonwalkers still in awe decades later

BY MARTIN MERZER


On the 50th anniversary of the start of the Space Age, a new documentary is
a reminder of America's lofty goals and thrilling achievements.
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Something artificial, something made by humans, circled Earth. It orbited
the planet -- our planet -- every 98 minutes. It was . . . in space.

Nearly 50 years ago, on Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1,
the world's first artificial satellite. It weighed all of 184 pounds.

Less than 12 years later, three American heroes -- that term is employed
here with care and precision -- traveled to the moon, and two of them landed
there.

Now, a new documentary called In the Shadow of the Moon opens Friday in
South Florida theaters, and it serves as a reminder of these things.

Already an award winner at the Sundance Film Festival, the movie tells a
story that cannot grow stale but does require retelling from time to time.

It is the story of the Apollo project, which landed 12 Americans on the moon
between 1969 and 1972.

For older Americans, the movie -- built around restored film footage and the
astronauts' often evocative accounts -- recalls that period of danger and
courage, commitment and innovation, wonder and triumph.

``It was a time when we

made bold moves,'' Jim Lovell, 79, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13
mission, says during the movie.

For younger Americans, it serves as an introduction to an era different in
many respects from today but similar in some.

''That national commitment was based on the nation's space race with the
Soviet Union,'' moonwalker Edgar Mitchell, 77, now an advocate for dealing
with global warming, said in an interview. ``But now we have a challenge
that encompasses the entire world.''

For all Americans, it celebrates a special time in history when we, as a
nation, set a noble goal and found a way to achieve it and ended up on
another world.

''It is kind of hard to believe that I was actually up there,'' Mike
Collins, 76, who remained in the command module 69 miles above the moon as
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot there for the first time, tells the
movie audience.

No, this is not the space shuttle -- a technologically dated cargo truck
that revolves in low Earth orbit, when it isn't breaking down. This is
something different.

``I want to promise you,

I'm human. I wanted to pinch myself to find out whether it was really
happening,'' Gene Cernan, 73, says during the movie. ``I called the moon my
home for three days of my life, and I'm here to tell you about it. That's
science fiction.''

Like the others, he is old now and this may be one of the last chances for
Cernan -- for all of them -- to tell their stories. Nine of the 12
moonwalkers are still alive.

Eight appear in the movie, plus Collins and Lovell, the hard-luck astronaut
who flew around the moon in 1968 and had that near-miss during the Apollo 13
mission. His spaceship was crippled in flight and barely brought home its
crew of three. Only the notoriously private Armstrong declined to appear.

The others, seen in tight close-ups that linger on still-chiseled features,
are surprisingly reflective, sometimes even poetic as their narration
illuminates archival film clips rarely, if ever, seen before by the public.

Charlie Duke, 71, for instance, on gazing at his home planet in its
entirety:

``That jewel of Earth was just hung -- up in the blackness of space.''

Even for Duke and the others, the scale of Apollo's accomplishment remains
difficult to absorb. Many remember the words of President John F. Kennedy as
he defined the challenge on May, 25, 1961:

``I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal
before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him
safely to the Earth.''

Collins: ``Beautiful in its simplicity. Do what? Moon. When? End of
decade.''

A simpler time?

Yes, in some ways. But consider what was required to attain this goal.

For one thing, the United States was far behind the Soviets in the space
race and its rockets were, to put it mildly, unreliable. Nevertheless, men
were recruited to sit atop these things.

''The Atlas boosters were blowing up every other day at Cape Canaveral,''
Lovell says, ``and it looked like a very quick way to have a short career.''

For another, nary a computer was in sight at Mission Control. Much of the
mission was designed -- and the precise orbital mechanics calculated -- with
paper, pencil and slide rule.

Here is what Kennedy said in 1962 about the task:

``We shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in
Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football
field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented,
capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been
experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch,
carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control,
communications, food and survival, on an untried mission to an unknown
celestial body, and then return it safely to Earth, reentering the
atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour . . . and do all this,
and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out.''

And, amazingly, only seven years later, amid an unpopular war and a time of
cultural change, they did it.

Now, the shuttle is set to be retired in 2010, replaced thereafter with a
new vehicle. The Bush administration has established a goal of returning to
the moon and reaching beyond it to Mars.

But the times are different, and the nation is different. The sense of
passion and commitment -- and adventure -- is not even a fraction as evident
now as it was then, when Americans landed on the moon and returned safely to
the earth.

''That was our beginning, and we were all proud to be a part of it,''
Mitchell said.

``We have started on this notion of seeing ourselves in the bigger picture,
like you can see us from space, and now we should apply those ideas to
improving our civilization