Last year, the Apollo 50 Festival was held on the National Mall in Washington, DC. At this time, the National Air and Space Museum produced this event. It was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. Since I can remember, my dad fostered an interest in the space program. With this in mind, I thoroughly studied the vehicles used to send people into space. However, I have never seen a rocket launch live.
Last summer, we made it out to the Mall to see the ‘Go For the Moon’ show. A projection was sent onto a side of the Washington Monument. Being that I was a STEM student throughout my academic career, I was inspired by the crowd that gathered out there that summer night. NASA and the space program was the impetus for so many to get into the sciences. For those that have not seen an American rocket launch, this was a great demonstration. Pairing it with inspiring words from JFK, a soaring musical soundtrack, and the projection of the Saturn V rocket would probably inspire another generation to continue space exploration now!
I hope all of you had a nice Thanksgiving weekend! It was another nice day for family gatherings with a long weekend. It comes in handy to recover from all the eating and visiting. With the break, I took some time to see a new feature film playing in a real IMAX theater. At this time we went to the National Air and Space Museum in downtown Washington, DC. Being Black Friday, I did not expect too as many people filing into a museum.
There was a line through security, and all the exhibits had people going through them for most of the day. It was encouraging seeing as this was probably the only museum that I requested to visit as a child that was enamored with the space shuttle program, and all the technology that has come from aeronautical research. This was the perfect setting to watch the movie, Interstellar.
This movie is another good story told by director Christopher Nolan. For me, he creates films where I end up really pulling for characters to overcome obstacles as they strive to accomplish an almost impossible goal. Technically, Nolan has used the IMAX to his advantage in previous movies like The Dark Knight, and seeing it in a real IMAX theater can make panoramic vistas look even grander, and can make simple dialog scenes very intimate. It teaches lots of photographic lessons of framing, composition, and he uses the effect to really enhance the storytelling.
Science Fiction
The almost 3-hour movie did not seem much longer than an hour and a half. The musical score by Hans Zimmer was very celestial to go along with the space travel focus. Overall the keyboard was used throuhgout. It sounded like old pipe organs, and synthesizer pads that reminded me of scores from many 1980’s science fiction movies. The sound also had a lot space with the reverberating chords. In an IMAX theater, the volume and strong low-end tones added to the dramatic action scenes. The collaboration between Zimmer and Nolan has spanned a few films including the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. Again, it works well here. I am listening to the sound track again now to catch more of the subtleties. For sure it was hard to not be distracted by the visuals.
Without giving away the movie, I really connected with the motivation of the characters. They have ambitions to save the world, do tasks that are in the best interests of their families, and to leave the human race in a better place than they are now. It is very inspiring to see these themes told in such a big movie, then to walk out of the theater and see the actual machines that were very much a part of the recent non-fictional past can be inspiring. Hopefully many in the 3 sold-out shows that evening felt the same way!
There are some sad postings for memorials at the NASA website this week. The Apollo 1, Challenger, and the upcoming Columbia anniversaries are all this week. Although I was not around for Apollo, my childhood is framed around the era of the Space Shuttle.
GCB
The interest in space was instilled by my father. He was an architect, which would discuss engineering, design, and accomplishments of the space program. I had models of the shuttle on the back of a Boeing 747 as a background for many photos. I wish I could find one right now. We never made it to a launch in Florida, but we did visit the Kennedy Space Center on family vacations. I still have 2 space shuttle launches on VHS tape in the archive – the NBC coverage of STS-6 when Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, and STS-8 the first night launch of the shuttle.
He would explain to me the technical aspects of launching – how the boosters would be used for only part of the launch, then fall back to earth, and how the shuttle would fly with it’s bay doors open, then glide back to earth like a airplane. In a time well-before the internet, he provided me with books, magazines, and all the information I could want on the space program. We went to Dulles airport in 1985 when the Enterprise was delivered prior to display at the Air & Space Museum. It would be almost 20 years until the aircraft would be displayed at the new museum in Chantilly, VA.
NASA Delivery
Last year, the Enterprise was being replaced at the museum by Discovery. It would be flown in just as in 1985 with flyovers giving the public many chances to see it before landing. It was a beautiful morning, and the views were perfect to see this marvelous machine as it retires. This was a personal memorial for my father who gave me an appreciation for the Space Shuttle program and astronauts and engineers that gave us pride in our resourcefulness and imagination. If he was still with us, I’m sure he would have been out there shooting a camera with me.
