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Space Ship Takeoff, a Technical Fantasy

193723 min 9 sec139 shots

This 1937 German technical fantasy imagines a live television report from Friedrichshafen on June 13, 1963, as reporters and crowds await the first crewed spacecraft bound for the moon. Speakers explain why ordinary aircraft cannot cross airless space, how rocket recoil works in a vacuum, and why a cannon launch would subject the crew to fatal acceleration and friction. Scenes of rocket-powered cars and an airplane introduce earlier experiments before the fictional Space Ship 1 appears. A televised press conference describes the enormous craft, its invented liquid fuel, its planned eight-minute acceleration, and the danger that the crew could lose consciousness during launch.

Miniature and effects sequences show the ship leave its hangar, accelerate from a raised track, and climb into space while crowds watch. Observatories in several parts of the world track the spacecraft as Earth’s gravity slows it and the moon’s gravity draws it onward. Space Ship 1 passes over the lunar surface, circles the moon’s far side, fires its engines for the return journey, and reenters Earth’s atmosphere after seven days and sixteen hours. Fabricated news bulletins suggest international alarm over German ambitions in space, while a final radio exchange welcomes the crew as conquerors of space and records their wish to see Earth again.

Provenance and rights

Original producer: National Archives and Records Administration
Collection: NARA ARC mirror / FedFlix
Original title: Space Ship Takeoff, a Technical Fantasy
Date: 1937
Original link: Open on Internet Archive
Rights: public_domain