Some scenes from the Right Stuff, shown in class on Feb. 8 and Feb. 15:

12 -- Wonderful Tom Wolfe satirical dialog in this scene depicting US shock from Sputnik.
Image of Korolev, not as he was in reality but as US perceived him.
 Scene in White House shows Lyndon Johnson (Senate majority leader in 1957) 
giving (mistaken) arguments for the importance of getting into space to
US president Dwight Eisenhower.
  Loose power cord is a metaphor for US technical incompetence.
  Actual footage of Titov and Gagarin.  
Von Braun figure makes amusing wordplay with German pronunciations.

22 -- Actual NASA footage of misfires intercut with actors portraying astronauts
 observing failed launches.  They'll have to get atop these vehicles eventually.

26 -- Gagarin is first man in space in April 1961.  Actors portray astronauts reacting
 to US dismay.
  Last scene shows prelaunch activity for first US manned space flight  (May 1961),
carried out by Alan Shepard on a Redstone (Jupiter) rocket.
  Ends with "Shepard's Prayer".

The footage of CBS correspondent Eric Sevareid is real.
  Note the Death figure dressed as an undertaker,
  who appears in several scenes in this movie.