Ad Astra's Director, James Gray Makes It Real with Help from NASA's Artemis Program and Women Astronauts, as a Launch Base for "Ad Astra" with Brad Pitt.

By Laura Medina

Yesterday on the Fox Studio Lot was NASA/Science Day, as the leading up to Brad Pitt's/Director James Gray's "Scientific Realism Fantasy."

Despite being lumped in and marketed as a sci-fi movie, the nitty-gritty director, James Gray wants "Ad Astra" rooted in realism as much as possible.

NASA's Multimedia Department was more than happy to help, obviously when movies and tv series tackle their history and how their projected image is handled.  All about keeping the records set.  NASA's Multimedia Department was extremely helpful in "Hidden Figures."

Now, they're more than happy to help keep James Gray's "Ad Astra" grounded in realism by having their active women astronauts, some active in the current "return to the moon" Artemis program, advise James Gray's production design and FX teams.

If the Apollo missions from fifty years ago were about just surviving a single trip from the moon, Artemis (Artemis is the Greek goddess of the Moon and the Sun God, Apollo's twin sister) is continuation of the Apollo missions. From being just a mere Apollo daytripper to actually using the Moon as a permanent base for farther and further exploration into deep space, https://www.nasa.gov/artemis

In "Ad Astra," the Moon is already a space exploration base then the movie takes off from there.

Yesterday's "Ad Astra"/NASA panel discussion explained how they kept it realistic by NASA's current team of active women astronauts who are going to the moon.

One of them, Tracy Caldwell Dyson chatted about being a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Endeavour flight STS-118 in August 2007 then Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station between April 4, 2010 and September 25, 2010. She has completed three spacewalks, logging more than 22 hrs of EVA including work to replace a malfunctioning coolant pump. 

Even a fellow woman astronaut on the panel explained how part of the human experience is about exploring space and enjoying the beauty of it.  Tracy said that the reality of living and working in space, is fixing the space station, no different than normal repairs on Earth but it's way more dangerous out in space.  This is why her two favorite space movies are "Star Wars" for inspiration and "Gravity" for the reality for surviving and living in space.

Tracy said it was only during her down time that she had the time to "smell the roses."  For her, it's taking a breather to enjoy the Earth and space.

One of the women astronauts did say her eyes welled up in tears, once she saw the entire Earth as moving marble of a planet.  But she added the reality of living and working in space, her tears did not roll down, like they do on Earth.  Her tears bubbled up, filling her eyeballs and blurring her sight.

It's these personal anecdotes of the little but real incidents that informed James Gray and keep "Ad Astra" grounded.

"Ad Astra" panel discussion continued with Jet Propulsion Laboratory, already thinking about making the Moon liveable.  One researcher discussed using old lave tunnels there, into living quarters and towns as bases for deep space explorations farther into space.

NASA helps keeping Brad Pitt's/James Gray's "Ad Astra" grounded and real.

James Gray calls "Scientific Realism Fantasy."