About the Film

Before The Moon is a feature-length documentary that reveals the untold story of how a quiet corner of Pennsylvania helped launch America into the space age. Long before rockets soared and astronauts walked on the Moon, the groundwork for spaceflight was being forged in Warminster, PA. Here, the U.S. Navy’s research hub—known as the Naval Air Development Center (NADC)—became home to the world’s largest and most powerful human centrifuge, capable of generating over 40 Gs of force. This machine wasn’t built for comfort—it was built for survival.

Astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs such as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and John Glenn are remembered for their triumphs in space. But it was the brutal spins inside the world’s largest and most powerful human centrifuge that first pushed their bodies and their courage to the edge. Warminster was the proving ground, where survival wasn’t simulated—it was earned.

Beyond training, NADC and its regional partners quietly shaped the future of NASA missions. Engineers and researchers in Bucks County developed critical life-support systems, tested pressure suits, and advanced avionics and guidance technologies that would help carry astronauts to the Moon—and bring them back alive. Before Houston. Before Cape Canaveral. There was Johnsville.

The Story

• Steamboat Revolutionary: John Fitch, a self-taught inventor, launched the first successful steamboat in American history, laying the groundwork for powered transportation systems.
• Warminster Takes Flight: James Work's ambitious yet ill-fated venture into military aircraft manufacturing led to its transformation to an elite naval military aviation hub that pushed the boundaries of flight safety, technology, and American airpower during the Cold War and beyond.
• The Aerospace Engine of Bucks County: Companies produced aircraft, satellites, and life-saving space components used in missions from Echo 1 to Apollo 13. These quiet innovators helped build the very tools that lifted America into the skies—and into history.
• The Moon Launch Machine: Acceleration training to the brink of blackout on the world's most powerful centrifuge was a right of passage for early U.S. astronauts, forging the minds and bodies of those who would ultimately emerge victors of the Space Race to the moon.
• Aviation Innovation in Bucks County: Bristol, Pennsylvania, once stood at the forefront of American aerospace manufacturing. Companies like Keystone Aircraft Corporation helped lay the foundation for modern aviation. Fleetwings (later Kaiser-Fleetwings) also operated in Bristol, producing stainless steel aircraft and, in 1960, the launch canister for Echo 1, the satellite that enabled the first satellite voice transmission—President Eisenhower's.
• The Johnsville Centrifuge: Hidden in the heart of Warminster, Pennsylvania stood a machine so powerful it could simulate the crushing force of a rocket launch as a "dynamic flight simulator" and proved integral for training of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts to survive the rigorous journey to space.
• Spaceflight Technology in Greater Philadelphia: While astronauts trained for the physical demands of spaceflight in Warminster, nearby companies engineered the systems that made space travel possible, including the Apollo Guidance Computer and satellite communications hardware.
• Apollo 13 Rescue: A Bucks County innovation helped save the crew of Apollo 13, with a canister frame manufactured in Newtown by Lavelle Aircraft Corporation becoming a critical part of the emergency workaround that allowed the crew to breathe safely until splashdown.

Support the Film

Donations to support the production of the film are handled through the King's Highway Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving American History. Your contribution ensures this story is not only told—but remembered.