Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

Recently, our Global 4 class watched a movie called "The Right Stuff". In this movie, The U.S. and the USSR were competing to see who could build the better space program. The U.S. was very determined to have a better space program than the USSR because the USSR had their own successful space program running. After a brave man volunteered and successfully broke the sound barrier while on the X-1, the location where they accomplished this became the place where they tested and experimented with aircraft in the U.S. The U.S. heard that the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, causing them to focus on beating the Soviets in the space race.

The U.S. wanted to find the first astronauts in America to go up into space so they performed all sorts of crazy tests on candidates and those who could endure these tests were chosen. That was the part of the movie that I will remember. I have never seen tests that crazy before. I also did not know that this is what candidates had to go through before fully being able to go into space. I will never forget how many times the U.S. attempted to successfully send of a rocketship. Unfortunately, for the U.S., the Soviet Union beat them in sending astronauts to space. So, the United States had lost the first race. But, soon after, they were competing to see who could be the first to send someone up to the moon. The U.S. had won this race.