The Race to the Moon (History Channel)

Starring:Race to the Moon
Studio: A&E Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong took man s first steps on the moon. Roughly one billion awestruck people watched the lunar landing on television, but very few realized how close it came to disaster. The History ChannelÂ® Presents: The Race To The Moon combines top programming from The History ChannelÂ® to deliver the ultimate 35th anniversary celebration of this world-changing event. Experience the ultimate insider s view of the Apollo space program with the man who served as NASA s primary flight director for over 30 years and examine recently declassified documents revealing NASA s plans to send men to Saturn by 1970. Take a nostalgic trip back to the early days of the space program and return to the present-day triumphs and tragedies of one of our greatest technological achievements the space shuttle. The following programs are included in this two-volume set:
"Failure Is Not an Option" Retired NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz recalls the "whiz kid" atmosphere of the space program s early days and the exploits of the astronauts who took our dreams to the moon.
"Code Name: Project Orion" Explore the grand dreams of the top-secret U.S. space program in the 1950s. Renowned physicists like Freeman Dyson discuss visions of battleship-sized rockets and spaceships hitched to comets.
"Modern MarvelsÂ®: Apollo 13" An unexpected disaster leaves the crew of Apollo 13 lost in space. In many ways, this failed moon mission is one of NASA s finest moments.
"Modern MarvelsÂ®: Space Shuttle" The complete story of the shuttle, from its
conception in the 1950s to its triumphant launch in 1981. Plus, an exclusive peek at the
next-generation space shuttle, the futuristic X-33.

System Requirements:

Running Time 232 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Average customer rating:

A Strange Mix
Well made except very poor sound editing
MOCR the Movie
Great Set From The History Channel
Uneven collection but "Failure" worth the price alone

The Race to the Moon (History Channel)

Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

Space Exploration | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

From the Earth to the Moon - The Signature Edition
NOVA - To the Moon
For All Mankind - Criterion Collection
Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back
Failure is not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

ASIN: B0001XARMC
Release Date: 2004-05-25

Product Description

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong took man s first steps on the moon. Roughly one billion awestruck people watched the lunar landing on television, but very few realized how close it came to disaster. The History Channel® Presents: The Race To The Moon combines top programming from The History Channel® to deliver the ultimate 35th anniversary celebration of this world-changing event. Experience the ultimate insider s view of the Apollo space program with the man who served as NASA s primary flight director for over 30 years and examine recently declassified documents revealing NASA s plans to send men to Saturn by 1970. Take a nostalgic trip back to the early days of the space program and return to the present-day triumphs and tragedies of one of our greatest technological achievements the space shuttle. The following programs are included in this two-volume set:
"Failure Is Not an Option" Retired NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz recalls the "whiz kid" atmosphere of the space program s early days and the exploits of the astronauts who took our dreams to the moon.
"Code Name: Project Orion" Explore the grand dreams of the top-secret U.S. space program in the 1950s. Renowned physicists like Freeman Dyson discuss visions of battleship-sized rockets and spaceships hitched to comets.
"Modern Marvels®: Apollo 13" An unexpected disaster leaves the crew of Apollo 13 lost in space. In many ways, this failed moon mission is one of NASA s finest moments.
"Modern Marvels®: Space Shuttle" The complete story of the shuttle, from its
conception in the 1950s to its triumphant launch in 1981. Plus, an exclusive peek at the
next-generation space shuttle, the futuristic X-33.

System Requirements:

Running Time 232 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Customer Reviews:

A Strange Mix.......2007-07-05

I was hard pressed to undestand the theory behind organizing this set. It combines "The Gene Kranz Fan Club" with a piece on the NASA project to send vehicles into deep space via nuclear explosions.

And then it talks about the space shuttle.

Each of these separate items has its own interest, but they seem very unrelated. If you like continuity, look elsewhere. That said, I liked hearing from Gene Kranz. And, if you watch his segment with the commentary turned on, you can hear him say everything twice!

Well made except very poor sound editing.......2006-11-24

This is a fascinating part of history, but the documentary "Failure is no and option" could have been far better it the sound editing did not have the music so loud. The music completely overpowers the speech and makes it very difficult to listen to. I don't know why there is a trend to having the sound effects or music to be so much louder than the speech.

It was good to learn of the professionalism and hard work of mission control. The moon missions were incredible achievements, and equally amazing that capability was abandoned. Now after 35 years NASA almost has to start from scratch, even then it will take them longer to develop a system than in the 1960s.

MOCR the Movie.......2006-06-01

"MOCR" is an acronym for Mission Operations Control Room and the 90 minute segment, "Failure Is Not An Option", is mainly about the people that worked behind the scenes in Mission Control.

Other than the dozens of Astronauts themselves, these men were working as a highly motivated team in Mission Control, as the NASA brain trust that made President Kennedy's vision to land a man on the Moon an astonishing reality.

I can't get enough of this kind of memorabilia from the space race era, and there are several excellent videos on this subject, but this one tells the story from the perspective of the Flight Director in Mission Control. The manned spacecraft flight controllers - all now long since retired NASA Engineers -guided the Astronauts 24/7 during the trials and tribulations of every mission, from Project Mercury to Apollo. These are the men featured individually and collectively in this DVD.

Their enthusiasium and sometimes apprehensions too, coupled with many emotional highs and lows, during those hectic space race years, are all well presented in this documentary; Gene Krantz, perhaps more well known if not leading Flight Director, most of all. Chris Kraft - Mr. Krantz's mentor - is also featured as quite instrumental in setting up a phenomenally bright group of often nerdish looking (personified by pocket protector wearing, slide rule touting and surprisingly young) Engineers.

All these MOCR Engineers with such specialty positions as EECON, FIDO, GNC, and the like, also clearly had the makings of the "right stuff". When this DVD was produced, these men, all in their late 60s or 70s, were extensively interviewed throughout the video. By today's standards, back in the late 60s, they were NASA's not-so-well-paid brightest spaceflight experts who literally wrote the book on how to get a rocket ship to the Moon. They planned, calculated, simulated, training step by step, right alongside the astronauts until the job was done. The men behind the dazzling lights and consoles in MOCR had to function under the most stressful, mentally challenging conditions, often making life and death decisions and perform all their jobs as a team absolutely superbly.

This movie is a tribute to these men and all of their extremely hard work and untiring dedication to putting not only one, but 12 different Americans on the Moon. BRAVO to all of these men for a job WELL DONE!

Great Set From The History Channel.......2005-07-21

As I write this it is the 36th anniversary of Armstrong and Aldrin's moonwalk. In honor of that I thought it would be a good time to review this fine DVD set from the History Channel. This set is really a conglomeration of four separate programs on space, but one of them shines above all the rest. There are programs on Project Orion and the Space Shuttle, which I found to be modestly interesting, a quite good special on Apollo 13 (from the "Modern Marvels" series), and the absolutely thrilling view of the Apollo program through the eyes of Flight Control legend Gene Kranz, "Failure is not an Option." If you haven't read the book of the same title by Kranz, by all means purchase it immediately; your next order of business should then be to watch this documentary.

Much of the documentary footage has been seen before, but the interview footage of Kranz and others involved in Apollo is extremely well done and is frequently more emotional than might be expected (especially when discussing Apollo 1 and Apollo 13.) The Apollo 11 landing (program alarm) drama is told better here than anywhere else I have ever seen, and really underscores the value of the training program NASA had in place for Apollo (especially the simulator training.)

There is no doubt that the Kranz piece is the reason to buy this set, though the rest of the material is also interesting. If you have any interest in manned spaceflight whatsoever, you will love this set, especially "Failure is not an Option."

Uneven collection but "Failure" worth the price alone.......2005-07-01

If this collection just contained "Failure Is Not An Option," I would unhesitatingly give it five stars. Gene Kranz's personal retelling of the space race provides enthralling insight into what went on behind the scenes, what life was like in Mission Control, and how decisions were made.

Unfortunately, the remaining items in the set aren't of the same caliber. "Project Orion" is decent coverage of a bizarre effort to use exploding atomic bombs to propel spacecraft. "Space Shuttle" is nothing special, and if you want to see a good documentary about "Apollo 13", get PBS's "Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back", not this one.

That being said, "Failure" is worth the price of the set all by itself. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in how we got men to the Moon.

American Experience: Race to the Moon: The Daring Adventure of Apollo 8

Average customer rating:

Michael Smith
There really is a Santa Claus
Educational and Extremely Interesting

American Experience: Race to the Moon: The Daring Adventure of Apollo 8
Starring: Kevin Kercher , Ben Loeterman , Mark Zwonitzer , David McCullough (II) , and Marion Ross
Director: Rocky Collins , and Matthew Collins (III)
Manufacturer: PBS (Direct)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

NOVA - To the Moon
The Race to the Moon (History Channel)
Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes
Apollo 1
Apollo 13: The Real Story

ASIN: B000CPHA9W
Release Date: 2006-01-17

Customer Reviews:

Michael Smith.......2007-03-21

Race To The Moon takes the viewer inside the emotions and thoughts of those who rode with Apollo 8 on its epic voyage to the moon. Accompanying the crew's story are the fresh insights from the wives, which adds a human dimension that astronauts usually struggle to convey. The wives portray the drama of this flight across the unknown with an honest and raw account of what it was like for them to live through the emotionally draining journey. This documentary captures the full scope of an Apollo mission - from the crews perspective and from those the left behind.

Apollo 8 was a political gamble that produced an engineering triumphant and the unexpected stirring of the human spirit. The documentary deals with the spiritual and human aspects of witnessing the first earth rise above the lunar horizon. Race To The Moon tells the story Apollo 8 from the political, technical, emotional and spiritual perspectives, capturing the drama of the most significant event of human exploration - the first journey from the earth to the moon.

There really is a Santa Claus.......2006-09-15

An interesting documentary with excellent coverage specifically of Apollo 8, the first and overwhelmingly successful manned mission to orbit the Moon. This DVD runs slightly under 60 minutes, however there are about another 30 minutes or so of deleted scenes provided as extra features on the disc.

For a home entertainment DVD version of the original broadcast on TV, as a part of the ongoing PBS series, the American Experience, I do not understand why the publisher did not simply include all the scenes (uneditted) and make this a 90 minute feature. All deleted scenes are completely relevant to the storyline and likely be of keen interest to the average viewer.

I particularly liked the deleted scene with Astronaut Bill Anders explaining his first sighting of the Moon (closeup, just prior to going into orbit) while it was still in total darkness (Double Umbra).

The many additional interviews with the other Astronauts, Jim Lovell, the Command Module Pilot, and Frank Borman, Mission Commander, their wives and Mission Controllers, TV commentators (Walter Cronkite) and space historians, and their reflections of the event, were also very interesting.

There was an interview with Frank Borman's wife, Susan, that reveals at one point during the mission while her husband was already orbiting the Moon, she insisted on knowing what the astronauts' chances were for a successful return to Earth. Kris Craft, head of Houston Mission Control, gave her his honest opinion, as no better than 50-50.

The pictures of the Earth from a quarter million miles away are breathtaking, as is true of most other movies about the Apollo program. My favorite is of the "crescent" Earth as scene from outer space, as opposed to a fully illuminated sphere. I find such photos to be absolutely stunning; truly awe inspiring.

In summary this DVD is well worth viewing and the successful mission of Apollo 8 is still quite remarkable and truly inspiring. Forget about the political motives that encouraged the space race with the Russians, a course set for the nation by President Kennedy. This event was truly risk taking in its finest form, and a spectacular historical accomplishment for all mankind, particularly NASA on behalf of the American flag.

This and subsequent U.S. manned space flights to the Moon, notably Apollo 11, the first lunar surface landing, will forever be imbedding in any proud to be an Americans' mind who lived through that unforgettable era. This DVD will surely bring back those fond memories, and renew your faith in American pride.

Educational and Extremely Interesting.......2006-02-23

A well-told, informative film that captures the essence of the Space Program. Using the perspectives of the astronauts, their wives, cosmonauts as well as engineers and journalists, this documentary tells how the Apollo team accomplished the aggressive goal of reaching the moon and how this historical mission touched their lives.

Those interested in the space program, history and quality films will find this is a must watch.

Average customer rating:

Space Race, Vol. 1: Race to the Moon
Starring: Space Race
Manufacturer: Columbia River Ent.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

Space Race, Vol. 2: Era of the Space Shuttle
Moon Race - The History of the Apollo, Vol. 2: Houston, We Have a Problem - Apollo 12-Soyuz
Moon Race - The History of the Apollo, Vol. 1: The Eagle Has Landed - Apollo4-Apollo11
Apollo 1
F Troop - The Complete Second Season

ASIN: B000O75EZU
Release Date: 2007-04-10

Description

In Volume 1, we explore the history of the US space program. Beginning with the US response to the launch of Sputnik, we follow the program through the successes and failures of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs and their final culmination in the era of lunar exploration

This is the story of the Space Race--from the launch of the Soviet's Sputnik I on October 4, 1957 to the successful completion of the first phase of the Space Shuttle program in 1983. These twenty-five years witnessed triumph and tragedy as the Soviet Union and the United States battled for control of outer space.

Based entirely on the official NASA archives and filmed in stunningly cinematographic detail, this series recounts one of the most glowing achievements in the history of human exploration.

amazon.com

In so many ways, the space race was symbolic of the cold war. On that particular night in 1967, the three astronauts who'd been chosen to fly in the first Apollo mission which would finally lead America onto the moon were sealed inside their space capsule here, testing the system. Throughout the country there was the most enormous anticipation that perhaps finally America would beat the Soviets at something in space. The United States had been under enormous pressure for 10 years, ever since the Soviets got into space first with something called Sputnik in 1957. Americans could not believe that the Soviet Union, which could not even build a reliable washing machine, could have done something like this - put the world's first man made object into orbit - and everyone knew that if the Soviets had a rocket powerful enough to put a satellite in space, they had one big enough to put a warhead on Washington. And then, in 1961, the Soviets used one of their giant rockets to put a human being in space, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Other Side of the Moon. Falsification of Americans' Flight - Mysteries of the Century/ Obratnaya Storona Luny. Falsifikatsiya Poleta Amerikantsev - Tainy Veka - Russian Soundtrack Only

Average customer rating:

Other Side of the Moon. Falsification of Americans' Flight - Mysteries of the Century/ Obratnaya Storona Luny. Falsifikatsiya Poleta Amerikantsev - Tainy Veka - Russian Soundtrack Only

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0007D8WOQ

Product Description

This is PAL VIDEO FORMAT (not NTSC and will not play in regular American DVD-player). Audio (Language): Russian ONLY; No subtitles; No zone restriction; Documentary; Russia, 2003, 39 min; Format: 4:3

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