Sometime ago I was fortunate enough to watch Mark Gray's fabulous DVD productions of the US space program. I was so impressed that I decided to purchase the first (of hopefully many) DVD box sets released by Spacecraft Films.
My first, and only purchase to date is
Project Mercury.
Let me paint you a picture: Take every single piece of film footage you have every watched of the NASA's Mercury program - every launch, every splashdown - from every TV show, movie and documentary. Then multiply that by ten! That is how much archival footage is on this 6-disc set. Now having a long-time interest in the US space program, I thought I'd seen everything. Well, I was stunned! There is footage in this set that I could never imagine existed. Here are just some highlights:
- Project Mercury - An original one-hour documentary detailing the development and flight history of Project Mercury.
- The Astronauts - Project Mercury - NASA film on the selection and training of the Original Seven Astonauts. Features a score by the USAF Orchestra.
- Selection Medicine - Footage from several examples of the testing done during the selection of the original seven, including Carpenter, Slayton, Grissom and Glenn during testing.
- Selection Press Conference - Announcement of the selection of the original seven astronauts, April 9, 1959. The press conference is not complete.
- Footage of Weightlessness, Procedures and Centrifuge Training.
- Hours of high speed film footage of every Mercury launch, on-board film footage, complete audio of the missions from launch to splashdown.
I cannot even begin to list everything here, so a full di
sc listing of the contents are at: http://02e5a89.netsolstores.com/proj...wfrontier.aspx
This box set hits about AUD$120 (including postage), but it's the most expensive set released by Spacecraft Films (The
Project Gemini box set a lot less, about AUD$60). They also have a box set for every Apollo mission, several DVD's on the Saturn V, and the Space Shuttle.
Of course these DVD sets will only appeal to a small market, however if you are a space follower, you will truely appreciate the attention to detail and the committment which has gone into preserving so much archival material.
http://www.spacecraftfilms.com/
http://02e5a89.netsolstores.com/proj...wfrontier.aspx