Discovery Channel: Nasa's Greatest Missions [Blu-ray]

Let’s get this clear from the outset, this is 100% USA self-glorification of NASAs accomplishments, there is barely any mention of any other space agency in the world at all, with the brief exception of Sputnik and Gegarin.Everybody knows that NASA achieved a lot with indirect help from other agencies and countries that didn’t get it quite right.This series is awesome though.The rendering onto Blu-ray is excellent, the extra films are wonderful and the content is fantastic.I only wish that the modern Russia could look back and fish out all their old Soviet space stuff in a similar method so that we can have both. It will never happen though.Great viewing, even multiple times.

Six episodes of about 48 minutes each, chronicling NASA's key space programs: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Shuttle, ISS. Combines familiar footage with other footage never before seen, all remastered from source material as best as possible, which given the 5 decades it spans and different recording formats, is hit-and-miss but also no mean feat. Extensive interviews are also incorporated from key individuals: famous and not-so famous astronauts, plus flight directors and engineers, recounting what it really felt like to be part of the space program. It's a fascinating series worth your time and money. If I was to be critical, I'd have enjoyed even more detail, plus side-by-side chronology of the Russian space missions.

I was a bit worried at first since the discs seem to have come on a DVD-R but I am guessing this was released by a smaller publisher in the UK. One to the content though, this is a wonderful trip into the early NASA space programmes, there is so much detail in here that I have had to watch them several times to absorb all the wonderful information, I thoroughly enjoyed this series, anything about space exploration and NASA I am always interested in but this series took it to the next level.

I own many documentaries about space. Some are good, and some are simply dreadful.Since I always preferred the whole story of a mission, the nearest one would come to this goal, is to buy the relatively expensive "Spacecraft Collection" editions, issued in the United States, which include the full television, 16mm films and air to ground communication recordings of the time in which such missions took place. All, naturally digitalized and highly polished.But for those who are not such "nuts" about space and just want a swift synopsis to what happened when and how, including witnesses and protagonists of such magnificent feats, this collection is one of the best on the Market these days.Originally titled "When We Left Earth" and repackaged in the UK as "NASA's Greatest Missions" (go figure why?), this is the very same product with a different cover. It contains four DVDs individually packaged in slim cases.Each DVD contains 2 different programs with NASA bonuses added to each of them.I enjoyed them very much, even if I already know every missions by heart. They include the essential information needed to know about where NASA has been and where NASA will go.It can easily be considered as a suitable "starter" for all those who either missed-out on previous missions (especially younger generations), or simply have forgotten how it all started and how difficult such missions have been and still are.In any case, for a celebration, this is the right tool and I can only recommend it.I still watch it as a compendium to other similar products...

This documentary series was very interesting and entertaining.Just beware that since this is "NASA's Greatest Missions", you get a very one-sided view of the history of space exploration, so if you're new to the subject, there is a risk that you will think that the U.S. did every "Moon mission" that has been done.If you've seen the BBC's outstanding 1999 series " The Planets " you know that the Soviets did a lot more research and space missions than one might think.This series tells it from NASA's perspective, so you will literally only get the story of NASA's missions, not the story of space missions in general.If you read the title, it's obvious that is the case, but I thought I'd address it anyway.This series is highly recommended, though and a nice compliment to the aforementioned "The Planets".

This set is very well produced, the colours are good and the images are sharp. Even the NASA films of Freedom 7, Friendship 7 have been improved, both colorwise and in sharpness, compared with other versions (e.g. "The American Space Odyssey" and "NASA - 50 years of Space Exploration").Disc 1 covers the early years from X-15 to Gemini 9. The other discs cover the remaining Space Programme (up to Hubble) by focussing on specific missions in depth, rather than covering every mission. Two notable omissions are the Apollo/Soyuz and Skylab missions (though in the bonus clips is a "roller-coaster" interior tour of Skylab). An interesting inclusion is the coverage of the Gemini6/7 mission. Here, most of the footage is ground-based, including a well presented explanation of rendezvous procedures.Numerous bonus clips on various topics are included