Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine

This documentary spent over 1 hour talking about the things that could have gone wrong about the launch of the greatest and most complicated space research project ever. Such shame. JWST is the most amazing and complex piece of engineering we ever produced and successfully launched into space. Yes, lots of things could have gone wrong, but they didn't. Unknown: The Cosmic Time Machine won't spend any time highlighting the astonishing, breakthrough technology and science that went into the making of JWST. You won't learn much about the stunning pictures it takes, why we needed it to begin with. Nothing is said about the main point of this project; how seeing the images from the beginning of time help us understand who we are, and perhaps, why we are here.

This was the first of the Unknown documentaries that I watched. I chose this one as first because the subject is what interested me the most. We all are curious about the origins, about how everything started. Most likely questions that will never been answered, maybe partially, and that will be because of the James Webb telescope, an unbelievable human achievement. The documentary is well made, consisting of interviews of several people that were involved in launching the telescope. I get it that people that worked on this project for decades are getting emotional. The huge amount of money, the time spent, everything that could go wrong, it's all very stressful for those people. I would have liked more of those stunning space images. The ones they showed I've already seen them before, like most people I guess, so it would have been nice to show us some more images that were never released before. But other than that the documentary is informative and that's what its all about. A good watch if you're interested in space.

As "Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine" (2023 release; 64 min.) opens, it is "13.8 Billion Years Ago" as the voice-over reminds us that is when the Big Bang occurred. We then go to "December 25, 2021" and the countdown for the launch of the James Web Space Telescope is on... Just before takeoff, we go back i1990 when the Hubble Space Telescope launched. At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this documentary does a great job explaining some of te background as to what it is the James Webb Space Telescope actually does which its predecessor didn't do. Much attention is given to the 344 "single-point failures" which the 10,000 men and women who worked on the Webb for several decades, must avoid, an almost Herculean challenge. The big pay-off comes in the last 10-15 minutes when we get the spectacular photos which the Webb is now collecting, along with a treasure-trove of related data. One of the photo's shows a galaxy "being born" 13.2 billion years ago (yes, not all that long after the big bang). It also made me think how planet Earth has been fundamentally ravaged with in just the last 250 years or so (since the Industrial Revolution). This does not bode well for the future of humankind...Meanwhile, enjoy this every entertaining AND educational documentary. Can be viewed by anyone from ages 7 to 77.

"Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine" started streaming on Netflix a few days ago. If you have any interest in space or in human explorations, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Why do women always begin something by saying 'when I was a little girl.....'? Or something about "me"? The personal stories of people involved in James webb are irrelevant. Maybe a few seconds would be enough, and not tens of minutes. The James Webb project was the reason to watch the show. While the telescope did end up extremely exciting and it's changing our views about the age of the universe and possibly the Big Bang theory, the show is quite boring and slow. While the woman scientist (or engineer?) was focused on herself and her emotions and experiences on the projects, the guys talked mostly about the project.

What an inspiration to us all the accomplishment that can be made when everyone has one goal! The pictures are absolutely beautiful and the thought and visuals of what is really out there is amazing. Without us seeing behind the scenes and all the work that went into it we would just take it for granted. Thank goodness for this film for showing us all what we really don't know behind the scenes. We just get to see the pictures from online but this film was detailed in showing us the hardworking people and the nervousness that goes into everything before the rest of us gets to see it.

There was only one character/astrophysicist that was really. Too much gibberish for me I fast forward her parts. I want to know the educational and the story and people behind the scenes.