Destination Moon (comics)
Destination Moon (Objectif Lune) is the sixteenth in a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Destination Moon is the first part of one of the three multi-book stories in the Tintin series, the other being Explorers on the Moon (On a marché sur la Lune).
It is one of two Tintin albums (the other being The Castafiore Emerald) that is not structured as a straightforward adventure story; instead, it is an episodic sequence of events surrounding the development of a moon rocket. There is, however, a subplot involving espionage to hold the episodes together.
Synopsis
Tintin's friend, Professor Cuthbert Calculus has been commissioned by the Syldavian government to build a rocket ship which will fly to the moon. Tintin and Captain Haddock agree to join the expedition. But they soon come to realise that a foreign power is also interested in the project and has planted spies in the research centre where the rocket is being built.
A prototype of the rocket is launched, but is then intercepted by the foreign power and the research team has no other option than to destroy the rocket. As the compound is heavily secured, there must have been a spy who leaked information, but no suspects are found.
Despite this set-back preparations are made for an actual moon flight, a rocket is built and the equipment tested.
Finally, late at night, the rocket takes off with Tintin, Haddock, Calculus and his assistant Frank Wolff.
Scientific accuracy
Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon were written well over a decade before the 1969 moon landings and several years before manned space flight. Hergé was keen to ensure that the books were scientifically accurate, based on ideas about space flight then available.
One oddity is that Tintin and Haddock only get to see the rocket when it is in the final stages of completion, despite having been the designated passengers for several months.
Changes
Bernard Heuvelmans, advisor to Hergé during the creation of the moon exploration albums, originally wrote a script for Destination Moon that took place in the USA. Hergé drew a couple of pages before changing the location to the fictional Slavic country of Syldavia. Compare The Shooting Star, which involves a European coalition of scientists beating Americans in a race to a fallen comet.
