Join us as we watching a 45 min clip from the upcoming PBS series "Chasing the Moon" before its broadcast premier air date of July 8, 9, and 10.  

The clip we will be watching is titled Saving 1968. People working in the space program “missed the 60s” and the social turmoil that was ravaging the country at the time. After the tragic Apollo 1 fire, confidence in NASA is shaken. More than ever, NASA needs the first unmanned Saturn V rocket launch to succeed and prove to the country that the space program is still worth supporting. Intelligence reports that the Soviets are also making major attempts to get to the moon first accelerates the schedule for the Apollo 8 mission.
Poppy Northcutt, the first woman in an operational role in mission control, gets a lot of attention from press. The 25-year-old mathematics whiz proves herself in the all-male environment anduses her position to promote the idea that women are capable of technical scientific work.
On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launches. NASA, the astronauts’ families, and rest of the nation follow the Christmas mission that successfully circumnavigates the Moon, and as one American fan writes to astronaut Frank Borman afterwards, “saves 1968.”