Destination Moon (1950)

Director: Irving Pichel
Writers: Alford Van Ronkel, Robert A. Heinlein
Stars: John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers

The rocket engineer Dr. Charles Cargraves blows-up a rocket during the tests and loses the government funding. Together with his friends General Thayer and Jim Barnes, they raise funds from American industrialists to build a rocket using atomic engine in the desert to reach the moon.
However the public opinion is against the project afraid of radiation leakage in the spot and they decide to anticipate the launch of the spaceship without tests.
The radar and radio operator Joe Sweeney is invited and teams-up with them and the rocket is called Luna. During the descent on the moon, they use too much fuel to safely land.
After the exploration of the lunar soil, Charles realizes that they need to reduce the weight of the rocket to launch back to Earth based on the remaining fuel.
They remove all the essential equipment but Charles concludes that someone must be left behind.
Will they return to Earth?