The docu-series, The Right Stuff, showcases the real life events that led to NASA’s venture into space and its mission, Mercury 7
A gravity defying story, The Right Stuff, a documentary-series, shuttles into the realities of one of the first-ever missions of NASA. At its early stages of being six months old in 1959, NASA chose a team for an incredible project that would change the scope of space and man’s travel into the depths of the worlds beyond our own. The series showcases the real life story, displaying America’s journey into space and how they began a programme that created celebrities in a life-changing competition between ambitious astronauts and their families for money, stardom and immortality.
Here are a few events the story is based on:
Based on the bestselling book by Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff
The book extensively captured the true stories of the pilots engaged in the Project Mercury Mission. Wolfe interviewed test pilots, the astronauts, and their wives to unearth the stories and the missions’ challenges.
TV adaptation of the 1983 eponymous film
The eight-episode season, an adaptation of the 1983 released film, The Right Stuff by Philip Kauffman, is an inspirational look at the early days of the US Space Programme and the iconic story of America’s first astronauts, the Mercury 7.
NASA’s Project Mercury
The mission Project Mercury was a NASA programme that launched the first Americans into space. Seven astronauts were chosen for the mission and they were called the ‘Mercury 7’, who were — Alan Shepard, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, and Deke Slayton.
Alan Shepard’s story
Played by Jake McDorman in the series, Alan was the first American to enter space in 1961. He named his spacecraft Freedom 7. The 15-minute flight went into space and came back down. Ten years later, Shepard also journeyed to the moon as the commander of Apollo 14.
The Mercury 7 flew separate spacecrafts
Gus Grissom was the second astronaut after Shepard to fly in Project Mercury followed by John Glenn who was the first American to orbit Earth in his spacecraft Friendship 7. Scott Carpenter later flew on Aurora 7 with Wally Schirra taking up the mission next, on his Sigma 7. Gordon Cooper flew on the last Mercury mission where he spent 34 hours circling Earth in his capsule, Faith 7. Deke Slayton was part of the Project Mercury astronauts but had to fly on a separate mission in 1975 owing to his poor health.
Making the Project Mercury mission safer
A rhesus monkey, Sam, and two chimpanzees, Ham and Enos, flew in Mercury capsules to make the Mercury 7 mission safer. NASA had developed flights prior to the mission to ensure the basic safety measures were covered so that they could launch a human into space with the mission. This was the first lesson in learning how to enable orbiting the universe and flying a spacecraft.
(NatGeo’s docu-series streams on Disney+ Hotstar Premium.)