October Sky

A Memoir

Based on a book…

• Based on Rocket Boys, an autobiography by NASA science engineer Homer Hickam Jr., October Sky takes place in 1957, soon after the Soviets launched Sputnik and leaped ahead of the United States in the space race.

• The movie name October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boy; if you move the letters of Rocket Boys around, you get October Sky.

Some background--The Cold War

• From 1946 to 1991, the U.S. was locked in a Cold War with Russian Communism.

• The Soviets claimed that Communism was the wave of the future and that it would bury capitalism, democracy, and the United States.

• Russia and Communism were a serious threat to the U.S. and the Western democracies.

Space Race begins with Sputnik

• Americans believed in American technical superiority up until 1958.

• Then came Sputnik - the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth.

• It was sent up, not by the Americans, but by the Russians.

And we were afraid…

• For years, the Soviets led the space race, hoisting larger payloads into space than the U.S., including the first animal in space and the first man in space.

• All of this occurred during one of the most distrustful and competitive periods of the Cold War. The launch of Sputnik shook the United States to its roots.

Homer’s childhood

• Coal towns existed for the sole purpose of mining coal. Everything in the town was owned by the coal company: the stores, the church, the schools and the houses in which the miners lived.

• If a miner was incapacitated and could no longer work, his family was forced to move out of their company owned house, which meant leaving town

Coalwood

• In a mine, coal dust pollutes the air and literally covers everything. A common ailment among miners is black lung disease (pneumoconiosis) caused by inhaling coal dust. Homer's father was suffering from this disease.

 

Coalwood, 1960

Homer and his friends…