ABC’s The Astronaut Wives Club, as per the title of Episode 4 “Liftoff,” earned an 0.8 adults 18-49 rating with 4.32 million Live + SD viewers, gaining a tenth from last week's 0.7. The show placed a solid second (last week it was in a three way tie for that spot in ratings, but beat NBC’s Food Fighters and
Again, with the exception of the
The show deftly juxtaposed the darker worries of the American psyche as the Cold War intensified and the Cuban Missile Crisis stoked fears of nuclear war, with the lighter components of celebrity and Texas society hierarchy. The Mercury 7 families had relocated to Houston, Texas where
The move evoked a clash of individual ambitions. Men from both programs sought to be heroes, and the wives were at odds in personal style. After months of the ups and downs of being in the public eye, the Mercury 7 wives had to contend with a new set of heroines in the mix.
In the backdrop of the era, the positive propaganda from NASA and the media behind the Space Race accelerated as the possibility of a major military confrontation with the Soviet Union materialized in Washington and the national consciousness. The tension was further stoked by activities in Cuba and the most critical moment of JFK’s presidency, the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Episode 4 opens on September 12, 1962 at Rice University in Houston, Texas with an inspiring clip of one of JFK’s most famous speeches, “We choose to go to the moon.”
JFK, the first American president to actively use television as a means of addressing and galvanizing the public, proclaimed, “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”
So much hung in the balance that 1962 autumn; US superpower status, JFK’s escalating Space program budget, the darkening Cold War, and the need to keep the American population behind the JFK administration’s decisions.
Cut to a Houston BBQ with all the fixings, where the Mercury 7 wives mingle with Houston high society. Mercury 7 astronaut Walter “Wally” Schirra Jr. and his wife, ‘Jo’ Schirra (Zoe Boyle) along with Alan and Louise Shepard are at a table. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), the reason the astronauts and their wives are in Houston, stands in the distance, signature hat and all. With Deke Slayton still grounded, Marge takes LBJ aside to plead his case.
Beverly David, the “queen of Houston society” invites the wives for their Texas “debut” at the prestigious Junior League club. Leading up to the big event, the bikini clad “new-9” Gemini wives meet with the more conservatively attired Mercury 7 wives poolside. It does not go well.
Later, a nervous Wally prepares for his flight. Schirra launched the fifth Mercury 7 flight on October 3, 1962. In a brilliant capture of history, the episode depicts his analysis of fuel efficiency in a worried moment with Jo before the launch. As the real Schirra later recalled, "I fired my thrusters sparingly, in small bursts that I like to call micromouse farts. At the end of my flight I had over half my fuel left and had to dump it."
Schirra orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft in a nine-hour flight. At the time, it was the longest US manned orbital flight, though it lagged the several-day record set by the Soviet Vostok 3 earlier that year. The episode commemorates the new record with a “Happy Splashdown” toast.
Deke, grounded due to his arrhythmia, gets promoted from astronaut to ‘astro-chief.’ Instead of going up in missions, he will decide who does for both the Mercury and Gemini programs.
Trudy and her husband, Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr. share various moments on their road back to romance, in the less interesting story arc. But during one of their flirty exchanges, JFK’s critical October 22 Cuban Missile Crisis speech blares on the TV.
“This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.”
Talk about palpable tension. “The Russians are trying to start a nuclear war,” Gordo tells Trudy. Fear bonds them closer.
The men are ready to join a war effort, but in the spirit of spin, NASA PR man, Duncan Pringle (Evan Handler) demands, “go to the party, get your photos taken, show the world that nothing scares an American hero,” Appearances must be maintained.
At the gala, Rene (Yvonne Strahovski) in particular, feels she is losing her limelight to the Gemini wives. Outside, Max tells Louise of the Cuban missiles in striking distance of the US that could “end the human race.” His feelings toward Louise (who was confronted with more evidence of Alan’s philandering earlier) are emboldened by dread. The two dance in a barn after she confides to him, in a poignant moment, the shadows beneath her composed exterior.
After Fidel Castro rose to power following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Cuba and the Soviet Union forged closer economic ties. In retaliation, JFK issued an embargo against Cuba on February 8, 1962. Then, on October 14, 1962, an American U-2 spy plane discovered medium-range ballistic Soviet missiles in Cuba. Eight days later, on October 22, Kennedy addressed the nation and ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba to pressure Khrushchev to remove the missiles.
Two days later, Soviet vessels approached the quarantine line anyway before turning back. Three days after that, the Cubans downed a US reconnaissance plane. Diplomacy appeared to be failing. But following thirteen nail-biting days in all, on October 28, Kennedy accepted Khrushchev’s offer to withdraw his missiles from Cuba in return for an end to the quarantine and a US pledge not to invade Cuba or violate Cuban airspace. Global disaster was averted.
ABC’s The Astronaut Wives Club airs at 8:00 PM on Thursday nights.
