Fearful that the Russians would continue their lead in the space race and be the first to put a man on the moon, NASA felt an enormous pressure to push the Apollo Program forward as quickly as possible, though they knew that pushing too hard could lead to the ultimate disaster. This film recreates the tensions that were felt not only by the three astronauts, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, but also by their families and by the teams of technicians training to deal with anything that could go wrong.

Factual errors: All Apollo landings were done with the sun directly behind the lunar module.

Written by Joe South (as J. South)
Performed by Deep Purple
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc./EMI Records UK
by arrangement with Warner Special Products