(4 of 4)
To achieve the effect of weightlessness in the space capsule, the Apollo team used NASA's KC-135, a converted Boeing 707 jet with an open cargo bay that climbs 30,000 ft. and then arcs into a dive, creating a 23-sec. period of weightlessness. The crew shot about four hours of weightlessness footage, which required more than 500 topsy-turvy takes--97 in one day. Says Lovell: "The actors playing astronauts actually spent more time in the zero-gravity plane than any real astronaut ever did."
The weightlessness took a while to master. "There were times when we'd finish shooting a scene, and I had no idea which way I was going to fall," says Hanks. But he soon learned to love defying gravity. "It's not a sensation you can liken to anything else," he says dreamily. "It's not floating like Superman but kind of floating like an angel."
Apollo 13 has a trace of this mooniness, the mystical nostalgia that seized most of the astronauts who got there and back. This cosmic optimism, the movie suggests, is one of the reasons for spending billions of dollars on the Apollo program: something wonderful is out there.
And something silly. When Howard toured NASA, he learned that the visitors' favorite question was: How do you pee in space? "Well," he decided, "that means we'll have to show it in the movie." So they do. Adds Hanks: "Maybe in the sequel we'll show how they go doo-doo."
Spoken like a steely-eyed missileman.
--Reported by Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles