Rocketmen

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong took his famous giant leap for mankind. This documentary celebrates those who made it possible, the pioneers who took America's first faltering steps into space.
The space race between America and the Soviet Union effectively began in October 1957 with the launch of the unmanned satellite Sputnik. With the world's two superpowers vying for supremacy, progress was swift on both sides, but it was not until April 1961 that Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. America's loss of prestige was felt across the nation, and President Kennedy threw his weight behind the efforts to overtake their rivals and become the first nation to land a man on the moon. In this film, the earliest astronauts in the American programme, who included Armstrong himself and his colleague Buzz Aldrin, talk about their memories of these heady times. They reminisce about the camaraderie and the competition as they describe the expectancy, the fear, and the exhilaration of seeing earth from space. Thrust into the limelight, they became national heroes. Millions watched their missions on television and national holidays were declared in their honour. Later, as successive teams of astronauts undertook bigger and bolder missions, they faded from the public eye, but the importance of their contribution remains undiminished. (texto oficial de la distribuidora)