I have always been an avid fan of anything and everything about man's journey into space. I remember literally sitting in front of my parents black and white TV as a kid, watching the various different launches. From Mercury through Gemini to the incredible moment when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, if someone on TV was talking about the space program, my whereabouts were never in doubt.

I'm still that way to a degree. One of the things about having satellite TV is having the NASA channel where I can watch the coverage of flights without the network's commentary. I also try to catch every documentary on the subject that comes around.

Last night, once again, I was in my favorite chair, watching the Discovery Channel's new documentary, When We Left Earth, a mini-series covering the first fifty years of NASA and America's adventures in space. This mini-series started last night with two episodes, with two more weeks with two episodes each. It was billed has having footage, never seen before and I was curious as to how good this show would be. I did some research about the show and from it's website, learned that they had been allowed access to all of NASA's film archives, which they took and using modern techniques, produced new films with high definition, which after they finished, they have donated back to NASA.

The show was not disappointing. The first hour last night covered the Mercury flights, with particular attention to Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 flight and goes into interesting detail about his landing over 200 miles downrange from his scheduled landing point in the Atlantic Ocean. The second hour covered the Gemini program and included the show of the program that helped Americans learn how to fly and work in space.

The quality of the remastered NASA films is quite breathtaking, even if you are watching it on a non-HD television. They have a crispness and clarity that rivals films shot in space today. It was great seeing these films again, watching those who were involved in the two programs sharing their thoughts, and listening to Gary Sinise, cast member of the movie Apollo 13, tell the story of those incredible events on the 1960's. It also served to remind me of how old I'm actually starting to be, seeing the films showing how things were and how people dressed back then.

I came away from the special very delighted with the programs. The films and interviews told the story very well, and even contained facts that this avid space nut had not heard of over the years. I strongly recommend this mini-series to anyone who is interesting in learning about the history of manned space flight, or who just want to set back and remember those incredible days of man reaching out into that great undiscovered country, one step at a time.

If you are interested in more information on the mini-series, please visit the show's website at this link.

AIN'T THAT WEIRD: In Pittsburgh, a lady is up in arms because someone took an actual check she wrote to Comcast Cable, made out for, “My Right Arm and zero dollars” and published it on the Internet. She and her husband is now suing Comcast for damages over the incident. I hate to think what would have happened if they had tried to cash it.

Think about it.