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A floating pen explains weightlessness
Kubrick hands over what a viewer needs without anyone telling it, underscoring it, or insisting on it. A flight attendant picks her way along the aisle between the seats, and the film cuts to a close-up of her shoe, which reads Pan Am grip shoes. A viewer who is paying attention now knows why she doesn't float off like the pen, and the funny headgear holds hair in place.
The cockpit works the same way. Between the two pilots, displays show certain vectors lining up, and a viewer who knows nothing about landing a spacecraft understands that the landing can now happen. Nobody mentions it, and it is built into the scene.
How was the rotating Discovery set built?
The Discovery centrifuge set was built by the engineering firm Vickers-Armstrong in England. It was a rotating drum about 38 feet across and weighed around 30 tons. Because the whole set turned, actors could walk or run around the inside of the wheel while the camera stayed level with them. The set was reported to have cost about $750,000.
Why was Pan Am flying to the Moon?
Pan Am started its First Moon Flights Club in 1964 and took reservations for flights to the Moon, which it called a possibility for the future. Tens of thousands of people signed up. The airline's logo appeared on the shuttle in 2001 as part of an agreement with the production. Pan Am shut down operations in 1991.
Why do astronauts grow taller in orbit?
On Earth, gravity compresses the spine, and the disks between the vertebrae lose fluid over the day. In orbit the load disappears, the disks expand, and the spine lengthens. NASA reports that astronauts can gain up to about three percent in height during spaceflight.
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