Destination Moon (film)

Destination Moon aka Operation Moon is a 1950 American Technicolor science fiction film independently produced by George Pal, directed by Irving Pichel, and starring John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, and Dick Wesson. The film was distributed in the United States and UK by EagleLion Classics.

On their way to Moon, they are forced to go outside Luna in zero gravity, wearing magnetic boots to stay on the hull, in order to free a frozen piloting radar antenna greasedup by the inexperienced Sweeney hours before the launch. In the process they carelessly lose one of the crew overboard, untethered in free fall. He is cleverly retrieved by using the nozzle of a large oxygen cylinder as an improvised rocket motor. After achieving orbit around the Moon, the crew begins the complex landing procedure, using too much fuel during the Luna s descent phase.Safely on the Moon, they explore the lunar surface, reporting back by radio how their view of the Earth looks contrasted against the black lunar sky one crew member photographs another pretending to hold up the Earth like a modern Atlas. The story takes a serious turn when they calculate the mass needed to lighten their spaceship in the Moons onesixth gravity in order to get home safely with their remaining fuel. No matter how much noncritical equipment they remove and leave on the lunar surface, the hard numbers radioed from Earth continue to point to one conclusion Someone will have to stay behind on the Moon if the other three crew are to return safely to Earth. With time running out for their return launch window, the crew engineers their way home. They first jettison the ships heavy radio equipment, losing contact with Earth, and finally their sole remaining space suit. The suits air tanks and space helmet are used as tethered, suspended weights to pull the space suit outside through the open airlock, which is then remotely closed and resealed. Their critical takeoff weight finally achieved, and with all her crew safely aboard, Luna blasts off from the Moon for home. ........

Source: Wikipedia