For Christmas, my brother’s family gave me the DVD set of Tom Hanks’ mini-series “From the Earth to the Moon”, which chronicles the story of the Apollo moon landings. I’ve always been fascinated by the moon landings, despite the fact that they started when before I was even born with the final landing happening before I was two years old.

When you ask most people about the Apollo moon landings they can tell you the story of Apollo 11 — the first landing with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. There is no doubt that this landing is an incredible story. What I’ve learned from watching the DVDs of this mini-series (and subsequently reading the book they they are based on — Andrew Chaiken’s “A Man on the Moon“) is that all the missions were filled with incredible stories.

The story of Apollo 14 and Alan Sheppard’s fight with Mineare’s disease, which caused crippling vertigo and nausea until it was resolved with some experimental surgery. The story of Apollo 12 and the second landing on the moon. The story of Apollo 1 and the fire that killed three astronauts and almost killed the moon landings. There are many others. If you are at all interested in science or the space program, I highly recommend watching it.

My favorite episode — hard to say. I loved the all for different reasons.

A little side note: A few years ago I had a chance to meet one of my boyhood heros: Colonel Frank Borman, the commander of Apollo 8 mission which was the first mission to circle the moon. He also flew in the Gemini 7 mission. Colonel Borman loves high performance aircraft and a few years ago visited the Planes of Fame East Air Museum where I volunteered. He was there to get qualified on flying the Bell P-63 Kingcobra. He had recently purchased one and was having one restored to flight status. As a volunteer, I got drive him to the airport. He was very gracious and very nice — and he totally lived up to my expectations. It was truly and honor to meet him.

–Pete