 Adventures in time and space told in future heads. The man has always dreamed of conquering the barrier of the atmosphere. The problem is on the drawing boards of aeronautical engineers and atomic physicists. They can calculate the power needed, the trajectories and the equipment. On the sound stages of Hollywood, the engineers and special effects man have combined to bring that day to life. The day when the first rocket leaves Earth for outer space. Now a radio play taken from the advanced screenplay of the George Powell Technicolor production, Destination Moon. On the vast concrete strip at Drywell, Texas. The form of the rocket powers above the cranes, the loading machinery and the scuttling trucks and jeeps. The fuel lines snake across the concrete to the rocket. It's Destination Moon. A small pursuit plane circles in for a landing on the runway. Turns and taxis toward the prefab buildings at the edge of the strip. General Fair, got those reports by the car raves. Already, Barnes. We made good time. Hi there, General. Over here. Barnes, I've got a talk to you. Hey, just made it, General. Everything's running smooth as a clock. We ground test in 20 minutes. Come on over to the office. What's the matter? Come on, Barnes. Something happen in Washington? Something always happens in Washington. Let's have it straight, General. Our application for a test license was denied. Denied? I'll quote. In the opinion of the commission, sure the engine failed structurally, the dispersal of radioactive material would mean danger to the surrounding area. But we've evacuated the blast area. No use, Barnes. The mission is pretty sensitive about public opinion. The Gallivan newspaper chain has been after our scout. They got mine anyway. What do you mean? I've been retired. I'm tired. You got a job for the next general? Pretty handy with a lug wrench. They can't do that. Where would the Air Force be if you hadn't kicked them into using the jet engine on pursuits? It's not as simple as all that. Once our generals can't go into the Department of Defense and on desks. I did. Some of those old moss backs would still be using horse cavalry if they could get away with it. Now, this ship will work. I know I built it. I don't suppose we'll ever know. The mission won't reverse it, sir. Wait a minute. Car graves. Ship's all ready, isn't it? Except for minor installations, yes. General, I've been building and flying ships by the seat of my pants since they had piano wire between the wings. Now, this baby either works the first time or she doesn't. What do you mean, Barnes? The commission refused permission to ground test, right? Yeah. All right. We won't ground test. Car graves. What's the next astronomical optimum? 347 tomorrow morning. We better get busy, then. You've got just 17 hours to get that ship ready. And then we take off for the moon. Hey. Hey, Brownie. What do you want, Tweeney? What color is the skin temperature lead wire on the chart? Orange with a black stripe. This stuff looks like insulated macaroni. I got it. Hurry up. Well, you were running behind. What's your rush? You're going along in this clam bank, aren't you? Can't you wait to break in there? Hey, look out for the starter. Come on, move. We've got to take off before somebody spots a rid on it. Brownie. You ready to go on? Sure. Bates me. What do you want to go to the moon for? To see what's on the other side. Ask a stupid question. You get a stupid answer. What's the separation rate positively? Red and white spiral. Oh. Oh. What's the matter? Nothing. No, he ain't. You eating green apples? No, no. I'm all right. Come on, Tweeney. Get busy. We've got two hours left to patch this mess together. What is it, Tweeney? It's Brown. They just took him to the hospital. They what? Well, is he all right? He will be after they cut out his appendix. There goes our radio, man. But there's no chance of finding a substitute? No, it's special equipment. Brown installed it himself. I've got it. Barn's here. What? Well, we'll have to delay for a second for a month. Okay, goodbye. We can't, General. That was Hastings of dry wells. There's a United States Marshal driving over. Something leaked, and he's got a court order forbidding the takeoff. We were so close. Yeah. A million dollars gone up the flu. You want me to give a stand by, Mr. Barn? I suppose. Wait a minute. Tweeney. Yeah? You installed that communication equipment with Brown, didn't you? Yeah. Then you must know the operation. You could go in Brown's place. Come on. Uh-uh. Oh, no, not me. It's an important project, Tweeney. The scientific advances. There's the military aspect, Tweeney. Four years of the military aspect, General. That's enough. I'm afraid. You're done, too. That ship is safe. Maybe, maybe not. But, Tweeney. Look, you guys aren't going to get anywhere pressuring me. Maybe you got reasons to go to the moon. You, Mr. Barn, you got a million dollars tied up in a ship. It's your scientific baby, Tweeney. The general's out in a limb in Washington. What's in it for me? That's no way to talk, Tweeney. It's an important advance for the whole world. You'll pardon the expression, Bologna. Tweeney. I work on a scientific theory, too, General. A rate for me, you look out for yourself. I ain't going. I don't like to say this, but this isn't the time to consider yourself, Tweeney. This country's defense hangs on being the first to develop space travel. Somebody else. Not me. There's nothing I want on the moon. All right. We'll take care of that. Tweeney, I'll offer you $10,000 bonus and a 10% royalty on the ship patents out of my cut. It's no use to me unless we get off before that Marshal gets here from Dry Wells. Well, Tweeney, you'd be rich enough to retire. You could take it easy the rest of your life. Well, now you're talking my language, Mr. Barnes. Okay. Why don't we leave? I'll set it, Easties. Right. I'll be tracking you from control center. Hey, what's the car doing? He's coming right out on the field. Marshal, Doc. General Tweeney, inside. I've got a court order. It can't take off. Tough, mister. He can't do this. Hey, hey! Save your knuckles, fella. He couldn't get in that ship with a blowtorch. Barnes can't do this. Suppose you tell him all about it when he gets back from the moon. Automatic traffic, Shaq. Turn the clearance, traffic. All the communications. Yeah. Co-pilot. Automatic's ready. Give the warning signal. Give me a time check on the computer. 0347, 58. Stand by for cow-off and firing. Stand by for cow-off and firing. Roger. Back to 48. Stand. Coming up 30 seconds. 29. 28. I'll lie back on the acceleration. Seven. Worst pressures. We'll be over in four minutes. Five. Fine. General. I don't like having a man along who isn't with us. Tweeney, it's too late now. Make it pretty tough. If he's half hot, it's nine. We'll worry about that later. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. Fire. Switch on. Televiewer asked. I can't. Can't move. Pressure. Switches right under your finger. 50. 12. Altitude. Two miles. Get your sun goggles on it. It'll be coming. There's a dawn line. And the sun. It works. This thing ready? Well, I know. Look at the viewer. There's the earth down there. Yeah. Time. 351. 10. Altitude. 20 miles. 250. 350. Altitude 807 miles. That's the end of the blast. We're in freefall. Unbuckle your straps. Hey. Hey, I'm falling. I'm falling up. There's no gravity up here. We don't weigh anything. I don't feel so good. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. only this time I'm sober. Hey, General, would you mind tapping that ham sandwich back and floating away from me? Feeling better, Thrinny? Yeah, I guess so. It's a heck of a note when your meal floats away from you before you eat it, Thrinny. Yeah, Mr. Bronson. I tried to crank out the radar antenna. She's stuck. Well, let me see. Stuck all right. I don't understand it. I greased her good. Grease? Well, no wonder it's stuck. It's exposed outer space. It must be frozen solid. What's the idea, Sweeney? Didn't you read the engineering manual? Yeah, and a flush fitting gets greased. Don't jump on me. Well, if we can't get that radar mask cranked out, we can't land on the moon. Well, it's all right by me. Don't you realize that half the value of this kept us in the landing? Geological surveys, radiation tests. Look, General, I told you before I started, this whole thing is slug-nutty to me. Who wants them on? They're trying to be first to the old Brooklyn battery tunnel. Thrinny, up! Up! Oh, this isn't getting that mask fixed. Well, we've got to go outside in space suits and chip it loose. Outside? You mean outside the ship? You can't fall. You'll be in the same trajectory as the ship. Worse that could happen would be to drift away. Drift away? Don't bother getting one in a monkey suit to me. I'm comfortable in here. Sweeney, we've taken enough from you. We can't let one man endanger the whole project. You get out there in a space suit, or we shove you out without one. All right, all right. Well, that's settled. You got us into this mess. You're going to help get us out. General, break out the space suit. Keep your magnetic shoes on the hull plates. Your safety line's hooked. If you break loose, we won't be able to go after you. You'll hit the moon at 20,000 miles per hour in squash. Hey, wait a minute. How come General Faye don't go? That's right. He doesn't go. He's co-pilot. Okay, okay. I just asked. All right. Now, let's make sure our intercom walkie-talkies are warmed up. All set? Check. All right. Fasten helmets. Hello, Doc. I hear you, Barnes. I'm going to pump up the lock. We haven't got time for the scenery. Let's get to work. Can you two handle it? I want to go after and see how the firing tube's held up. All right, Doc. Come on, sweetie. Let's get to work. You can see America. That dark strip against the light. What is far away, huh? Barnes. Barnes. What's the matter? Help. Help, I'm loose. I'm drifting. What happened? My shoe magnet's pulled loose. There he is. The safety line broke. Hurry, help. He's too far to keep a line. Oh, he's cooked. We'll never get him back. All right, hurry. What are you going to do? Throw him a bottle of beer. He's feet out and down to the left. Give me that oxygen tank. What are you going to do to the tank out there if there's enough public water? I was making my helmet light shake. I'll try it again. Here we go. Pressure's almost done in this tank. Comma-3, push the tank across your can. The reaction may shove us in close enough. Yeah. Ready? One. Contrary down there. Stand by to turn, ship. Fasten straps. Alidoo fair. Two seven point three. All right. Turning, ship. You're turning too far. What about backwards? We land backwards. Use the jets for brakes. All these smokes. You mean sit down on the tail? Ground speed, one point five two. Stand by for deceleration. Let me view app on the screen. Hey, we can't land down there. Look, mountain's cracked. That's the greater harpalus. We're heading for a smooth plane shorter there. Don't look smaller than me. I'm going to kill our forward speed. Stand by. I can't. We won't have enough power to get home. You make that trip on the right. Look out. We're going to crash. Fine. You've got right. Automatic in. Hang on for emergency landing. Stand by for the blast. Hold it. We'll need to get home. Don't worry about that later. Right now I want to get out there and plant my feet on the moon. And look out for the low gravity. You'll weigh one-sixth what you did on Earth. All states of America, I take possession of the planet moon. Alvin for the benefit of mankind. Well, let's now get down to business, sweetie. You set up the astronomical camera. What's the matter? Wasted power in a bad landing. Request new figures for return trip. We wasted too much power on that lousy landing. Hastings, check the figures. We've got the light and ship. We've got just four hours to get off. If we miss that, we don't get another chance to hit the Earth for another month. We don't have more than 10 days oxygen supply. Exactly. Come on. We better start dumping and we better pray we can get rid of enough weight. 706 scheduled B, 14 pounds. Check. Give me a hand, Doc. Put my helmet on and shove the junk out of the lock. Doc, is that everything we can get out? Three of the spacesuits will be dropped before we take off. How about the fourth? We'll have to keep that so we can open the airlock to shove the others out. I've got a removable bridge I can dump. You may have to, General. Well, Hastings is due back now with the take-off figures. Hello, hello, Earth, Luna calling Earth. All right, Mr. Barnes, we hear you. How much weight have you dropped? 4,000 pounds, Earth weight. And you're still short 110 pounds. What? If you can dump 110 pounds, you can coast off. For worst trip, we unbolted the locker doors, jumped the radar chassis and mounts. We'll have to take a chance as we are. It's suicide. You haven't enough reaction mass to clear the move. You could be wrong, couldn't you? I could, but not the computer. All right, Hastings, out. 110 lousy pounds. What happens if we're not light enough? We fall back and crash. Or just go into an orbit around the moon. Just keep going around? Yeah, that's it. We've got 14 minutes left. It'll take off time. Oh, that's fine. I could have gone over and I ever fall. But I had to come to the moon. Well, it's... Pretty simple. 110 pounds. One of a space. Here. I guess that's it. Highway 180. That's plenty. Now, wait a minute, General. I'm the oldest one here. Yeah, and I'm the captain of this ship. If anyone stays... I give the orders here. Doc is the engineer. General pilots when you hit the Earth atmosphere. But, fondly... I've got no family. So I stay here. No, no, no, no. You've got to go back both of you. I've been discredited. They won't listen to me. You've got to tell them what you've seen them. Listen, General... You've got to tell them what the Earth looked like from here. Vulnerable, defenseless. Hanging in the sky. I knew this trip would have military value. Well, it does. Can you imagine Adam Warhead's launch to the Earth from up here? The moon is the perfect base for an attack on the Earth. Remember, it's only once fixed as hard to shoot rockets from here to Earth as it is the other way. You've got to tell them the only government to control the moon must be a world government. General, I guess you don't know it. But what you just said means you've got to get back to Earth and convince them even if the rest of us don't make it. Don't, General. No, General, that's all there is to it. Listen, Mr. Barnes, General... Never mind, Sweeney, you're not in it. Don't worry, you'll get back. I was gonna say, why don't you heroes match for it? Hard man's ours. All right, Barnes, I'll go for that. I'm in. No, no, no. Two-to-one, Barnes. Well, all right. What do we use? You can match buttons off your overalls. All right. Each one pull off a button. I better check these things on Earth. Here's my button. Hello, hello, Earth. Thank you, Mr. Barnes. We're working it out. One of us stays behind. What? We're matching for it. Check time. That's only 110 pounds. Isn't that some sort of... Check time. Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt the program. Dimension X for just a moment for two important bulletins from the wires of United Press. From Seoul, Korea, the North Korean radio says the North Korean communist government formally declared war on South Korea effective at 11 a.m. Sunday, Korean time. And then a little later, this bulletin from Washington. State Department officials say they will hold Russia responsible for the North Korean attack against the independent South Korean Republic, which this country and the United Nations brought into being and have supported. We now return to the program Dimension X. Yes, sir. Ten minutes to zero, Lauer. Check. That's all hastings. We'll take off with three men. All right. Ready to match? Hey, what? The airlock. He went out. What's he doing? What? He's going out out there on the moon. How many of the girls? Any girls. 60 pounds. That's made. I don't want to take off. You guys wouldn't come in on the matching. Come on out. He'll need me. 70 pounds. Radio weighs 50. Radio out. You file a hole in the gasket on the outer door. Tie your safety line to the oxygen tank. Pass it through the hole. It hangs outside. You got that? Yeah. Then you close the outside door, get out of your suit, come in here. We close up, decompress, and open the outside door again. And if it works, we all get home. Now hurry now, Sweeney. Eight minutes to calculated takeoff time. Eight minutes. Two minutes. All set, Sweeney? Yeah. One minute to take off. Clear that door, brother. Get clear. Close the outer door, Sweeney. Ten minutes to take off, everybody. Thirty seconds. Twenty-five. Sweeney, I... Twenty-eight. I don't think I could have done that. Twenty-six. Just walk out. Ah, Balani. I haven't got that kind of courage. Twenty-three. I don't know how to make a speech. Twenty-two. A big heroic speech. Twenty. Nineteen. I didn't have the guts to just walk out. Twenty-eight. Seven knots. Sixty. Sixty. All right. Stand by. Forty. Communications. Five. Five. Just a handy copilot. Automatic set. Nine. Stand by. Three. Two. Five. Two. Fifty. Thirty-six. Destination. Enter into the unknown world of the future.