[Firestarter]

NASA movies – Kubrick, Ordway, Clarke, Lange

Anybody that has looked into the “conspiracy stories” on the moon landing hoax, has certainly heard the stories on Stanley Kubrick directing the whole thing. This is NOT true of course!
But what is true that NASA had several employees working at “2001: A Space Odyssey” to learn the latest on special effects...


In 1941, former Disney animator Lester Novros founded Graphic Films that made propaganda films for industry and government clients like Lockheed, Boeing, the US Air Force and NASA.

Stanley Kubrick saw NASA propaganda film “To The Moon And Beyond” made by Graphic Films. In 1965, Kubrick recruited Graphic Films’ Lester Novros, Con Pederson, and Douglas Trumbull to work on “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

Graphic Films advised Kubrick on special effects. Pederson sent Kubrick a film made by experimental filmmaker John Whitney, Sr., Novros’ long-time friend and colleague. Douglas Trumbull further developed Whitney’s slit-scan technique that was used for the “Stargate” sequence towards the end of 2001.
Pederson wrote to Kubrick about the slit scanning technique that “Its possibilities are limitless”.

Other artist involved in “2001: A Space Odyssey”: illustrators Chesley Bonestell, Roy Carnon, and Richard McKenna; artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky; IBM industrial designer Eliot Noyes; and effects artist Wally Gentleman (who’d worked on Universe for the National Film Board of Canada): http://scienceandfilm.org/articles/2656/...ce-odyssey


Douglas Trumbull arrived in Hollywood in the early-60s with a portfolio "all full of science fiction, alien planets, spaceships, things like that". After working in advertising he worked for the small Graphic Films company, who made propaganda films for NASA.
Trumbull made all the artwork for “To The Moon And Beyond”.

Trumbull would continue his career, making special effects for films like The Andromeda Strain, Close Encounters, Blade Runner and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Trumbull's debut as director was the science fiction movie Silent Running (1972).
At the beginning of the 1980s his career in the movies was somehow derailed.

After that Steven Spielberg asked Trumbull to work on the Back to the Future ride.
Years later Trumbull did the special effects for The Tree of Life (2011): https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/ju...al-effects


In 2013, banker’s son Frederick Ira Ordway III (1927-2014) was awarded the Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ordway had been a huge fan of science fiction on space travel since he since he was 10. In 1941, Ordway (13) became a member of the American Rocket Society.
In 1950, Ordway first met science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who helped him to become a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. They became long-time friends.
Ordway became a top official at NASA and worked closely with Wernher von Braun, including on the Apollo program.

In 1965, Ordway met Clarke who was working with movie director Stanley Kubrick on a science fiction movie based on his story “The Sentinel”. After Clarke called Kubrick, Ordway was swiftly asked to become the “scientific and technical advisor” to the film that became “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968): http://web.archive.org/web/2018011707524...rdway-iii/


NASA’s Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, George Mueller, nicknamed the film’s production facilities “NASA East”.
See from left to right NASA officials touring MGM Borehamwood during pre-production of “2001: A Space Odyssey”: Fred Ordway, Deke Slayton (astronaut), Arthur C. Clarke, anonymous NASA assistant, Stanley Kubrick, and George C. Mueller.


Ordway wasn’t only working on the movie with NASA officials, but also with major corporations like General Electric, Bell Telephone Laboratories and IBM.
The name of the robot star of the movie “HAL” is notably only one letter removed from “IBM”.

Ordway explained about “rocket scientists”:

They all read H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Science fiction got us all started in the early days, I think without exception.

In 1949, Arthur C. Clarke helped to make his friend Von Braun an honorary member of the British Interplanetary Society: http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.com...art-3.html

Also involved in both NASA and “2001: A Space Odyssey” was the German-born Harry Lange (born 1930), Ordway’s partner in their General Astronautics publishing and consultancy company. Lange was specialised in making science fiction drawings.

In 1954, Ordway and Lange helped set up General Astronautics that in 1960 was acquired by NASA.
Lange made illustrations to promote the science fiction projects of Von Braun. Von Braun told him: "Harry, your work makes money".

After “2001: A Space Odyssey”, Lange settled in England to design sets for films, including Kelly's Heroes (1970); Star Wars (1977); The Empire Strikes Back (1980); The Return of the Jedi (1983); Moonraker (1979); and The Meaning of Life (1983): https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/ju...es.culture