User Reviews

For its time this is an outstanding episode about the exploration of space. Not only do we see the square jawed American heroes but the families bravely standing behind them supporting them in their achievements. The matching of stock footage and purpose shot film inside the control room is outstanding and at times it is easy to forget we are watching a fictional TV show and not a documentary from the era. When the central drama unfolds the resemblance to the actions and reactions around the world show an uncanny likeness to scenes witnessed when the real life Apollo 13 drama unfolded. Anyone with either an interest in the early days of TV science fiction or the beginnings of the space program will enjoy this series immensely

When the second-stage booster fails to disengage, the three astronauts on the first 'round the moon' rocket (the XMP-13, a prophetic mission number) are forced to do extra-vehicular repairs, which results in one man drifting helplessly in space. This is the pilot episode of the 'docu-drama' style futurist show 'Men into Space', which had extensive support from the Dept. Of Defense and the U. S. A. F. (note the lengthy list of technical credits at the end) who insisted on realism and, considering the budget available for a TV series, the show is quite accurate, notably the depiction of weightlessness in freefall and the complexity of manned space flight (but as usual cannot resist the inclusion sound in the vacuum of space). Conveniently, reporters occasionally ask questions that allow for the 'science' of space travel to be explained (e.g. How can McCauley stand on the outside of a spaceship moving at 25,000 mph?). The program was released in the early days of the 'space race' and well into the cold war but makes a case for international cooperation - when asking for help in locating the drifting astronaut, the Americans initially ask the "Free World" but quickly amend that to a request to the entire world, and later, when various observatories are reporting the man's position, one is Russian. William Lundigan stars as Col. Edward McCauley, the only major constant character in the series (although a couple of other officers and McCauley's son and wife (Angie Dickenson in the pilot, Joyce Taylor otherwise) appear in a number of episodes).