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On August 19, 1980, ANSA astronauts Virdon, Jones and Burke were aboard a spaceship approaching Alpha Centauri when it encountered a time warp. The astronauts lost consciousness and the date on the ship's chronometer lurched to March 21, 3085 before stopping. Jones died when the ship crashed, but Virdon and Burke survived, discovered they were on a future Earth, and found a society dominated by talking apes.

Earlier, former NASA astronauts Hudson, Stewart and Franklin had piloted the Probe Six in orbit around Earth for three days, deploying spy satellites and testing equipment. Stewart and Franklin became the first American women in space during this mission, though this was not made public. A Probe Seven craft was also developed, but a disastrous test flight by ANSA's Taylor, Eddie Rowark and Virdon resulted in Rowark's death.

Behind The Scenes[]

Burke Virdon ship interior

Burke and Virdon inside their ship

Escape ship

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

Burke and Virdon's ship

Burke and Virdon's ship

Virdon, Jones and Burke's ship was named Probe Six in initial concept pages for the Planet of the Apes TV series, though the ship remained unnamed onscreen.

The name Daedalus has also been suggested as a name for Virdon and Burke's ship, though this may be just a fan creation. In Greek mythology, Daedalus was the father of Icarus, and the creator of the wax-formed wings with which they escaped their prison tower. Icarus flew too close to the sun and destroyed his wings, plummeting to his death. Icarus is a fan-created name for the craft featured in the original Planet of the Apes movie, also known as the Liberty 1 (perhaps a less pessimistic name for a spaceship).

The prop model of the ship was most likely built for the opening scene of Escape from the Planet of the Apes, where Colonel Taylor's lost ship, the Liberty 1, unexpectedly appears in 1973.[1] An elaborate ship interior had also been constructed specifically for this sequence, but it wasn't ultimately used in the movie. It was, however, used for the TV series, with alterations because the filming was taking place from the front of the ship rather than from the inside. The exterior had US flags on the front fins.[2] Ron Harper recalled of filming the TV episode, "The spaceship wasn't much of anything. It was a wooden, hollow shell. The scenes with us at the controls were shot on a soundstage. What looked impressive was the way they dug that burning burrow behind the spaceship to make it look like it took about half a mile to land."[3]

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