When We Left Earth - The NASA Missions (4-Disc Set in Limited Edition Tin)

The four disc edition is an exceptional compilation of the history of NASA's manned missions into space. It should be "required reading" for anyone who wants to undertake the pursuit in the discipline of the space sciences or simply expand his/her knowledge of the evolution of the history of Earth's manned space missions and accomplishments.

Tom Sklarsky
Sacramento, CA

Please forgive the tacky title - but I couldn't resist it. The 4 disc set is pretty bloomin' brilliant - cleaned up pictures and sound mean that this (along with "in the shadow of the moon")has the best images you are going to see this side of Spacecraft films exhaustive (and relatively expensive)collections.
It doesn't just focus on one aspect but covers all of NASA's manned programs.
Extra interviews with various astronauts (including Neil Armstrong and John Young) and a fair range of extras mean that this is a top notch set and is ideal for a newbie or someone with an active interest in the space program.

Not to be missed for those who were too young to remember the race to the Moon or for those who wish to recall the great memories.

An exceptional look at the space race and beyond, "When We Left Earth" provides us with a glimpse of the stars as seen from the astronauts, engineers and those that helped create the massive space craft that put us up there. Extremely well made, "When We Left Earth" covers everything from the early Mercury missions, the snafus that we ran into along the way and the tragedies that also occurred along with the triumphs. What's surprising is that the documentary is fair balanced pointing out when NASA failed or in the case of Challenger that there were known problems with O ring that they were advised against the launch.

The images are often stunning--images of space and much footage that hasn't been seen before in addition to the popular footage of the moon landings, etc. that we've seen. The extras are quite good with a documentary on "Friendship 7" and John Glenn's historic flight. We also get featurettes on Skylab, the Gemini missions (including an excerpt from a NASA feature film on the Gemini missions)and interviews.

THis is a terrific set for anybody interested in the history of space flight or even someone who wants to find out about when humanity first stretched its wings and looked beyond the blue sky of our atmosphere.

This version is different than what was on the Discovery Channel. There's more footage, and the missions are often narrated in more detail. This is a must have for every space history buff. There's so much footage I've never seen before. And that doesn't include the hours of NASA films from the era.

There are only two issues I have that keep this from being a five-star review. I'd really give it a 4.5.

1) There's the "Boom de ya da" ad for the Discovery Channel that goes on at the start of every disc you cannot skip.

2) The music, while good, gets repetitive and bombastic after a while.