8.1/10584 votes#1 - Can We Do This?
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 4/5/1998
NASA responds to John F. Kennedy's challenge of landing a man on the moon with a group of new astronauts for the Gemini Program, who work toward the eventual lunar voyage with a series of risky and groundbreaking earth-orbit missions.
Director: Tom Hanks
Writer: Steven Katz
8.4/10551 votes#2 - Apollo 1
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 4/5/1998
The tragic death of Apollo's first three astronauts during a pre-launch test haunts the spacecraft's designers, as they struggle to come to terms with what happened, and find a way to save the moon program.
Director: David Frankel
Writer: Graham Yost
7.7/10478 votes#3 - We Have Cleared The Tower
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 4/12/1998
A documentary film crew follows the final preparations for the first manned Apollo launch. Now behind schedule due to the Apollo 1 fire, astronauts and launch pad personnel bet their lives--and America's space future--on its success.
Director: Lili Fini Zanuck
Writer: Remi Aubuchon
8.0/10484 votes#4 - 1968
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 4/12/1998
NASA takes its boldest and most controversial step—an attempt to fly men around the moon and back for the first time in history—at the end of one of the most cataclysmic years of the century.
Director: David Frankel
Writer: Al Reinert
8.7/10538 votes#5 - Spider
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 4/19/1998
Engineers at Grumman Aviation work with NASA and the Apollo 9 astronauts to design, build, and finally test-fly the world's first true spaceship—a “lunar module” which will hopefully land the first humans on the moon.
Director: Graham Yost
Writer: Andy Wolk
8.4/10458 votes#6 - Mare Tranquilitatis
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 4/19/1998
The glare of the public eye, conflicts among the crew, disastrous simulations, and a series of harrowing last-minute crises threaten the Apollo 11 astronauts' success at pulling off NASA's crowning achievement—the first lunar landing.
Director: Frank Marshall
Writer: Graham Yost, Tom Hanks, Al Reinert
8.3/10481 votes#7 - That's All There Is
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 4/26/1998
From the perspective of Astronaut Alan Bean, see how he made an unexpected journey to the moon and his friendship with his Apollo 12 crew mates.
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Writer: Tom Hanks, Erik Bork, Paul McCudden
7.1/10436 votes#8 - We Interrupt This Program
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 4/26/1998
As the life-threatening consequences of the Apollo 13 accident escalate in real time, so do the tensions among the NASA press corps covering it. Among them, a respected, old-school TV journalist questions the confrontational methods of a younger, slicker colleague.
Director: David Frankel
Writer: Peter Osterlund, Amy Brooke Baker
7.8/10395 votes#9 - For Miles And Miles
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 5/3/1998
America's first man in space, Alan Shepard, is grounded with an inner ear disorder. A thankless new desk job starts to look permanent, until fate—and surgery—bring him a chance to rescue the space program.
Director: Gary Fleder
Writer: Erik Bork
8.4/10447 votes#10 - Galileo Was Right
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 5/3/1998
Geology guru Lee Silver helps Dave Scott and his Apollo 15 crew unravel the moon's mysterious origins by teaching them to become his lunar surrogates, and thus the first fully-trained “field observers” on another world.
Director: David Carson
Writer: Remi Aubuchon, Jeffrey Alan Fiskin
7.4/10413 votes#11 - The Original Wives' Club
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 5/10/1998
A group of young military wives struggle with their new “jobs” handling both the national spotlight and a demanding home front. Meanwhile, their astronaut husbands lose themselves in the pursuit of a national goal alternately competitive, glamorous, and deadly.
Director: Sally Field
Writer: Tom Hanks, Erik Bork, Karen Janszen
8.0/10377 votes#12 - Le Voyage dans la Lune
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 5/10/1998
The bittersweet end of the Apollo program—and the final manned journey to another planet—is juxtaposed with a light-hearted recreation of the first cinematic imagining of such an endeavor, the 1902 French silent classic “Voyage to the Moon.”
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Writer: Tom Hanks
The Best Episodes of From the Earth to the Moon Season 1
Every episode of From the Earth to the Moon Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of From the Earth to the Moon Season 1!
The story of the United States' space program, from its beginnings in 1961 to the final moon mission in 1972.
Genres:Action & AdventureDrama
Network:HBO
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Can We Do This?" is the best rated episode of "From the Earth to the Moon" season 1. It scored 8.1/10 based on 584 votes. Directed by Tom Hanks and written by Steven Katz, it aired on 4/5/1998. This episode is rated 0.3 points higher than the second-best, "Apollo 1".