Title is a quote from another site. Is that really what the series is about? Seems like every Apple TV- show is extra Woke. Plenty of female fighter pilots in the 60!
shareThis is not an accurate title. In the first episode the Soviets beat us to being the first to put a man on the Moon. They also start building a moon-base, promoting a US attempt as well. Training female astronauts comes as a response to the Soviets putting a women on the Moon first too. In this alternate history, the US is losing the space race in many aspects. Where this show seems to be headed is that continuing the space race, when in real life it stagnated, is leading to a lot of scientific, exploratory, and social advances that didn't happen in our timeline, or took much longer. It's a very interesting premise imho. Especially if you're into alternate history and space exploration.
shareplus it's showing how Nixon was mercurial and paranoid. some nice historical touches.
The Molly Cobb character was based on Geraldyn Cobb. She was really a great pilot and would have been a good candidate as the first female US astronaut.
I do like how they tie the accelerated social / scientific changes in with a more urgent space race.
shareSurely you understand that the timeline of this program diverged in 1967 with Sergi Korolev not dying during surgery? This lead to the N-1 not exploding four times during development and allowing the one man LK lander to reach the lunar surface.
It would have been nice to see more of the Soviet LK progam. The N-1 was more massive than the Saturn V, but it would not bring as much mass to lunar orbit. So one cosmonaut stayed in lunar orbit in the modified Soyuz capsule and one went down to the surface. The LK lander had one engine for ascent and descent, it only left the landing legs on the surface when returning to orbit. Less weight but also less reliable.
Since the Soviets were all about beating the USA, what better way to do it again with a woman on the moon in addition to the time they did it for real back in 1963 with Valentina Tereshkova?
Nixon was vain enough to want to put women into space to be the equal of the Russians. However Deke Slayton was portrayed differently than in real life. The real Deke Slayton refused to be involved with the selection process for the class of astronauts selected to train for the Space Shuttle as they included women. John Glenn was portrayed as his usual extreme chauvinist though.