The Right Stuff: Project Mercury

2020

Based on Tom Wolfe's book, this National Geographic drama follows US fighter pilots competing to become the first Mercury astronauts.... More

Based on Tom Wolfe's book, this National Geographic drama follows US fighter pilots competing to become the first Mercury astronauts. Based on the book by Tom Wolfe and the previous 1983 movie adaptation. Co-executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Billed as a "gritty, anti-nostalgic look at what would become America's first reality show as the obsessive original Mercury Seven astronauts and their families become instant celebrities."

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The Right Stuff: Project Mercury episodes

Sierra Hotel

It’s 1959 and Russia is winning the space race. In... More order to compete, The United States forms NASA and chooses to recruit the nations best test pilots to form what will become the Mercury Astronauts.

Goodies

The press descends upon the domestic lives of the astronauts.... More Shepard and Gordo wilt under the limelight while Glenn thrives.

Single Combat Warrior

After mysterious bouts of vertigo, Shepard turns to Dee O’Hara... More to help him. Meanwhile, Cocoa Beach has transformed from ghost town to perpetual party. Gordo finds himself tempted by another woman. Glenn seeks refuge from the bedlam at a local church gathering, where even he is confronted by temptation.

Advent

After a rocket malfunctions during a test, the Mercury 7... More head home for Christmas. Shepard’s holidays are fraught, as the arrival of his parents coincides with the adoption of Louise’s niece.

The Kona Kai Seance

Trudy meets with Jerrie Cobb and is invited to join... More the first all-female-astronaut corps. The Mercury 7 are sent to San Diego for some glad-handing, but the trip sours when Shepard is caught by a reporter with another woman.

Ham

JFK sends a science committee to Cape Canaveral to assess... More the validity of the space program. Glenn, burning from the results of the peer vote, drafts letters to politicians complaining that Shepard is morally unfit to be the first man in space.

Ziggurat

On the Eve of the flight, Louise learns of Shepard’s... More affair in Tijuana. Trudy watches Gordo crack a joke about women astronauts on television. Glenn awaits the humiliating moment when the world will finally learn he won’t be first.

Amaryllis

After Shepard’s dramatic voyage to space, he feels underwhelmed and... More restless. Heeding Glenn’s advice, Shepard attempts to quell his ambition with gratitude for his wife and children.

The Right Stuff: Project Mercury | Ratings & Reviews

57_%30 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
72_%35 reviews
Audience score rating

"The glossy TV series, produced by Nat Geo for Disney Plus, is a comfort food repeat of a story told many times before."

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Variety

"The story crawls along incrementally without using all that time to let us know its characters as anything but the broadest of archetypes."

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Rolling Stone

"This Right Stuff is disappointingly...fine. ... Forgive me, then, if it takes some adjustment of expectations to settle for a treatment of their life that's simply "OK.""

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Hollywood Reporter

"While it would be next to impossible to duplicate the shining brilliance of Philip Kaufman’s 1983 theatrical adaptation of the same material (IMHO the best astronaut movie ever made), show creator Mark Lafferty has delivered a visually striking, well-acted period piece that plays like “Mad Men: The Flyboys Edition.”"

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Chicago Sun-Times

"Expanded into an eight-hour series, The Right Stuff doesn't feel the need for speed. What it loses in momentum, however, this Disney+ series gains in its characterizations, offering a satisfying voyage back into the stories of the men at the center of the Mercury 7 space program, as well as the women that loved and/or endured them."

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CNN

"A surprisingly compelling workplace drama once it dives into the strained interpersonal relationships between the American men competing to be the first in space."

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RogerEbert.com

"Nothing feels gratuitous and there isn’t anything even remotely shocking. It’s just more mature and well rounded; these characters are messy and flawed and full of contradictions, and the show isn’t afraid to engage with those less pleasant aspects of their lives. As a dramatic series, it’s phenomenal; it’s frequently touching and just as thrilling."

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