Countdown

In the late 1960s, astronauts training in an Apollo program simulator have their session ended early. They grumble about it, but their commander, Chiz (Robert Duvall), knows the reason for the abort: the Pilgrim Program. The Russians will be sending a Moon landing mission up in four weeks. The Americans had a secret alternate plan to the Apollo program (Pilgrim) in case this happened. One man would be sent to the Moon in a one-way rocket, a modified Project Gemini craft. He would stay on the Moon for a few months in a shelter pod launched and landed before him. Later, a manned Apollo mission would come to retrieve him.