When We Left Earth Parts 1 and 2 - Ordinary Supermen and Friends and Rivals

 

On July 29^th , 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. And thus, America joined the great space race.

Today on Far Future Horizons we are celebrating the fifty-forth anniversary of John Glenn's orbital flight on February 20^th, 1962 by presenting the first and second episodes of the  Discovery Channel's  acclaimed TV series “When We Left Earth – Ordinary Supermen & Friends and Rivals” which chronicles the start of the Space Race and the flights of the Mercury Program.

Beginning with Alan Shepard's suborbital flight as the American’s first astronaut aboard Freedom 7, and John Glenn's historic flight aboard Friendship 7 when he became the first American to orbit the Earth.

The Mercury Seven

Still frame of Alan Shepard taken by a motion picture camera aboard Freedom 7

John Glenn enters the Mercury Capsule Friendship 7

Gemini spacecraft No. 7 from the hatch of spacecraft No. 6 on December 15, 1965, during the first successful rendezvous of manned spacecraft in Earth orbit (NASA Photo S-65-63221, Dec. 15, 1965)

The second episode is centered on Project Gemini, the second American human spaceflight program. This episode covers the first American spacewalk by Gemini 4 astronaut Ed White, the first space rendezvous conducted by the Gemini 6 and 7 missions and the Gemini 8 mission which nearly came close to being America's first major space fatality.

When We Left Earth is available on DVD From Amazon Books.

When We Left Earth Part 1 ~ Ordinary Supermen

When We Left Earth Part 2 ~ Friends and Rivals

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