Space agency NASA has combined with the Discovery Channel to release over one hundred hours of historical footage as part of an epic TV mini-series.
1961 launch of NASA\'s Mercury Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard on the US first manned sub-orbital spaceflight. Credit: NASA
The documentary series "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions," has been restored for high definition television and is expected to be released in June of this year as part of the agency's fiftieth anniversary celebrations.
NASA advised that it will also be making the rarely seen footage available to the public on its website. It includes such rare videos of the Apollo-Soyuz linkup in 1975, the first American spacewalk, conducted in 1965 by Gemini 4 astronaut Ed White and film of early astronaut training.
"Today those pictures are classic," Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, said. "They're still overpowering today — to realize, No. 1, it's been done, and that we did it. It blew me away."
According to a NASA statement released last year, Robert Hopkins, NASA chief of Strategic Communications said, "This partnership with Discovery enables NASA to bring the excitement of 50 years of exploration and discovery to a wider audience. This leverages NASA's compelling content with Discovery's state-of-the-art production capability and technology to tell the NASA story - past, present and future - through a variety of media and platforms."
The documentary, produced by UK-based production company Dangerous Films, covers the activities of NASA from 1958 to the present, including the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs.
For a sample of the high definition footage, please see MSNBC website.
The documentary will air on Discovery Channel on consecutive Sundays beginning on June 8.
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment!
Advertising
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment!