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Nine American spacecraft voyaged to the moon between 1968 and 1972. Twenty-four men traveled nearly 240,000 miles each way to Earth's natural satellite, and 12 walked upon the moon's surface. All of them returned safely to Earth.

The extraordinary achievement of NASA's Apollo program is celebrated in "In the Shadow of the Moon," an exhilarating documentary that opens Friday at the Neon Movies in Dayton.

The film is now playing at the Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati and the Drexel Gateway Theatre in Columbus.

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, "In the Shadow of the Moon" chronicles the lunar program through a treasure trove of archival footage and engaging interviews with surviving astronauts from all nine Apollo missions.

"It shows the humanity of the participants and their point of view, that I think is very refreshing and allows the public to identify with the people who carried those things out in those years," said Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Aldrin, 77, was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11 and the second man to step foot on the moon, after Mission Commander and Wapakoneta native Neil Armstrong.

Aldrin is immortalized in pop culture by Buzz Lightyear from the "Toy Story" films and the "Buzzy" Moon Man statuette presented to winners at the MTV Video Music Awards.

"In the Shadow of the Moon" is highlighted by first-person accounts of the men who journeyed to another world and looked back at our own. It reminds audiences of a time when the whole world literally looked up to America.

"It's quite a bit different from the scientific," Aldrin said. "The international impact of six clearly successful lunar landings."

The Apollo program helped to hasten the end of the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union, who raced one another to land a man on the moon. "That I think is attributable to the manner in which the United States responds to a challenge," Aldrin said.

President John F. Kennedy in 1961 challenged the nation to put a man on the moon and bring him safely back to Earth before the decade's end. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 touched down on the moon's Sea of Tranquility. The following day, Armstrong and Aldrin planted the American flag on the moon's surface. They returned to Earth on July 24, along with Command Module Pilot Mike Collins.

"In the Shadow of the Moon" illustrates the astronauts' commentaries with footage from NASA's film vaults. Much of the remastered material has never been seen before in a feature film.

The producers avoid using animation or dramatizations.

"Whenever you use an animation, you've got somebody else's interpretation," Aldrin said.

"And when you do a dramatic thing like 'The Right Stuff,' you show the Mercury capsule with a bunch of Germans around it and you give the impression that the Germans had something to do with the design of the Mercury capsule, which was absolutely wrong," he added, laughing.

The film illustrates the risks that the astronauts faced, such as the tragic 1967 fire during a simulated countdown that claimed the crew of Apollo 1.

"I think we attempted to anticipate and to train on the things that might go wrong," Aldrin said. "As it turned out, the things that went wrong of a major nature were unanticipated by even those charged with trying to find out what could go wrong."

One of the film's most remarkable sequences is an unaired address to the nation by then-President Richard M. Nixon, recorded in the event that Armstrong and Aldrin were marooned on the moon.

"It's not the kind of thing that you would make public ahead of time, and why bother after the fact to detract from the fact that it was successful," said Aldrin, who didn't learn until later about Nixon's pre-taped address. "So just put it in the file and press on."

Man departed the moon for the last time in December 1972 and has yet to return.

President Bush wants Americans back on the moon by 2015 — the first step in a new era of space exploration.

"I think it's more accepted as wishful thinking of getting to the moon by 2015," Aldrin said. "But a strong desire to reach there by 2020, which is one year more than 50 years after we reached the moon the first time. A lot of us will be pretty old at the 50th anniversary."

The goal is feasible and worth pursuing, Aldrin said. "It's an absolute preliminary step to the logical step, and the appropriate one, of moving toward Mars as the objective, and hopefully understanding that as permanence on Mars."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen

@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is a 2000 enshrinee of the National Aviation Hall of Fame at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

However, Aldrin has deeper ties to Dayton. His father, Edwin Aldrin Sr., was commandant from 1921-25 of the U.S. Army Air Corps Engineering School at McCook Field.

McCook Field later became Wright-Pat, and the Engineering School became the Air Force Institute of Technology. AFIT financed Aldrin's doctorate of science in Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he said.

"I have a lot of thanks to give to all that there in Dayton," Aldrin said.

The documentary "In the Shadow of the Moon" has greater significance for Dayton, as well.

"That whole series of Apollo missions rested on the back of engineers that at that point were using slide rules for the most part," said Ron Kaplan, executive director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame. "Dayton certainly has a great heritage of aerospace and aeronautical engineers."

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Ron Kaplan, executive director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, screened "In the Shadow of the Moon."

"As a baby boomer, it was very exciting to re-visit the subject," Kaplan said. "Especially in such well-produced video detail."

Kaplan said the firsthand testimony of surviving Apollo astronauts was enlightening, informative and, at times, moving.

"It's always great any time we see a project that captures the human side of air and space exploration," he said.

For younger generations, the film serves as a wonderful teaching tool.

"At least with a lot of the youngsters that have seen it, it's ignited a curiosity and I hope an enthusiasm for manned space exploration," Kaplan said.