expedition leader Barnes uses too much fuel during the descent. Safely on the Moon, they explore the lunar surface and describe by radio their view of the Earth, as contrasted against the star-filled lunar night sky. Using forced perspective, Barnes photographs Sweeney pretending to "hold up" the Earth like a modern Atlas. Events take a serious turn for the crew, however, when they realize that with their limited remaining fuel they must lighten Luna in order to achieve lunar escape velocity. No matter how much non-critical equipment they strip and discard on the lunar surface, the hard numbers radioed from Earth continue to point to one conclusion: One of them will have to remain on the Moon if the others are to safely return to Earth. With time running out for their return launch window, the crew continues to engineer their way home. They finally jettison the ship's radio, losing contact with Earth. In addition, a spent oxygen cylinder is used as a tethered, suspended weight to pull their sole remaining space suit outside through the open airlock, which is then remotely closed and resealed. With the critical take-off weight finally achieved, and with all her crew safely aboard, Luna blasts off from the Moon for home. Cast John Archer as Jim Barnes Warner Anderson as Dr. Charles Cargraves Tom Powers as General Thayer Dick Wesson as Joe Sweeney Erin O'Brien-Moore as Emily Cargraves Franklyn Farnum as Factory Worker (uncredited) Everett Glass as Mr. La Porte (uncredited) Knox Manning as Knox Manning (uncredited) Kenner G. Kemp as Businessman at meeting (uncredited) Mike Miller as Man (uncredited) Irving Pichel as Narrator of Woody Woodpecker Cartoon (uncredited) Cosmo Sardo as Businessman at Meeting (uncredited) Bert Stevens as Businessman at meeting (uncredited) Ted Warde as Brown (uncredited) Grace Stafford as Woody Woodpecker (voice) (uncredited) Production Before Destination Moon, there were very few serious science fiction films: 1929's Frau im Mond (English Woman in the Moon), 1931's Frankenstein, and 1936's Things to Come are antecedents (though containing fantasy elements). However, the more juvenile-oriented Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers stories of the 1930s syndicated science fiction newspaper comic strips that were both adapted into radio serials and Universal Pictures film serials. George Pal was a Hungarian who made commercials that played as short subjects with feature films in Europe. He later advanced into animated cartoon-like short features that were made using carefully hand-manipulated tiny sculptures