The Maverick Bluestocking on Space

This isn’t a post about astrophysics or even about the still silent space inside you. It’s about my favourite film. Today on the blogging challenge we are invited to write about our favourite film or TV programme and my best movie of all time, hands down, is Apollo 13. It tells the story of the three Apollo astronauts who, in 1970, set off for the moon but encountered a malfunction which meant they nearly didn’t get home. In the end, of course, against the odds, they made it home and the whole world breathed a sigh of relief.

I am old enough to remember the Apollo missions, watching Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon and waiting, with the rest of the world, for the Apollo 13 astronauts to land in the sea. I was seven, and along with other little children all over the world we said prayers for their safe return.

This morning I have been asking myself why this film is so important to me. Of course, it is always satisfying somehow to watch a film about an event you remember, but it is more than that. The story of Apollo 13 is a modern fairy tale. They set off with high hopes of walking on the moon, then when things went wrong the whole adventure seemed tragically doomed. The goal was shifted, from walking on the moon to simply returning safely. Even that looked like a tall order. Although public interest in the Apollo missions had dwindled, the drama brought everyone’s attention right back. And the celebrations when the revised goal was reached were much greater than they would have been if the first had been achieved. That says something about success, doesn’t it?

I’ve also been asking myself whether this story will live on to be part of the mythology of future generations, whatever form that might take. We know what really happened, but maybe in a few hundred years the story will live on, no-one knowing for sure how much of it is based in reality and how much is embellishment. But there will be lessons taught and learned on the basis of it, just as we teach and learn from the ancient mythologies that form our heritage now.

Story is quite a theme for me at the moment. The stories we tell ourselves that hold us back, the stories we tell others to teach and illustrate, and the stories that we use to make sense of things. I’ll be exploring this further in my newsletter this weekend. Sign up below if you’d like to be sure of receiving a copy.