| The Space Race began on October 4, 1957 with the | | | | up rocketry, eventually becoming a NASA engineer. |
| launch of Sputnik and ended on July 17, 1975 with the | | | | While attending Big Creek High School in 1960, he led |
| rendezvous of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft. | | | | a group of boys who built rockets. They called |
| Between those dates, humans walked, drove, and | | | | themselves the Big Creek Missile Agency. They went |
| played golf on the moon. It is hard to believe that | | | | on to win the National Science Fair and full college |
| more than 30 years later, many kids are unaware of | | | | scholarships. Perhaps the best historical element of |
| this amazing time. Here are five awarding films that | | | | this film is its combination of Space Race dreams |
| can bring it alive for them. | | | | with West Virginia coal town reality. This film |
| Apollo 13 tells the story of Commander James A. | | | | introduces kids to the concept of company towns in |
| Lovell, Command Module pilot John L. "Jack" Swigert, | | | | which everyone lived in company houses, sent their |
| and Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise, who launched | | | | kids to the company school, and shopped in a |
| from earth on April 11, 1970 in the ill-fated Apollo 13. | | | | company store. It also gently introduces them to the |
| Two days after the launch, an explosion caused by | | | | union movements of the fifties, along with the |
| an electrical fault in an oxygen tank crippled the | | | | powerful draw space flight had on everyday |
| Apollo spacecraft. Despite great hardship caused by | | | | Americans at the time. |
| severe constraints on power, the crew successfully | | | | From Earth to the Moon is a Golden Globe winning |
| returned to Earth. The mission was thus called a | | | | twelve episode miniseries that relates the entire |
| "Successful Failure." This wonderful award winning film | | | | space race, from the Mercury and Gemini projects to |
| certainly brings that moment to life. | | | | the legendary Apollo missions. It may not be star |
| The Right Stuff tells the story of NASA's Mercury | | | | studded, but it tells the full story and entertains at |
| Program, and the seven men chosen to lead the | | | | the same time. |
| missions, Malcolm Scott Carpenter, "Gordo" Cooper, | | | | In the Shadow of the Moon is a wonderful |
| Jr., John Glenn, "Gus" Grissom, "Wally" Schirra, Alan | | | | award-winning documentary that brought together |
| Shepard, and "Deke" Slayton. Full of brilliant | | | | the surviving members of NASA's Apollo missions and |
| performances, this film will keep you riveted while it | | | | allowed them to tell their story in their own words. |
| educates. | | | | Mixed with archival footage, we get to meet the |
| Wonderfully kid friendly, October Sky tells the story | | | | men who lived the experience and actually walked on |
| of Homer Hickam, son of a West Virginia coal miner | | | | the moon. |
| who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take | | | | |