ROCKETSHIP VIDEO Feature

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DESTINATION MOON:
 The LIFE Magazine Article

     In the April 24, 1950 issue of LIFE Magazine a photospread featured coverage of the upcoming movie release DESTINATION MOON , one of the most historically significant of the 50s rocketship films.  This article was considered landmark coverage for the science fiction field at the time and in part helped to kick off the space craze of the 1950's.

     Featuring a combined effort of producer George Pal and noted SF author Robert Heinlein, DESTINATION MOON was the first film to put forth the new opportunities in front of the United States and the rest of the world in the years following World War II.  It was the first serious treatment of the subject of space travel in the US and made a powerful case, in the early days of the Cold War and in the days following the USSR's development of the Bomb, for space exploration as a matter of national and world security.

     Intended to be as accurate a depiction of a trip to the moon as possible, the feature won an Academy Award for its special effects, which were ably assisted by noted SF artist Chesley Bonestell, who provided the detailed and very realistic visualizations of the moon's surface.

This text ran below the top picture on the left:

 

"DESTINATION MOON"

Four daring Americans make the first lunar landing in a rocket ship in order to protect world peace

     Believing that the nation which controls the moon will also control the world, four U.S. patriots prepare to take off in a 150-foot rocket ship based in the Mohave desert.  Strapped to their respective crash couches inside the rocket, the four heroes await the final count-off: 30...29...28...27 -- each man braces himself; 14...13...12...11  -- sweat pours out of every face; 4...3...2...1 -- FIRE!  A cataclysmic roar!  A blinding flash!  A mighty shudder!  The ship catapults skywards.  Inside, the din is deafening.  Then suddenly there is dead silence as the rocket zooms faster than the speed of sound and the blast-off is complete.  Forty-six hours later, after several mid-voyage mishaps (above), the ship settles down the the crater Harpalus, high in the moon's northern latitudes.

     Such goings on make Destination Moon, a Technicolor movie to be released this summer, the most authentic attempt so far to picture a lunar expedition.  Photographed mostly on a huge Hollywood stage (next page), the movie met its chief obstacle in the form of important scientific visitors who poked around the painted craters just to get an idea of what a trip to the moon might really be like.                                                   -----