TGM

"When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions" Premieres Tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Discovery Channel

Narrated by award-winning actor Gary Sinise, "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions" is the story of humankind's greatest adventure — the first 50 years of space exploration — told by the people who were there. From the early quest of the Mercury program to put a man in space, to the historic moon landings, through the Soyuz linkup and the first untethered space walk, this is how the space age came of age. This new HD series has transferred original mission footage from NASA's own secret film vaults to high definition for the first time, to tell the stories in a depth never seen before. Get local listings and for "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions", premiering tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Discovery Channel.

Cellar Door

Can't wait! I've got my DVR all set.

I picked up the From the Earth to the Moon set on DVD a while back, but haven't watched it yet--been waiting for school to end so I'll have more free time. This will be a good reason to break it out.

I always find it sad how little most of my students know about the early space program (high school students and most of them have no clue who I'm talking about when I mention the names Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Yuri Gagarin, Werner Von Braun, etc.). So I try to work it into our lessons when relevant. If this series is good, I'd definitely look into using it in the classroom.

Nth Power

So this isn't being aired on DiscoveryHD?

Chrisedge

yes it is....recorded it last night in HD

mugwump

Great stuff. I was very surprised to see that Neil Armstrong was participating in the program since he very rarely grants interviews or makes appearances. Can't wait for next week.

Timber

Great show. For some reason I think DiscoveryHD aired them out or order, so I've watched episode 2 and have 1 waiting on me. The Gemini missions were amazing and I knew very little about them beforehand. It's sad what our space program has turned into over the years. 2 manned launches in 3 days time with the sole purpose of seeing if they could dock with each other. Amazing stuff.

shaun3000

I wouldn't say our space program has turned into a sad shell of itself. Keep in mind that during the early days, especially during Gemini, we were not only trying to get it all figure out but racing to get to the moon before the end of the 1960s. Unfortunately funding was cut and we haven't returned to the moon. But we've done some wicked crazy stuff in the mean time, both manned and unmanned. And hopefully we'll continue to push for return trips to the moon and onto Mars.

AlainDelon

Unfortunately it is NOT aired on Discovery HD Theater wich is the one HD channel from Discovery Networks most people have.It is only aired on the regular Discovery HD wich sucks because i was really looking forward to this.It is also shown on the regular Discovery SD channel but i didn't want to ruin the experience by watching it in low res.

lawyer goodwill

Yeah, I only watched the first five minutes of Part I and was super-excited to see Neil deliver the first "talking head" comments. I'm looking forward to firing up the DVR for this!

Mr. Salty

We got a promo copy of this on DVD at work, with all six episodes and a digital press kit housed in a cardboard Apollo capsule, which I quickly snagged. I went through the whole thing in a single day. All six episodes are great, and it's amazing how much Discovery has packed into each. IMHO they could have stretched it out to 10 episodes and taken a little more time on a few things.

Timber

So how many episodes aired on Sunday? My Tivo recorded the first one twice and has one labeled as 1 and the other as 2.

mugwump

Yeah my DVR recorded the first two-hour block then immediately afterward another hour which was just a repeat of the first block's Mercury content. Kind of a strange way to air these.

lawyer goodwill

Not to harp on the Armstrong factor, but I wonder if he held out of appearing in the recent doc "In the Shadow of the Moon" because of some kind of exclusivity deal with Discovery. Most likely not, but I enjoyed Shadow, too, and was under the impression he regularly corresponded with the film's creators but chose not to be interviewed on camera.

dpz301

DVR'ed this too, hopefully both episodes recorded. can't wait to watch, hope i remembered to record it in HD.

TGM

I got shivers watching the Ed White first ever spacewalk footage... amazing.

al_bundy

the longest mission in the 1960's was around a week long to go to the moon and back. these days NASA is planning missions that will last for years.

Timber

Planning...Let's be honest, they haven't really done anything with a "wow" factor in some time. Why is it that we had a space craft that was capable of going to the moon back in the 60's yet they haven't had one capable of doing so in the past 25 years? I'm not saying that they don't still do some good things but they have completely failed to deliver in human space travel.

Mr. Salty

I don't know that I'd blame NASA for that. After we reached the moon and the Soviet Union gave up the space race, President Nixon, the Congress and the American people lost interest. And with that loss of interest, the funding for big projects went away too. It was like pulling teeth to get the space shuttle funded, and even then it was underfunded so that what we ended up with never had the capabilities that were originally planned.

Timber

Last night was good with the Apollo missions. I'm obviously not really a "new" NASA fan with the space station stuff but it was still cool seeing them work out a fix for Skylab and having it in place in 10 days. I still look forward to the the early Space Shuttle stuff and Hubble.

dhmac

We need more teachers like you.

starman9000

I can't wait to see this. Just finished watching In the Shadow of the Moon and I loved From the Earth to the Moon.

Has anyone watched the dvds from the Spacecraft Films series? I just picked up the Apollo 11 set and can't wait to watch it, though I imagine it can be pretty slow.

lawyer goodwill

Hey starman, what did you think of In the Shadow of the Moon?

starman9000

I really enjoyed it. In particular, the visuals were stunning and gave me goosebumps at times. Overall though, I like the FTETTM better, but I suppose that could change when I watch it again (even though it's not really a good comparison in the first place).

Bill Needle

Just want to mention for those (like me) who normally don't pay attention to commercials that In the Shadow of the Moon will air (in glorious HD) on Discovery on 6/23. I highly, highly recommend it if you are reading this thread.

I have 5 of the Spacecraft Films sets. I love them. I only wish they had been able to include the live television broadcasts as well. Watching Cronkite tear up on that warm July evening when we heard the words "The Eagle has landed" is etched in my memory (despite the fact that I later grew to despise the man). The broadcasts would add significantly to the nostalgia factor and much better convey the immensity of what was being attempted for the time.

TGM

this was a great 3 episode series... I'm sad it's over.