Okay, posters, can someone briefly answer how much of this movie is true? Being "based on truth" is much different than being true to history.
I thought this was a GREAT movie - just saw it on HBO. :o) Well done, entertainment wise.
Since I wasn't born when all of this happened, I don't know about this period in history, other than what I watch and read. ;-)
THANKS!
Jo
That's a tough one that I'd leave to other's as I'm too long winded..
As for the story of what went on at the dish during the week of the
Apollo landing on the moon, it's "loosely" based on what happened.
They did not have the power blackout problems of loosing the link
to the spacecraft, however they did have the windstorm, one of the
worst for that area. There were characters such as he person from
NASA in the states on hand to help operate. And there was a tech
like Mitch who "steered" the dish. In the real case, the tech that
steered the dish was not even allowed to watch the video from the
moon. The monitor was behind him and he had to steer the dish by
watching the signal strength on a meter and adjusting as the
moon walk occured. If you go to the Parkes website, there are
two pdf. files that layout what actually happened during that
week in precise detail, with lots of pictures of the real techs
that did he work. It also explains in more detail the interaction
of Parkes with the other sources of video from the moon recv.
at other stations in Australia and the US, and Canary Islands.
And some goofy stuff did actually happen, such as some of the
pictures from the LEM coming back upside down or backwards,
or negative (black for white), and lots of quick last minute
fixes such as big ugly switches installed to flip the picture.
And they did have problems with NASA providing the wrong
coordinates! And to take it to extremes, they were so scared
of loosing the main power to the dish that they did a practice
run where 3 men actually hand cranked the dish through a practice
"moon landing"!! They were able to do it, but no one ever wanted
to have to do it again..
Ok, I'm going to stop before I make it any more confusing..
d.