Those who came of age during the 1970's will remember how strongly "Moon Fever" burned in some people. After John F. Kennedy made his ambitious commitment to putting a man on the Moon, NASA came up with a system to send two men to the lunar surface 8 years later.
"Stowaway to the Moon," a made-for-TV movie, is geared to the fantasies of anyone who desperately wanted to travel with the astronauts. Child actor Michael Link plays Eli Mackernutt, Jr., a bright kid that everyone simply calls E.J. Living in Florida, E.J. naturally develops a love for the space program, learning everything he can about the Moon.
E.J. then figures out a way to hitch a ride on the next Apollo mission. Disguising himself as a maintenance worker, young E.J. sneaks into Camelot, the Command Module, and hides out in one of the waste disposal units. At launch time, Mission Control detects E.J.'s extra weight, but the crew thinks it is just water that seeped in the spaceship and turned into ice.
When Ben Pelham (Jim McMullan), the baseball cap-wearing Command Module Pilot, gets violently sick in space, E.J. steps in and saves his life with a vacuum cleaner. The unofficial "fourth astronaut" then finds Little Dipper, the Lunar Module, when it goes off course. Obviously, it's handy to have a kid around on a Moon mission.
Based on the book by William R. Shelton, "Stowaway to the Moon" is a fun little movie that is highly unbelievable, but quite entertaining nonetheless. E.J. makes it through NASA's front gate and past all the security cameras with surprising ease. It's also hard to believe that a pre-teen could survive the incredible G-Forces that build up during a Moon launch, even if he is surrounded by blue garbage bags.
Lloyd Bridges is ultra-cool though as Charlie Englehardt, the flight controller, he is ready to abort the mission after the astronauts find their young stowaway. Veteran actor John Carradine and real-life astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad also have small roles in this Made-For-TV adventure. "Stowaway to the Moon" definitely is worth a look when you come across it on television.
