From the Earth to the Moon (Season 1)

From the Earth to the Moon (1998) is HBO's historical drama, available to watch online on iFILM. Across twelve parts it traces how America reached the Moon — from the first crewed flights at the start of the 1960s to that December day in 1972 when a person last walked on lunar dust.

The series was Tom Hanks' idea; after Apollo 13 he couldn't let the subject go. He produces, directs one chapter, and introduces every episode himself. What makes it land isn't the roar of the rockets but everything around them: engineers arguing over the lunar module's design, astronauts' wives waiting by the television, designers burying colleagues after the Apollo 1 fire. Each installment had its own director and its own lead, so one plays like a workplace drama, another like a family story, and one is nearly a comedy about geologists being taught to love rocks.

The cast runs deep — Tim Daly, Cary Elwes, Lane Smith, Brett Cullen, with Hanks turning up too. The production took home the Emmy for best miniseries and still ranks among the most patient, detailed accounts of the space race ever filmed. Perfect when you want the human side of an engineering feat, not a blockbuster. Stream every episode of From the Earth to the Moon (1998) online on iFILM.