Lights, Camera, Faction!

So it appears NASA is going back to the moon. They need to be careful here as this could add more to the theory that they never went in the first place. With all the movie remakes that have been released of late it may look to a conspiracy nutter that NASA is just remaking (or reimagining) it's previous blockbuster series Apollo. I liked Buzz (accidentally given the nickname by his sister who pronounced brother as buzzzer and subsequently made it his real first name) Aldrin's solution when approached recently on the question of whether the whole moon landing thing was just an elaborate hoax to demonstrate the superior technology of the USA to it's cold war adversary Russia. He twated the guy.

However, if you wanted to make a movie about Cold War space travel pioneers you could do a lot worse than the story of Vladimir Komarov. Just read this exert of the Soyuz 1 flight taken from Wikipedia;

Problems began shortly after launch when one solar panel failed to unfold, leading to a shortage of power for the spacecraft's systems. Further problems with the orientation detectors complicated maneuvering the craft. By orbit 13, the automatic stabilization system was completely dead, and the manual system was only partially effective. By this time, the crew of the second Soyuz had modified their mission goals, preparing themselves for a launch that would include fixing the solar panel of Soyuz 1. Heavy rain at Baikonur is reported to have made the launch impossible. It is believed that, in reality, Soyuz 2 never launched because of the severity of problems with Soyuz 1 in orbit.

As a result of Komarov's orbit 13 report, the flight control director began making preparations for the abort and reentry attempt. Valentina, wife and mother of two, was brought in and seated at a private console for a few precious moments. Vladimir Komarov, who was ill from the violent motions of his ship, remained calm and was able to say good-bye.

After 18 orbits, Soyuz 1 fired retro-rockets and was deorbited as soon as it passed above the USSR again, although the pilot had little control. Despite all of the technical difficulties up to that point, Komarov might still have landed safely, but the main parachute did not unfold due to problems with a pressure sensor, and the manually deployed reserve chute tangled, making the spacecraft fall to Earth nearly unbraked, at about 400 miles per hour. Large retro-rockets should have fired to further slow the descent. Instead, at impact, there was an explosion and an intense fire surrounded the capsule. Local farmers rushed to try to put it out, but Komarov would have already been dead, from impact.

The man was a true hero. He was both forced and compelled to fly the mission. Forced by the highest powers in the Soviet 'Cold War' machine in order to prove superior pre-lunar flight capabilities, including a docking procedure, to their American competitors. He was also compelled, both by a love for his country and his also his friend. Despite knowing that the Soyuz craft was almost certainly not up to the flight he remained as mission pilot as he didn't want risk the life of the mission backup pilot and close friend Yuri Gagarin. It's reported that this incident is the reason Gagarin left the space programme. Gagarin once said, "...if I ever find out he (Brezhnev) knew about the situation and still let everything happen, then I know exactly what I'm going to do." Less than a year later Gagarin dies in a routine training flight. If you want conspiracy theories, forget NASA.

Can anyone else see the movie here?