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The Right Stuff
"The race to be first in space."
Overview
At the height of the Cold War, newly formed NASA selects seven of the military’s best test pilots to become astronauts. Competing to be the first in space, these men achieve the extraordinary, inspiring the world to turn towards a new horizon of ambition and hope.
Status
Canceled
Created By
Mark Lafferty
Network
Disney+
Seasons & Episodes
Season 1
The first season starts at the height of the Cold War. To combat a national sentiment of fear and decline, the U.S. government conceives of NASA’s Project Mercury, igniting a space race with the Soviets and making instant celebrities of a handful of the military’s adrenaline-fueled test pilots.
Episodes
Sierra Hotel
It’s 1959 and Russia is winning the space race. In order to compete, The United States forms NASA and chooses to recruit the nations best test pilots to form what will become the Mercury Astronauts. Among these test pilots are the golden boy John Glenn, the reckless Alan Shepard, and Gordo Cooper, whose broken marriage could cost him a place at the program.
Goodies
The press descends upon the domestic lives of the astronauts. Shepard and Gordo wilt under the limelight while Glenn thrives. Glenn secures a deal with Life Magazine that grants exclusive access to all seven astronauts in return for life-altering compensation. By the time the astronauts arrive in Florida to begin work, even Shepard has come to understand the power they now hold.
Single Combat Warrior
After mysterious bouts of vertigo, Shepard turns to Dee O’Hara to help him. Meanwhile, Cocoa Beach has transformed from ghost town to perpetual party. Gordo finds himself tempted by another woman. Glenn seeks refuge from the bedlam at a local church gathering, where even he is confronted by temptation. The astronauts’ families arrive in Florida to watch the first test launch of the Atlas Rocket.
Advent
After a rocket malfunctions during a test, the Mercury 7 head home for Christmas. Shepard’s holidays are fraught, as the arrival of his parents coincides with the adoption of Louise’s niece. Gordo’s former mistress forces her way back into his life, jeopardizing his relationship with Trudy. And Glenn attempts to win over a rising political star and presidential hopeful, JFK.
The Kona Kai Séance
Trudy meets with Jerrie Cobb and is invited to join the first all-female-astronaut corps. The Mercury 7 are sent to San Diego for some glad-handing, but the trip sours when Shepard is caught by a reporter with another woman. Glenn helps Shepard get the story spiked, but his moralizing drives a wedge between him and the other astronauts that will directly affect who is chosen to go to space first.
Vostok
JFK sends a science committee to Cape Canaveral to assess the validity of the space program. Glenn, burning from the results of the peer vote, drafts letters to politicians complaining that Shepard is morally unfit to be the first man in space. But matters of internal power plays and a skeptical president are soon dwarfed by news out of Russia that could be the nail in Project Mercury’s coffin.
Ziggurat
On the Eve of the flight, Louise learns of Shepard’s affair in Tijuana. Trudy watches Gordo crack a joke about women astronauts on television. Glenn awaits the humiliating moment when the world will finally learn he won’t be first. Tensions reach a breaking point when Shepard and Glenn are forced together in a pressure cooker of weather delays, marital discord, and a circus of reporters.
Flight
After Shepard’s dramatic voyage to space, he feels underwhelmed and restless. Heeding Glenn’s advice, Shepard attempts to quell his ambition with gratitude for his wife and children. While Shepard’s marriage somehow remains intact, Gordo and Trudy’s may never recover. Meanwhile, when JFK publicly issues a challenge for NASA to send a man to the moon, Glenn’s drive to top Shepard is reignited.
Top Cast
Jake McDorman
Alan Shephard
Patrick J. Adams
John Glenn
Colin O'Donoghue
Gordon Cooper
Eloise Mumford
Trudy Cooper
James Lafferty
Scott Carpenter
Nora Zehetner
Annie Glenn
Eric Ladin
Chris Kraft
Patrick Fischler
Bob Gilruth
Aaron Staton
Wally Schirra
Michael Trotter
Gus Grissom
Micah Stock
Deke Slayton
Shannon Lucio
Louise Shepard
