NASA Decides To Let Richard Garriott's Apogee Of Fear Film Air

Over the last few months, NASA folks have been real hard asses. It started off with NASA coming in and scaring the little old lady into wetting herself over a chunk of moon rock given to her late husband she wanted to sell. Then NASA starting coming after astronauts from the Apollo era that were selling things they were allowed to keep from their missions at auction. Most recently NASA moved to block a film shot on the ISS by Richard Garriott called Apogee of Fear.

NASA had originally blocked the short 8-minute film, which Garriott planned to air in independent theaters, on the vague grounds that it was beyond the scope of the agreement Garriott had with the space agency. Garriott was aboard the ISS as a paid civilian back in 2008. The short film had a screenplay written by Tracy Hickman, apparently Hickman co-created the Dragonlance shared universe.

Garriott had wanted to release Apogee of Fear along with a documentary he made about following in his father's footsteps called Man on a Mission. His father was astronaut Owen Garriott. NASA is now working with Garriott on the film's release. I wonder if all this blocking of films and auctions by NASA is just it looking to make money off the films and items sold? Could NASAs budget woes mean it needs all the loot it can get? What do you think?

NASA is working with Richard Garriott to facilitate the video's release. While the project was not part of his original Space Act agreement with NASA, everyone involved had the best of intentions. We hope to resolve the remaining issues expeditiously, and we appreciate Richard's cooperation and his ongoing efforts to get people excited about the future of space exploration.

[via Wired]