April 7, 2019

Feature Documentary on Women in Space Opens at Florida Film Festival This Week (Source: Florida Film Festival)
The Florida Film Festival has chosen 'Woman In Motion' as the opening-night film for the 2019 Florida Film Festival in Orlando. With three theaters participating, this will be the largest opening ever for the Florida Film Festival. Woman In Motion is a feature-length documentary about the recruitment of the first women and minority astronauts for the Space Shuttle program. The astronauts were recruited by Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek's Lt. Uhura.

In early 1977, Nichols was appointed to the board of directors for the National Space Institute where she defiantly challenged NASA with one idea: “Where are my people?” From that moment on, Nichols and her company Women In Motion crisscrossed the United States recruiting 8,000 men and women to swell the ranks of diversity in the fledgling shuttle program. Click here. (4/6)

Dear Vice President Pence, About That Moon Shot ... (Source: Huntsville Times)
Dear Vice President Pence, I was one of the local reporters in the Saturn V Hall at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville last month when you said our country will return American astronauts – men and women – to the surface of the moon in five years. We’ve been talking about it here ever since, asking the big questions like, “Is it possible?” and the slightly smaller questions like, “Do they mean it?” It’s been very stimulating.

I’ve heard you also had a question while touring the center. It was about the NASA program that built the giant Saturn V rocket in the hall where you spoke. “How did they do it?” you reportedly asked. I think part of the answer might be in a new documentary called “When We Were Apollo” screened at the rocket center Thursday night. It was made by two young filmmakers named Zachary Weil and John Filson, and it’s the best film about Apollo I’ve ever seen. Click here. (4/5)