DVD: James May on the Moon

Jun 30 2009 By James Shepherd

James May buckles up for a giant leap into space history by donning his space suit and setting off on a one hour orbit around a subject that’s always fascinated him.

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landings, with this exhilarating insight into the moon missions, available on DVD from July 20.

Four decades years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took man’s first steps onto the moon, James May has come over all nostalgic. Even now he can remember watching the Apollo landings from his family sitting room - but how hard was that historic achievement?

James travels to the America to meet 3 men who have walked on the moon, to hear in their own words how it felt, and learn how 1960s technology managed to produce the most incredible machines in aviation history. Apollo 16’s Charlie Duke gives James his verdict on the road-handling of the Lunar Rover, Apollo 17’s Harrison Schmitt gives James a guided tour of a Saturn V rocket, and Apollo 12’s Alan Bean shows James his moon art.

James also gets his own taste of how it felt to be an Apollo astronaut, experiencing Zero Gravity on the infamous Vomit Comet, and the crushing forces of G in an Air Force centrifuge chamber

Best of all he gets to fly to the edge of space in a U2 spy plane. It’s a remarkable adventure that takes him to 70 000 feet, wearing a space suit. From the cockpit he looks down at the curvature of earth, and upwards at the blackness of space.

This jam packed release also includes James May at the Edge of Space, which sees May train for three days for his trip to the edge of space.

At a remote US Air Force Base in California, he joins Major “Cabi” Cabigas, one of the Air Force’s most experienced U-2 spy plane pilots. The U-2 is a relic of the Cold War that still flies higher than any other aeroplane. Cabi has offered to fly him to 70,000 feet, known to the Air Force as the ‘space equivalent zone’.

Before he can fly James must complete an arduous 3 day training course. He must prove to Cabi that he’s physically capable of surviving the flight. He must learn how to eject from his cockpit in case of emergency, survive the 13 mile fall back to earth, and survive in whichever wilderness he may find himself in. But most of all he must learn how to wear ¼ million dollars worth of space suit, use it to keep himself alive in air so thin it kills as surely as space itself, and avoid filling the suit with unwanted “gas”.

And as James finds out, learning to fly in a U2 is no joyride.