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History

A Ticket to the Moon

November 10, 2021

In the 1960s, US airline Pan Am sold spots on a waiting list for a trip to the moon. With the Cold War raging, nearly 100,000 customers on both sides of the Iron Curtain reserved their tickets.

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China Supermond Flugzeug
Image: picture-alliance/Imaginechina/S. Yipeng

The filmmaker’s family was among them.

While the US and the Soviet Union fought over dominating space, citizens on both sides of the Iron Curtain were clamoring for their spots in the "First Moon Flights" Club. The grandfather of film director Veronika Janatková purchased one of these tickets to the moon in Prague back in 1969, and her family still owns it to this day. She tracks down several fellow would-be lunanauts and humorously tells their stories in this documentary, while recounting the notions people associated with space and continue to entertain today.

‘A Ticket to the Moon’ features exclusive clips from Eastern European film archives as well as interviews with Margaret Weitekamp, Curator of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society. In addition, science fiction philosopher Ivan Adamovic and space historian Alexander Geppert speak about the relationship between cosmic utopias and the human need to dream. Austrian journalist Gerhard Pistor also talks about his involvement in helping prompt Pan Am to create the "First Moon Flights" Club in 1967.

Broadcasting Hours: 

DW English

FRI 12.11.2021 – 01:15 UTC
FRI 12.11.2021 – 04:15 UTC
FRI 12.11.2021 – 18:15 UTC
SAT 14.11.2021 – 15:15 UTC
SUN 14.11.2021 – 19:15 UTC
MON 15.11.2021 – 09:15 UTC

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MON 15.11.2021 – 09:15 UTC

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