Executive producer James Manos Jr. thinks the reason no movie was made previously was that, "at first glance it didn't seem as if anything dramatic happened".
[2] They received NASA's permission to record portions of the film in the original Apollo Mission Control Center.
[5] Fearful that the Soviets would continue their lead in the Space Race and be the first to put a man on the Moon, NASA felt an enormous pressure to push the Apollo Program forward as quickly as possible, though they knew that pushing too hard could lead to disaster.
This film recreates the tensions that were felt not only by the three astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, but also by their families and by the teams of technicians training to deal with anything that could go wrong.
[1] Following the movie on the premiere night, Aldrin and others answered questions about spaceflight live in a feature titled From the Moon to Mars.