"When We Left Earth" on the Discovery Channel

The film footage is excellent... but whoever edited that footage should
be hung by the neck until dead, as it's a cocked-up disaster area as far
as being correct in either chronology or use of appropriate footage for
the appropriate spaceflight.
Old stock rocket footage is mixed in with the new footage in a horrible
manner, so that Glenn's Atlas launch suddenly transmutes into a ascent
film of a Aerobee launch showing the view downwards, and there are other
screw-ups too numerous to mention (bet you didn't know that a Saturn 1
took off before Shepard's flight).
Sooner or later would the producers of one of these things actually hire
someone who knows about the time-frame that these rockets and missions
flew in, and give them a whip to keep the film editors in line with?
And Shepard did indeed have a window on his Mercury; it was a porthole
that didn't let him look forward, but there was indeed a window in it,
unlike what John Glenn says about him basically flying blind.
Very disappointing indeed.
This could have been something really great, and instead it's the
same-ol' - same ol' half-baked space documentary.
NASA was very badly served by this first installment in the Discovery
Channel's series on its 50th anniversary.
Well, at least there are the Apogee Films DVDs to fall back on.

Pat

On Jun 9, 1:57*am, Pat Flannery wrote: The film
footage is excellent... *but whoever edited that footage should be
hung by the neck until dead, as it's a cocked-up disaster area as far
as being correct in either chronology or use of appropriate footage
for the appropriate spaceflight. Old stock rocket footage is mixed
in with the new footage in a horrible manner, so that Glenn's Atlas
launch suddenly transmutes into a ascent film of a Aerobee launch
showing the view downwards, and there are other screw-ups too
numerous to mention (bet you didn't know that a Saturn 1 took off
before Shepard's flight). Sooner or later would the producers of one
of these things actually hire someone who knows about the time-frame
that these rockets and missions flew in, and give them a whip to keep
the film editors in line with? And Shepard did indeed have a window
on his Mercury; it was a porthole that didn't let him look forward,
but there was indeed a window in it, unlike what John Glenn says
about him basically flying blind. Very disappointing indeed. This
could have been something really great, and instead it's the same-ol'
- same ol' half-baked space documentary. NASA was very badly served
by this first installment in the Discovery Channel's series on its
50th anniversary. Well, at least there are the Apogee Films DVDs to
fall back on. PatDitto here.* Narrator ID'd Young as Lovell and
then Gene Kranz was talking about watching Grissoms Mercuy recovery on
TV.* Perhaps it was recorded or watched on a NASA loop but I don't
recall seeing any video as it happened.* Footage is great never saw
Shepards ascent in the elevator to Freedom 7 from inside the
elevator.............Doc

On Jun 9, 12:57 am, Pat Flannery wrote:
The film footage is excellent... but whoever edited that footage should
be hung by the neck until dead, as it's a cocked-up disaster area as far
as being correct in either chronology or use of appropriate footage for
the appropriate spaceflight.
Old stock rocket footage is mixed in with the new footage in a horrible
manner, so that Glenn's Atlas launch suddenly transmutes into a ascent
film of a Aerobee launch showing the view downwards, and there are other
screw-ups too numerous to mention (bet you didn't know that a Saturn 1
took off before Shepard's flight).
Sooner or later would the producers of one of these things actually hire
someone who knows about the time-frame that these rockets and missions
flew in, and give them a whip to keep the film editors in line with?
And Shepard did indeed have a window on his Mercury; it was a porthole
that didn't let him look forward, but there was indeed a window in it,
unlike what John Glenn says about him basically flying blind.
Very disappointing indeed.
This could have been something really great, and instead it's the
same-ol' - same ol' half-baked space documentary.
NASA was very badly served by this first installment in the Discovery
Channel's series on its 50th anniversary.
Well, at least there are the Apogee Films DVDs to fall back on.

Pat

I was wondering about that comment on Shepard not having a window
also, especially when, in the footage of his flight, you could see
sunlight moving across him...

wrote:
Ditto here. Narrator ID'd Young as Lovell and

When in fact it was actually Max Peck.

then Gene Kranz was talking about watching Grissom's Mercury recovery
on TV. Perhaps it was recorded or watched on a NASA loop but I don't
recall seeing any video as it happened.

"In December, 1965, the recovery of a manned space flight was shown live
for the first time when the twin missions of Gemini 7 and 6 (the first
two manned spacecraft to make a rendezvous--or meeting--in orbit)
splashed down 48 hours apart. While neither capsule splashed down close
enough to the carrier U. S. S. Wasp to have the actual splashdown shown,
live TV coverage was beamed from a temporary uplink antenna on the
Wasp's deck to the Early Bird satellite in orbit, then down to an
antenna in Maine, then via landline to Houston, and from there, via
another landline to New York and the networks."

Footage is great never saw Shepards ascent in the elevator to Freedom
7 from inside the elevator.

--
Dave Michelson

wrote:
PatDitto here. Narrator ID'd Young as Lovell and
then Gene Kranz was talking about watching Grissoms Mercuy recovery on
TV. Perhaps it was recorded or watched on a NASA loop but I don't
recall seeing any video as it happened. Footage is great never saw
Shepards ascent in the elevator to Freedom 7 from inside the
elevator.............Doc


NASA deserved a _LOT_ better than this on their 50th anniversary.
I can remember back to watching the first orbital Mercury fights on TV,
and the PAO really dropped the ball here in not getting some oversight
in the whole thing after giving them the raw footage for HD refilming.
This was a key and very important part of our nation's history, and it
was treated with the degree of respect that one reserves for a quickly
TV movie. If they had gotten together with PBS rather than the Discovery
Channel something worthwhile might have come of it.
As it is, it frankly sucks.
Now, you get me cracking on "The Sea Of Dreams - The Story Of Wernher
von Braun, Sergei Korolev, And The Conquest Of The Moon" as a HBO
miniseries and I'll show you just how exciting this story _really_ was,
and make nothing up whatsoever.
And _zero_ stock footage.
And about the time that N-1 lifts off at night and falls back onto the
pad I'll have the whole audiance trying to crawl under their chairs to
escape the gigantic fireball.
Not to mention when Leonov crawls out of the airlock on Voskhod II and
gets to see the whole Earth standing under his feet, or Armstrong
realizing where he's about to take his next step onto.
Then, there's the V-2s descending on London, and Korolev getting his jaw
broken by Beria's men.
And of course there's what the Mittelwerke was like when it was making
V-2s via slave labor, or Stalin's prison incarceration camps for
Russia's top designers.
Oh, yes... it would make one _hell_ of a interesting story.

Pat

Yeah, if you own a copy of "The Right Stuff" or one of the other space
"documentaries" you have seen much of the film. I suspect the Saturn V era
will be better, particularly the moon excursions. I'm guessing the shuttle
era stuff will have a great deal of "new" footage, but only "new" in that
the shuttle era is considered by so many people as mundane.

On the positive side, it was a dose of golden age space footage, it featured
both Carpenter and Kraft, and I detected Kraft having come down a bit from
his harshest criticism of the astronaut. John Glenn used much of the same
canned dialog used in public appearances, and I saw some new views of the
Original 7 horsing around and doing what they did while readying for launch
at the Cape.

As a space hobbiest/historian, I'd give it a solid "C+". As a general
member of the viewing public, I'd give it an "A-". Point of view is what
colors our judgement.




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On Jun 9, 12:54*pm, "R.Glueck" wrote:
Yeah, if you own a copy of "The Right Stuff" or one of the other space
"documentaries" you have seen much of the film. *I suspect the Saturn V era
will be better, particularly the moon excursions. *I'm guessing the shuttle
era stuff will have a great deal of "new" footage, but only "new" in that
the shuttle era is considered by so many people as mundane.

On the positive side, it was a dose of golden age space footage, it featured
both Carpenter and Kraft, and I detected Kraft having come down a bit from
his harshest criticism of the astronaut. *John Glenn used much of the same
canned dialog used in public appearances, and I saw some new views of the
Original 7 horsing around and doing what they did while readying for launch
at the Cape.

As a space hobbiest/historian, I'd give it a solid "C+". *As a general
member of the viewing public, I'd give it an "A-". *Point of view is what
colors our judgement.

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The 0-G shots both on the prop aircraft and those in the fighter
cockpit (of Carpenter and Grissom doing 0-G drinking etc ) I remember
in the Time Life publications. I would even go so far that some snaps
from the early "vomit comet" appeared on several Life covers. Wonder
if this was some of the "never before" seen film. Maybe Time life
just let it go "public"..........Doc

I think it was footage of Titan launches - at the beginning the
cloud/plume/whatever generated appeared to be rather orange. Is that
a real effect of combustion or was it an artifact of the photography?
(Or an issue with my ca 1987 television?-)

rick jones
--
oxymoron n, commuter in a gas-guzzling luxury SUV with an American flag
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

"Dave Michelson" wrote in message
newsda3k.16051$js6.6973@pd7urf1no...
wrote:
Ditto here. Narrator ID'd Young as Lovell and

When in fact it was actually Max Peck.


Can't be. I'm Max Peck.


Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

Maybe I have to rewatch this first episode, but didn't they state that the
original mission plan for Gemini 6 and 7 was the first rendezvous in space
between two manned spacecraft?
Best of my memory as a kid, Gemini 6 was originally to be the first docking
in space, but the Agena target vehicle failed to achieve orbit and the whole
mission was rewritten to include Gemini 7. I remember the delay and the
announcement that plans were changed to include the first rendezvous, and
the mission renamed Gemini 6-A. They launched Borman and Lovell first in
GT-7, then GT-6, which had the shutdown on launch.
Am I wrong with this?