The Untold Story of the Space Race (1957-1963) | Full Documentary | American Experience | PBS

Comments · 526

• KA

  @kamikazemelon787 · 2 months ago

  anyone here who loves this era of spaceflight I highly recommend the channel Homemade Documentaries, he has some of the best work on spaceflight I’ve ever seen, from Mercury all the way out to the last STS mission. Thank you PBS for this!

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• TP

  @tperk · 2 months ago (edited)

  The first 9 minutes of this documentary hits it so completely out of the ballpark it's ridiculous. FINALLY PBS is posting the rest of it.

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• MI

  @MisterCotton-r1l · 2 months ago

  I am 67 years old and the space program has always inspired me. I was very excited to follow the mission of Artemis 2 April I through April 10,2026.

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• DA

  @daveschlom4033 · 2 months ago

  I have been very fortunate to have interviewed many of the incredible people involved in this story over the years. So very proud of our Apollo@50 programs on Blue Dot. I've likely watched every film and most documentaries about the 60s space race. This one is as good as it gets!

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• OD

  @Odwallaman10 · 2 months ago

  PBS pumping out banger after banger lately - keep em coming helps with my insomnia. 1love

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• BM

  @bmw128racer · 1 month ago

  I know it's past history, but the story of Ed Dwight being denied the chance of being an astronaut because of his race (obviously) still pisses me off. Dwight handled the situation with the utmost dignity, but he must've been seething inside.

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• RO

  @RoyHobbs-u4d · 2 months ago

  So the title says "The Untold Story......"  I believe this story has been told many times!!!!  And I never get tired of hearing about it!!!!

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• JO

  @johnsweet8508 · 2 months ago

  Was there at the Cape for the launch. Our family had "VIP passes" via my grandmother who worked for the U. S. Senate. My most vivid memory is arriving in darkness with the stark white Atlas rocket illuminated by many strong spotlights.  Stunning!

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• MA

  @mackpines · 1 month ago

  This three part series is one of the best documentaries PBS has ever made.

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• AC

  @actualkarenokboomer3158 · 1 month ago

  My dad was chosen by Southwestern Bell to design the ground phones at the LBJ center, and he designed the first one for mission control. &nbsp;When they had open houses at the LBJ center in Houston we got to go in all the buildings because they all hand land phones. &nbsp;In Houston as teenagers, we would cruise Clear Lake hoping to see an astronaut. The only one we saw was Gus Grissom and he came pealing out of his driveway in his silver corvette and they all got corvettes. &nbsp;Dad was there through Gemini, and he had to be there on the ground for every trip. &nbsp;We didn&apos;t see him a lot.<br>He also designed the phone system for the Hemisfair in San Antonio. Later he got his favorite part-time extra job and was chosen by the phone company to be the radio engineer for the Houston Oilers and got to travel to all the games with the crew. The rest of the crew were all TV Anchormen.

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• PA

  @Painter19 · 1 month ago

  Great job restoring the old footage. High quality video

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• WR

  @wrightmf · 1 month ago

  I remembered when PBS broadcasted this, much of Apollo I was aware but this program showed various aspects (including some interesting footage I&apos;ve not seen before). Particularly of how they wanted Ed Dwight to become an astronaut, and promoted him as if he was an astronaut. However, it appears he didn&apos;t make the cut. However during this time another pilot would become the first Black astronaut, Robert Lawrence, but died in a airplane crash. His story is interesting, by age 32 Lawrence was graduate of TPS and a PhD in engineering, an obvious choice to be astronaut in the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. Yes, I have made contributions to PBS so nice to see them post this episode to Youtube.

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