Comrades:

I took the kids and SWMBO to the show this afternoon to see Hidden Figures. It was an excellent movie and good for children. For those of you unaware, the movie is based upon a book of the same name telling the story of African-American women with high math aptitude (well into the gifted catagory) who worked at Langley Space Center during Project Mercury as essentially, human computers. It is a story of race in America in 1961. There are some uncomfortable, racial-based moments in the movie, but the kids asked good questions afterwards, so entertaining and educational.

The story played a little loose with the time lines from Gagarin to Glenn for dramatic effect. The computer effects, especially the Russian rockets, were great and the historical footage was well done as well. Any factual deviation I was aware of didn't distract from the movie or the story. Jim Parsons and Kevin Costner were great in support as were Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae in the lead rolls.

It joins the list of great space movies we've had over the last several years: Apollo 13, Gravity, Interstellar and The Martian.

Two Thumbs Up/ 5 stars. Recommended for the whole family.

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On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Agreed, excellent movie..our Grandson watched it and now wants to study Aerospace Engineering.

Also agree, and the book is also an excellent read.

Just saw it this weekend and agree totally. I'm hoping to see it with my daughter at some point. The amazing thing is that it took so long for this story to come out.

Also, I'm a sucker for anything covering the 60's space program. It's so dramatic no matter how many times you see it portrayed.

Heartily agreed! Wernher von Braun also didn't make himself popular with Alabama Governor George Wallace (this was before he had his change of heart regarding race), encouraging the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center that he headed to hire talented black engineers and technicians for the Saturn program, in disregard of their race.

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The special FX showing the R-7 launch was good, except for ONE small detail they got wrong...

Anybody know what it was?? I'll reveal the answer in a later post once you guys have had a chance to think about it and chime in...

I thought the movie was very good. I took my mom to see it at the Cole Theater in Hallettsville a few weeks ago. We both really enjoyed it. Loved the old cars and the early 60's furnishings and furniture and stuff. As someone else said, I'm always a sucker for the early space program...

Later! OL J R

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I'll take a guess that there was too much exhaust smoke from the rocket

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Scott Pennington

No... not as I recall... IIRC the CGI smoke was a little heavy, more like SRB smoke than kerosene rocket engine smoke, which is virtually clear once the rocket is underway when the rocket engines are hot and running right... BUT, that is NOT the goof they made...

I'll see if anybody else chimes in tomorrow and then tell yall where they totally goofed...

Later! OL J R

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I haven't seen the movie so I can't say what was wrong.
I'll take a guess and say it was a newer version of the R7 or the wrong color, just a guess!

A few other movies weren't mentioned like 'The Right Stuff' and 'Marooned'. I'll bet there is more, I just can't think of them now.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

It was at staging of the R-7 when the four boosters fall away... In the movie, they show them detaching at the front and pivoting back and away, and then the rear of the boosters separating and all four boosters falling away pointing with their noses away from each other and the central core booster. This is incorrect.

The R-7 boosters are indeed attached by struts at the back to maintain their alignment with the core booster, but the front attachment is a "slipper", a sort of "ball and socket" arrangement that transfers the thrust from the boosters into the core vehicle at its "waist"... When the R-7's boosters jettison, the rear struts are severed while the engines are still thrusting... this causes them to pivot up and away from the core booster, with the front end ball and socket connection of the "slipper" providing the pivot point. Thrust is terminated and the booster then slips free of the core as the slipper slides out of the socket, and the boosters fall behind the still thrusting core into a tumble.

This unusual staging method leads to the famed "Korolev cross" visible from the ground when the boosters stage off the main vehicle... a "+" shaped pattern in the smoke trail of the rocket caused by the tail-off thrust of the boosters venting essentially "sideways" to the direction of flight immediately before the boosters disengage and tumble away.

https://youtu.be/Uf1Wu1BT5jo

Later! OL J R

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