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鈥淭HE Eagle has landed.鈥� Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong鈥檚 words to NASA as the craft landed on the moon 50 years ago became part of the mission鈥檚 legend. But few of us remember the response: 鈥淩oger, Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You鈥檝e got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We鈥檙e breathing again.鈥�

Even though I know how the story goes, I still hold my breath like those NASA engineers did half a century ago whenever I relive the moon landing on TV or at the movies. It was the moment that the whole world stood still to watch history in action 鈥� and its 50th anniversary is creating moon fever everywhere.

I have a bad case of it, but then, I always have done. Luckily, there is no shortage of great shows about Apollo to enjoy. Take Apollo鈥檚 Moon Shot, a six-parter from the Smithsonian Channel. It covers Project Mercury (1958 to 1963) and Project Gemini (1962 to 1966) in its first two episodes, with the rest focusing on Apollo (1961 to 1972) 鈥� understandably, since those teams lived through the highest and lowest moments of that era of space exploration.

The series uses rare archival footage to tell the story of the early days of the US space programme. It also calls on historians from the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Air and Space Museum to help explain artefacts from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes. The footage is so beautifully restored that, at times, it is hard to believe it is 50 years old. And viewers are given a peek at how NASA鈥檚 early astronauts proved they had what it takes.

鈥淪couting out a landing spot, the lunar module tumbles out of control. You hear the fear in Eugene Cernan鈥檚 voice鈥�

In one scene, a trainee astronaut in a cage is lifted about 15 metres in the air and suddenly dropped to the ground. In another, one of the Mercury astronauts lies back in a chair and is shaken vigorously, as if he is experiencing his own personal earthquake.

Shots from the 鈥淰omit Comet鈥�, the C-131 Samaritan military transport plane used to mimic weightlessness on parabolic flights, are narrated by a reporter who accompanied the astronauts on a training trip. His voice is strained and uncomfortable, but the Mercury astronauts seem to be having the time of their lives 鈥� grinning, spinning around in the air and walking upside down on their hands. A few kittens that were taken up for tests looked decidedly less happy.

Archival interviews with Alan Shepard, the first American in space, reveal how the astronauts felt and what characters they were. At one point, Shepard describes John F. Kennedy giving him a medal and refers to the president鈥檚 much-parodied voice as 鈥渉is damn Yankee accent鈥�.

The show goes behind the glossy, triumphant newsreels to see the real risk of the endeavour. During the Apollo 10 flight, in which Eugene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford scouted out the historic landing spot for Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module starts tumbling out of control. You can see the moon鈥檚 surface flash past the window as the module flips, and you hear the fear and frustration in Cernan鈥檚 voice as he says: 鈥淲e鈥檙e in trouble鈥�.

They regain control of the craft and, with the bravado typical of astronauts, Cernan sums up the experience: 鈥淭hat was wild鈥�.

It was 鈥� just like the idea to go to the moon, the scramble to build the technology and the pilots who agreed to sit on top of a rocket and hope it blew up in the right direction. Apollo鈥檚 Moon Shot captures the wildness of it all.