What President Nixon wants - and what the military does too - is for NASA to focus on “the race for the base,” specifically the creation of the first permanent military installation on Mars. (It isn’t necessarily the smoothest trip, but hey, as was mentioned in the last episode, “any landing you walk away from.”) And then, it’s all about NASA continuing to bounce back from the ego blow that was losing the race to the moon, somewhat fortified by the success of Apollo 11. However, “He Built the Saturn V” begins by pretty quickly getting Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin off the lunar surface and back home safely. For All Mankind episode one ended with what, when you really think about it, is a pretty scary cliffhanger: Imagine having just crashed your spaceship on the moon, with no clear answer as to how you’re going to get off of it.
