Once Upon a Time in Space

We all know the story of Soyuz, of Apollo, and of the Challenger disaster. But this documentary focuses more on the competitive-collaborative relationship of the Americans and the Russians linked to their subsequent attempts to establish space stations, first the Russian Mir and then the International Space Station. What's most interesting is to see the often primitive technology on which the astronauts' survival lay, and to witness the mixture of jingoism and humanism that they display to this day. They're all much allowed to speak for themselves, which means no-one questions the absurd vision of sending a humman to Mars: the case against manned spaceflight is not made here, except indirectly in the footage of exploding spaceships. I'm a sceptic, but I still find the breakdown of working relationships following conflict here on earth to be a sad way for this work to end.

This is a 4 part PBS/BBC co production about the human stories of those involved in the international space station since the 1980s.

I am very interested in the subject of space exploration having been a kid in the 1960s but a nearly all the stuff covered in this was new to me.

This production has amazing footage of space and the space stations but the best thing is the interviews with the space veterans.

You don't have to be a space geek to get a lot from watching this.

I am British so watched the BBC version of this but I assume the PBS version won't be very different except probably an American narrator.

The stories told are inspiring.

A black American astronaut.

Several women astronauts.

A couple who were both astronauts but not on the same missions.

As I said this was partly made by the BBC and I wonder why critics of the BBC don't ask British commercial tv channels why they don't make things like this?

Every big news event we expect the BBC to make many hours of coverage but the commercial stations on step up when it suits them.

Anyway to sum up this was great television and very watchable.

Excellently paced and inspiring look at an immensely important time in human history. Both the US and USSR sides of the story are explored and especially the impact on the people and their families who were involved . Often very touching, always educational and inspiring. Will we ever see this level of international cooperation again?

This is beautiful to see, made me cry several times, I hope we can continue this cooperation no matter what our differences are and what our governments sometimes tell us to think about each other. Peace to all.

The story of Michael and Sasha and his family is very heartwarming. I wish we could see more of that. Very guinelely good people.