'Before The Moon' Film by Jason Sherman & Delphia Entertainment Honors NASA's Unsung Ground Crew Behind the Moon Landing

Before the Moon Hero

Mission Control, Space Center, Houston

Gene Kranz Interview

Director Jason Sherman Returns Interviews NASA Legends Including Gene Kranz, Ralph Anderson, Estella Gillette, and Others Who Trained and Supported Astronauts

PHILADELPHIA, PA, UNITED STATES, October 16, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Award-winning filmmaker Jason Sherman of Delphia Entertainment has returned from NASA’s Johnson Space Center with a slate of interviews that are reshaping how America remembers the Space Race. His upcoming feature documentary, Before The Moon, goes beyond the astronauts to tell the story of the engineers, women, people of color, and Cold War innovators whose work behind the scenes powered America’s missions to space.

Produced by Delphia Entertainment, known for its commitment to stories of historical and social impact, Before The Moon highlights overlooked figures from Mercury to Apollo and the Shuttle era - many of whom trained at the Johnsville Centrifuge in Warminster, PA.

“We’re rewriting history, this time from the ground up,” said Sherman. “The world sees the moonwalkers. But this film shows the people who got them there. People like Ralph Anderson, NASA’s first African American manager, who designed life-saving flight crew equipment. Or Estella Gillette, who broke barriers as a young Latina secretary and rose to help select astronauts.”

Anderson, who served as manager of the Shuttle Program’s Flight Crew Equipment Office, reflected on the gravity of documentation in spaceflight: “In human space flight, our voices get silenced if we don’t record our mistakes and lessons. And in space, mistakes are deadly.”

Dr. Estella Hernández Gillette, a naturalized Mexican-American woman who joined NASA in 1964, added: “We were the women in the wings of NASA. We didn’t know we were making history. We just did our part.” As an executive secretary during Apollo, she was the one who took President Nixon’s White House phone call and routed it to the Moon - connecting Earth to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they stood on the lunar surface.

Legendary flight director Gene Kranz, known for his iconic leadership during Apollo 13, was also interviewed. “My job wasn’t just building a control center - it was building a team that could make second-by-second life-or-death decisions,” said Kranz. “We didn’t know each other’s names at first. But we built the culture that made success possible.”

Other participants include:
- Gary Johnson, who engineered the Apollo abort system and spacecraft sequencing
- Ken Young, mission planner who helped design Gemini’s orbital rendezvous techniques
- Stokes McMillan, Shuttle simulation supervisor who trained astronauts to think on their feet
- Joe Gamble, Apollo engineer who helped reentry systems guide astronauts safely home
- Glenn Ecord, Apollo engineer who investigated pressure vessel failures and helped define NASA's structural safety standards

Before The Moon also pays tribute to the Naval Air Development Center (NADC) in Warminster, PA - a Cold War R&D site where astronauts trained on the world’s largest human centrifuge and engineers invented black boxes, GPS precursors, and astronaut gear decades ahead of its time.
The film is set for release in 2026, in sync with NASA’s Artemis program and renewed Moon missions. With archival footage, personal interviews, and dramatized reenactments, Sherman and Delphia Entertainment aim to bring this forgotten legacy back into the national spotlight.

Before The Moon isn’t just a documentary - it’s a preservation of legacy, and a blueprint for the future. At a time when space program budgets are shrinking and missions face cancellation, telling the stories of those who quietly made spaceflight possible - engineers, secretaries, technicians, and simulation trainers - keeps that spirit alive. For a new generation of STEM students dreaming of becoming scientists, engineers, or astronauts, this film shows them where it all began and who made it possible. By honoring the voices that history forgot, Before The Moon ensures that the future of space exploration remains grounded in the dedication, ingenuity, and courage of those who dared to reach for the stars - before anyone had ever walked on the Moon.

About Delphia Entertainment:
Delphia Entertainment is an award-winning production company based in Pennsylvania, dedicated to telling powerful true stories that elevate unsung innovators, communities, and trailblazers. Known for its historical depth and cinematic storytelling, Delphia’s films have been featured on PBS and in museums and classrooms across the country.

Lily Thompson
Go To Consulting LLC.
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