Naturally, he and his team succeed; naturally, NASA's bureaucrats loathe the notion and do whatever they can to trip up the intrepid heroes. (Yes, in 1979, FedGov bureacrats -- though not the space agency's hard-working rank and file -- were portrayed as dogs in the manger. Who knew?) (All the folks who put in an honest day's work at NASA are still my heroes in RL. I think the agency is pretty blamed creaky and I wish it wasn't so hostile to profit, but that's not the fault of those with their shoulders to the wheel).
The science is generally laughable, though for the time and the medium it's a noble compromise between semi-right-sounding words ("monohydrazine!") and achievable effects, but the spirit is straight-up independent can-do. The writers struggled a little at coming up for jobs for a commercial space vehicle, though they generally succeeded in getting at least some connection.
I don't know about sending you scrambling for this bit of television jetsam; I stumbled across it on cable 20 years ago. Victor Koman's book has rather more fire and thunder. But it's interesting nonetheless.
(Kings Of The High Frontier doesn't seem to actually be available in an e-reader edition at Pulpless.com, where it was priced an affordable $3.50 American and with IMO better cover art than the hardback -- though you can find that via the Amazon link at Tam's. They've even got an autographed version if you move quickly! Oddly, it's not available at Victor Koman's own KoPubCo. I'm guessing the publisher bought all rights).
I bought KOTHF back when Koman sold it as an HTML only ebook. Then bought it again in hardback years later.
ReplyDeleteGreat book, I highly recommend it!
I know some great guys over at NASA Goddard, and they always tell the very best lazy-coworker-that-will-never-get-fired-because-he-works-for-the-government stories.
ReplyDeletehint: youtube is broken today for some people, but it works for me when you change http:// to https:// in the URL
ReplyDeleteThanks for the flashback. As a kid, I loved Salvage I when it aired. I was ticked when it was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memory of Salvage one. I remember it along with Lost in Space and Star Trek. Both of those I watched when they were first run too ;).
ReplyDeleteHeck, I watched Salvage 1 when it was first run. Yeah, more than a bit hokey even at the time, but it made the point that non-government space ventures should be allowed - at the time attempts to get above more than eighty percent or so of the atmosphere was actually illegal.
ReplyDeleteHoly cow I haven't thought of that show in YEARS! Nice find miss.
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