Category Archives: Space films and videos

Activism, Multiple media, Space films and videos

Video: “Wanderers”

November 30, 2014 TopSpacer

A marvelous acclamation of the pull of wanderlust :

Each of the places depicted in Wanderers is an actual place in our solar system. When real photos or map data was available, Wernquist used them to guide his digital recreations. You can read about each of the places and their scientific basis in an accompanying gallery of stills:leaving our home planet, surfing the rings of Saturn, basking above Jupiter’s epic storms,mining asteroids, and so much more.

Solar Sci-Fi, Space films and videos

“The Right Stuff” oral history + The “Ascension” mini-series

November 23, 2014 TopSpacer

The movie The Right Stuff, based on Tom Wolfe’s novel about the Mercury 7 astronauts and the test pilot culture from which they emerged, was not a huge box office success when it was released in 1983. However, it was well reviewed and got many film award nominations and wins and subsequently it has become quite a cult favorite.

Here is an extensive collection of memories about the making of the film from those who helped to make it : An Oral History of the Epic Space Film The Right Stuff – WIRED.

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Scott Lowther has posted a gallery of images and videos about the three-night miniseries called Ascension that will broadcast on the Syfy channel starting December 15th: The “Ascension” Orion – The Unwanted Blog.

The plot goes as follows:

in 1963, with JFK freaking out that nuclear war was soon going to wipe out mankind, the US secretly launched a starship on a 100-year mission to another system.

Here’s one of the trailers:

http://youtu.be/uXT0QGLh5c4

Asteroids & Comets, Space films and videos

Video: ‘Ambition’ a sci-fi short film

October 24, 2014 TopSpacer

A very impressive short film in tribute to ESA’s Rosetta mission to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: Rosetta: the ambition to turn science fiction into science fact – ESA

Ambition is a collaboration between Platige Image and ESA. Directed by Tomek Bagiński and starring Aiden Gillen and Aisling Franciosi, Ambition was shot on location in Iceland, and screened on 24 October 2014 during the British Film Institute’s celebration of Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder, at the Southbank, London.

Here’s a video about the making of Ambition:

History, Space films and videos

Video: ‘Women in Space’ – PBS Makers documentary

October 16, 2014 TopSpacer

PBS has posted a video of the documentary aired this week about the history of women space travelers: Women in Space | MAKERS Season 2 | PBS –

Makers: Women in Space traces the history of women pioneers in the U.S. space program. Some, like aviators Wally Funk and Jerrie Cobb, passed the same grueling tests as male astronauts, only to be dismissed by NASA, the military, and even Lyndon Johnson, as a distraction. It wasn’t until 1995 that Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a spacecraft. The program includes interviews with Collins, as well as Sally Ride’s classmates Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon and Kathryn Sullivan, and features Mae Jemison, the first woman of color astronaut, and Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station. The hour ends with the next generation of women engineers, mathematicians and astronauts—the new group of pioneers, like Marleen Martinez, who continue to make small but significant steps forward.