Product Description

Since the dawn of mankind, we have stared up at the lights in the sky and wondered... Now join the heroic men and women who have dared the impossible on some of the greatest adventures ever undertaken - the quest to reach out beyond Earth and into the great unknown of space! To celebrate 50 years of incredible achievements, the Discovery Channel has partnered with NASA to reveal the epic struggles, tragedies and triumphs in a bold chapter of human history. Along with the candid interviews of the people who made it happen, hundreds of hours of never-before-seen film footage from the NASA archives - including sequences on board the actual spacecraft in flight - have been carefully restored, edited and compiled for this landmark collection.

*Original NASA footage digitally remastered in high-definition featuring exclusive;''never before seen''; footage
*4 hours of bonus footage not seen in TV broadcast.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2997 in DVD
• Brand: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
• Released on: 2008-09-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 258 minutes

Customer Reviews

So near but so far ...
Here's why I like this set:

The image quality is (mostly - see below) very good. Even with the 16mm film source the extra resolution of Blu-Ray is apparent and some of the film is staggeringly effective. As has been stated in another review, the modern interviews are pristine.
The variety and scope of the clips is excellent. The makers have sourced every possible movie from private hands (cine films) and NASA and there's a great deal I've not seen despite 40 years of interest in the subject.
The narration is well written and appropriate. This feels like a story with narrative rather than a straightforward documentary.

Here's why I dislike this set and think it's a wasted opportunity:

Despite the quality of the film clips there are some that have clear and very obvious visible and not just minor anomalies but persistent great big black blobs in the same place on the screen. This 'dirt' persists across clips taken at varied times, even months apart and in very different locations, so it wasn't on the original film. That means, logically, that it's a projection fault and that it wasn't spotted during the HD transfer to Blu-Ray. that's VERY disappointing.
More importantly there's the issue of the music. I'm British and (until recently) our TV documentaries used the original audio soundtrack alone rather than additional music. If music was used then it was sparingly and appropriate and it certainly didn't get in the way of the original audio. During this presentation the music is near permanent. It never stops except for a few seconds here and there. It drowns out narration and more importantly it all but removes the original audio. Subtitles are provided for capcom recordings (voices to and from the spacecraft) but they wouldn't be needed if the infernal music would just shut up! Not only that but the music isn't of good quality and is stupidly over-blown, false drama in every moment. The scenes are dramatic enough, leave them alone please. In the extras there are standalone clips of the astronauts training (etc) and I though at least with these there'd be the original audio but no, the music is even worse and there's NO original audio at all. Shameful. I realize that this is the norm for American TV documentaries (Nothing personal, you make the best TV in the world on the whole) but it ruins the experience and should be resisted.

So, a very very good set partially spoiled by the music and some transfer anomalies. If you can cope with the music then don't let the anomalies put you off. It's probably the best NASA footage on Blu-Ray so far but it could have been the best full stop.

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
Excellent documentary on the Space Program.
The older footage has been remastered and looks good.
The HD sequences of the launches look amazing.
The musical score is great.

The Space Race with the Mercury program. Project Gemini.
The Apollo missions with the massive Saturn V rockets.
The Challenger mission segment has candid admissions (Story Musgrave).
Footage of the first untethered EVA by Bruce McCandless is great.
The Hubble Telescope repair mission puts you in the EVAs.
Construction of the International Space Station.
Disc 4 is a Bonus Disc of original NASA films.

My only complaint with this package is the Blu-ray case. They could have used a better center hub for holding the discs. The one they used makes it difficult to remove the discs for viewing.

WHEN WE LEFT EARTH - Great!
WHEN WE LEFT EARTH - THE NASA MISSIONS (BLU-RAY) is a very fine four disc DVD set that documents the entire US manned space effort including: the X-15 Program, Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, the Skylab Space Station, the Shuttle, the Hubble Telescope repair and upgrade mission and the ongoing joint International Space Station program. The quality, scope and modest price make this DVD an excellent buy.

It featured excellent beautifully edited footage, great music, interesting and informative narratives provided by NASA technical staff, and covers virtually every major step of the American manned space effort. This film includes some of the most beautifully recorded sequences I have ever watched on Blu-Ray. Especially good was the job of editing and assembling the many visual sequences. I believe the editors made an effort to mix in high definition footage with low so as to really highlight the difference. NASA astronauts and flight controllers provided the narratives where they had some direct involvement in the sequence.

Spacecraft Films has also produced some excellent and comprehensive productions by offering official footage from the National Archives, US Air Force, and NASA digitally enhanced. However, this collection by the Discovery Channel was superior in every way to anything I have watched to date. I was not dissapointed with this fine feature and feel that every armchair astronaut will enjoy this great DVD available from Amazon for under $40.