Rocket Science (miniseries)

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Rocket Science is a miniseries first released in 2002-2003, chronicling the major events in the American/Soviet space race, starting from the first hypersonic rocket planes through the development of human space flight, culminating with the mission by mission history of Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. The series features interviews with X-15 pilots Chuck Yeager and Scott Crossfield, astronauts Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, Scott Carpenter, Gene Cernan, Frank Borman, James Lovell, Buzz Aldrin and Alan Bean, flight controllers Gene Kranz, Christopher Kraft and Sy Liebergot, authors Arthur C. Clarke, Andrew Chaikin, Robert Godwin and Robert J. Sawyer, and broadcaster Walter Cronkite, among others. While focusing mainly on the American side of the race, the series also covered major Soviet achievements through every key phase of the 1950s and 60s Space Race.

The series was produced, written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Michael Lennick for The Discovery Channel (Canada), and narrated by actor Graham Greene. Music was composed by Eric Robertson.

The series was released in 2004 in DVD-video format as a three-disc box set with total running time of 540 minutes.

Episodes

Disc 1

  • The rocketeers — the history of the X series of aircraft, with emphasis on the Bell X-1 and on the North American X-15 spaceplanes, and on Chuck Yeager's role in breaking the sound barrier.
  • The last empty sky — the development of the rocket: 1920 to 1957. The episode mentions Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Hermann Oberth, Robert Goddard, Wernher von Braun and Sergey Korolyov as the key figures in development of multistage liquid-fueled rockets.
  • The high ground — the first artificial satellite and the first humans in space. The episode mentions Soviet Sputnik program, the R-7 rocket, the American Vanguard, Redstone and Atlas rockets and the project Mercury.
  • Mercury rising — Project Mercury and first American astronauts.

Controversial statements

  • The Soviet R-7 rocket is called a five-stage rocket. In reality, the original rocket that boosted the Sputnik and then Yuri Gagarin into space was a two-stage rocket.
  • The R-16 missile and the Nedelin catastrophe are mentioned as part of the Soviet space program, while in fact the missile was strictly a military weapon not intended for space flight.


See also

External links

http://www.foolishearthling.com (Home page of Foolish Earthling Productions Ltd., the production company behind this series.)

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