"The Right Stuff" Gets It Wrong

The eight-episode original scripted series "The Right Stuff" from National Geographic, adapting author Tom Wolfe's bestselling nonfiction account of the early days of the 'Mercury 7' US space program has been canceled at Disney+ as a streaming original, after one season:

"...as ambitious astronauts and their families become instant celebrities in a competition that could kill them or make them immortal...

"...the two men at the center of the story are 'Major John Glenn' (Patrick J. Adams) a revered test pilot and committed family man with unwavering principles and 'Lieutenant Commander Alan Shepard' (Jake McDorman).

"At the height of the 'Cold War' in 1959, the 'Soviet Union' dominated the space race. To combat a national sentiment of fear and decline, the US government conceives of NASA's 'Project Mercury', igniting a space race with the Soviets and making instant celebrities of a handful of the military's most accomplished test pilots.

"These individuals, who come to be known as the 'Mercury Seven', are forged into heroes long before they have achieved a single heroic act. The nation's best engineers estimate they need several decades to make it into outer space. They are given two years..."

  Click the images to enlarge...