Patrick J Adams's The Right Stuff about US space programme and politics

Actor Patrick J Adams says his historical series, The Right Stuff, narrates a story of character, conflicts, and politics.

The show explores the origins and growth of the space programme in the United States. Adams plays the late John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit Earth, circling it three times in 1962.

Asked about the existing conspiracy theories surrounding space exploration, Adams says, "Are you speaking specifically about conspiracy theories involving the moon landing? Because that's the one that I'm most familiar with. I think the great thing about what we're doing is that everyone, when they talk about the space program, they talk about the moon landing. It happened so quickly on the heels of the Mercury program. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo. Obviously, we were on the moon in 1969. Or maybe not, if you believe conspiracy theories, which I do not."

The Suits star continues, "The point is that the story we're telling is a story that, by virtue of everything having moved so fast, and us getting to that monumental milestone of a moment of landing on the moon - that's what captured everyone's attention."

"Now when we look back at the space program, that's what we want to focus on, and it deserves to be focused on. It was an incredible story and happened so, so quickly. But what got lost is the story that we're telling here," he adds.

The show is based on a book by Tom Wolfe. The eight-episode season looks at the early days of the US Space Program and the story of the first astronauts, the Mercury 7.

"The show is about these seven guys and their families, and the people that were responsible for building NASA in the first place. These guys were really making it up as they went along, and in an incredibly dramatic race with a country that they were in the middle of a cold war with," Adams says, referring to erstwhile Soviet Union.

"So for us, there's such a huge amount of material, and the story has gone so untold for so long that it's just like a treasure trove of story and of character, conflict, intrigue, manoeuvring, and politics," he says.

"I feel very lucky that we get to be a part of bringing it to a generation of people that have probably been distracted by the moon landing, or the other advancements we've made since then," adds the actor.

The show streams on Disney+ Hotstar in India.