Spaceflight (1985)

This 4-part documentary miniseries covers the history of manned and unmanned space-flight, from the late 1800s through the mid-1980s. The first episode, "Thunder in the Skies", begins with the theories of the Russian schoolteacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, followed by the liquid-fueled rocket experiments of the American scientist Robert Goddard. The Nazis in World War II construct the V-2 ballistic missile, and after the war German scientists such as Krafft Ehricke and Wernher von Braun come to the United States to continue their rocket work. Meanwhile, the experimental X-series aircraft being tested at Edwards Air Force Base fly closer and closer to the edge of space. But the Soviets beat the United States into space through the efforts of the mysterious "Chief Designer", Sergei Korolev. The United States must play catch-up; they abandon the slow progress of the X-planes in favor of missiles, and NASA and Project Mercury are born. The second episode, "The Wings of Mercury", looks at the accomplishments of the American and Soviet manned space programs in the early 1960s. The Soviets start out in the lead with Yuri Gagarin's flight in the Vostok capsule, followed by flights of the Voshkod and Soyuz spacecraft. But the United States achieves success with its Mercury and Gemini programs, the forerunners of the Apollo moon program. The third episode, "One Giant Leap", documents the race to the moon. The Americans get there first, and the Soviets stumble badly. But after Apollo, the U.S. space program languishes while the Soviets put up the Salyut, and later the Mir, space stations. The fourth episode, "The Territory Ahead", discusses the present and future of space-flight, from the flights of the Space Shuttle, through the commercial and military uses of space, to plans for space colonies and flights to other planets and even other star systems.