Limited series · Disney+
The Right Stuff
The race to be first in space.
Who's in it
Cast
The principal ensemble across the run of the series.
Jake McDorman
Alan Shephard
8 eps
Patrick J. Adams
John Glenn
8 eps
Colin O'Donoghue
Gordon Cooper
8 eps
Eloise Mumford
Trudy Cooper
8 eps
James Lafferty
Scott Carpenter
8 eps
Nora Zehetner
Annie Glenn
8 eps
Eric Ladin
Chris Kraft
8 eps
Patrick Fischler
Bob Gilruth
8 eps
Aaron Staton
Wally Schirra
8 eps
Michael Trotter
Gus Grissom
8 eps
Micah Stock
Deke Slayton
8 eps
Shannon Lucio
Louise Shepard
8 eps
Jackson Pace
Glynn Lunney
8 eps
Josh Cooke
Loudon Wainwright
8 eps
Kaley Ronayne
Dee O'Hara
8 eps
Murphy Guyer
1 eps
Tyler Jacob Moore
Bud Jennings
1 eps
Bill Kelly
Buck
1 eps
Tom Hillmann
Dr. White
1 eps
Paige Patterson
Mary
1 eps
Alea Figueroa
Carol
1 eps
James L. Lincoln
Henry
1 eps
Zach Franklin
Rick
1 eps
Katlyn Horstkamp
Hotel Clerk
1 eps
Ryan White
Courier
1 eps
Austen LeTourneau
Tall Courier
1 eps
Matthew Chizever
Marty Schnellham
2 eps
Christopher Barra
Reporter #1
2 eps
R. Keith Harris
Jim Rathmann
2 eps
Holland Hayes
T. Keith Glennan
3 eps
Clay Gibson
Engineer 4
2 eps
Laura Ault
Jo Schirra
3 eps
Victoria White
Marge Slayton
3 eps
Kyra Johnson
Lyn Glenn
4 eps
Daryn Kahn
Ralph Morse
2 eps
Hailey Fonte
Beautiful Young Woman
2 eps
Tom Izdon
Egg Head
2 eps
Todd Allen Durkin
Jerome Wiesner
2 eps
Andy Gion
Recovery
3 eps
The Nutevio profile
TV DNA
How The Right Stuff actually feels to watch, measured on the traits our editors track across every series.
Signature profile
The Right Stuff reads strongest on Character Depth, Bingeability and Serialized.
How fully written and psychologically layered the ensemble is.
How hard it is to stop after one episode.
How much each hour depends on the one before it.
How much the series is designed to affect you.
How often an episode ends on a hook you can't ignore.
The sustained pressure the series keeps you under.
Visual ambition — scale, craft and set-piece filmmaking.
The scale, internal logic and texture of the world.
How often the series is genuinely funny, by design.
The story
What it's about
At the height of the Cold War, newly formed NASA selects seven of the military’s best test pilots to become astronauts. Competing to be the first in space, these men achieve the extraordinary, inspiring the world to turn towards a new horizon of ambition and hope.
The run
Seasons
1 season · 8 episodes.
Season 1 · Complete
Season 1
20208 episodes
7.0IMDbThe first season starts at the height of the Cold War. To combat a national sentiment of fear and decline, the U.S. government conceives of NASA’s Project Mercury, igniting a space race with the Soviets and making instant celebrities of a handful of the military’s adrenaline-fueled test pilots.
Best episode · S01E08 Flight
Where the series peaks
Best Episodes
The hours that define the show, ranked by audience response and editorial signal.
S01E08
Flight
After Shepard’s dramatic voyage to space, he feels underwhelmed and restless. Heeding Glenn’s advice, Shepard attempts to quell his ambition with gratitude for his wife and children. While Shepard’s marriage somehow remains intact, Gordo and Trudy’s may never recover. Meanwhile, when JFK publicly issues a challenge for NASA to send a man to the moon, Glenn’s drive to top Shepard is reignited.
- Directed by Andrew Bernstein
S01E03
Single Combat Warrior
After mysterious bouts of vertigo, Shepard turns to Dee O’Hara to help him. Meanwhile, Cocoa Beach has transformed from ghost town to perpetual party. Gordo finds himself tempted by another woman. Glenn seeks refuge from the bedlam at a local church gathering, where even he is confronted by temptation. The astronauts’ families arrive in Florida to watch the first test launch of the Atlas Rocket.
- Directed by Louise Friedberg
S01E06
Vostok
JFK sends a science committee to Cape Canaveral to assess the validity of the space program. Glenn, burning from the results of the peer vote, drafts letters to politicians complaining that Shepard is morally unfit to be the first man in space. But matters of internal power plays and a skeptical president are soon dwarfed by news out of Russia that could be the nail in Project Mercury’s coffin.
- Directed by Nick Copus
S01E07
Ziggurat
On the Eve of the flight, Louise learns of Shepard’s affair in Tijuana. Trudy watches Gordo crack a joke about women astronauts on television. Glenn awaits the humiliating moment when the world will finally learn he won’t be first. Tensions reach a breaking point when Shepard and Glenn are forced together in a pressure cooker of weather delays, marital discord, and a circus of reporters.
- Directed by Andrew Bernstein
S01E05
The Kona Kai Séance
Trudy meets with Jerrie Cobb and is invited to join the first all-female-astronaut corps. The Mercury 7 are sent to San Diego for some glad-handing, but the trip sours when Shepard is caught by a reporter with another woman. Glenn helps Shepard get the story spiked, but his moralizing drives a wedge between him and the other astronauts that will directly affect who is chosen to go to space first.
- Directed by Rob Bailey
S01E02
Goodies
The press descends upon the domestic lives of the astronauts. Shepard and Gordo wilt under the limelight while Glenn thrives. Glenn secures a deal with Life Magazine that grants exclusive access to all seven astronauts in return for life-altering compensation. By the time the astronauts arrive in Florida to begin work, even Shepard has come to understand the power they now hold.
- Directed by John David Coles
Behind the series
Created by
Showrunners, creators, executive producers and the writers who set the voice of the series.
The craft
Key Crew
Directing, writing, production, camera, music and editing.
Executive production
- Llewellyn WellsProducer
- Matt BarberProducer
- Mark LaffertyExecutive Producer
- Chris LongExecutive Producer
- Danny StrongExecutive Producer
- Howard KorderExecutive Producer
Direction
- Andrew BernsteinDirector
- John David ColesDirector
- Nick CopusDirector
- Louise FriedbergDirector
- Chris LongDirector
- Rob BaileyDirector
Cinematography
- Evans BrownDirector of Photography
- Peter Menzies Jr.Director of Photography
- Christopher NorrDirector of Photography
- Adam SuschitzkyDirector of Photography
Music
- Adam TaylorOriginal Music Composer
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
- Amazon VideoBuy
- Apple TV StoreBuy
- Fandango At HomeBuy
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Watch Next
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