Not only the best, the most accurate I have ever seen or read, telling the story accurately and without hype or bias.

I thought this was great. Enjoyed. Im 64 and saw all this really happen and more.

I was a NASA-freak kid. I remember when Navy and USAF missiles couldn't get off the ground. But then it became more successful and it was A-OK all the way. Mercury astronauts were superheroes. All liftoffs were TV adventures. And JPL was residence of the gods. It was a time for pride and glory and all the excitement a kid could ever want. It was my time and the memories are sweet.

That was an excellent documentary. It not only brought back memories and answered old questions, but it put a human face on one of the great scientific quests of our times.

Most definitely enjoyed the detail description of space exploration provided for the public viewing

I was just starting Junior HS when Mariner 4 project was underway. I never dreamed that I would one day work on the manned space program. None of my work would have been possible without the dedicated efforts of those pioneers. Now retired, I hope that, in some small way, my work will help to stir the imagination of some young STEM professional to push the program across the threshold of manned planetary exploration.

I have really enjoyed each of the videos that JPL have produced about their endeavours in space exploration. Behind the scenes footage, the great scientists and engineers, footage of some of the spacecraft involved, what a treat! i hope the team that makes these videos continue to make many more. After all, the missions and stories behind them must be almost as infinite as space itself. Well done everyone at JPL!

I really appreciated the part of this report devoted to George Pimentel - when I was at Berkeley he was still active though he'd mellowed after having been diagnosed with cancer. He loved science and yet encouraged junior scientists to remember to live life and balance that against the intense fever that can accompany a devoted career in science. He also knew that it was essential the public be included in the human venture of science, to understand why it brings excitement to help push back against the vast veil of ignorance in human's understanding of the cosmos. I am grateful to have known such a man.

Oh, what memories! I was little, but these missions were what first made me fall in love with science! ❤❤

I just saw my whole life pass before my eyes. I witnessed every event on the road to mars, beginning when I was a young man. Before that in my youth I read Bradbury, and in my childhood, Edgar Rice burroughs, and dreamed of mars. This wonderful documentary put that all in perspective for me. Now I continue to follow the adventures of Curiosity and Perseverance, but I am jaded. This planet is a barren desert. After all that effort, there is nothing there for us.

Man these are great, the humor and emotion behind the engineers and the scientists really get to me. You do an amazing job of showing the humans behind these incredible missions!

Glad and proud to have served our country as part of the Appollo Moon Program and now I am greatful to see such a good documentary on our Mars ventures. This was well done and very fasinating to watch ! Thanks NASA/JPL !! Special thanks to all the men and women involved in this Mars Mission! Now we are planning to return to the moon and later to Mars with the new "Artimus" Program so, a special shout-out to all those involved ! 😊 God Bless ! 😊 Grandpa Ron

Man Ray Bradbury, what a legend. People don't speak about him often enough I I think. That poem might be the most beautiful piece of space writing I've ever heard. It starts at 58:36 ish

Lovely and wonderful! Brings back my childhood blood-driven drive to become an engineer, aspiring astronaut, etc++. Please share more of this stuff!

I must be a serious geek but at 57:07 Ray Bradbury reading that poem really hit the heart strings. I wish we, as a society, still felt the same way about space exploration as past generations did.

I still remember getting up at 2:00 a.m. and turning on the TV to see the first pictures from Mars. I was 17 years old at the time. The first couple of pictures had to be extrapolated from the data stream by an artist.

This is the best documentary I've seen in a long time, I was captivated from start to finish. Having been a very young boy when all this was happening, I had no real concept of just how hard it was. Thank you JPL and thank you NASA.

Watched this on Discord with a few friends. We were hooked all the way through!

50 to 60 years later mars is still a mystery with much unanswered questions

Its really cool to see the perspectives that people had before I was born. I love it keep posting them!

I wish JPL would produce far more of these documentary presentations. The output from main networks, e.g. CBS, BBC, ABC and such like is very depressing. Far too little of it in far too little detail far too infrequently. Here in the UK, the BBC is pretty well dedicated to cookery programmes and wishy-washy super safe programming. There are less and less opportunities to view deeper science programming. They even tried to cancel the Sky at Night programme a few years back and that was only on for 30 minutes once per month! So, I personally plea to JPL and others to release your own archives and put on the wider public record your work. The deeper the detail the better - from milling out machined spacecraft components to RF theory & design to image processing - the lot! A no holds barred Uber fest of scientific endukgence we can finally get our teeth into. Surely there must be a way to do this as you're the ones with the engineers, materials and researchers right there in the heart of your organisation.

What a professional job. The interviews, footage, and main narrative are captivating and compelling - bravo and thank you!

love the old footage, very little seen in this day and age. Especially that first closeup colour map of mars.

This is how documentaries should be. No sensetionalism, no political correctness; just science. A big thank you.🖖👍

Please continue with this amazing documentary JPL!

Absolutely loved it! Amazing documentary and such a nice inside view of the missions! Thanks!!

Amazing documentaries JPL, more please :)

Fantastic documentary. Thank you for the upload.

Sandia Laboritories really made my Thanksgiving last year when I discovered 8 hours of engineering nuclear weapons history. This is just as riveting, I loved the analog photodata processors (the engineers) competing to compile an image.

These Documentaries are Fantastic .WELL DONE .

My inner geek is dancing with joy! Please post more videos like these. One of the best documentaries I've seen in a long, long time.

This is awesome. So much footage from the moments everything happened. The human reactions from our first glimpse of Mars from up close, then even closer.

Brilliant production and inspiring storytelling. Well done Team JPL!

I am always impressed by the amazing achievements made by these talented teams using that early technology. We are only limited by our imagination and budget.

More of these documentaries please!

Thank you all for such a lovely documentary. Seeing the people behind these achievements is truly awe inspiring.

This is the third doc in this series I've seen. The productions are excellent, the writing is clear and concise. I hope there are many more. I remember seeing the cratery surface from the Mariner 4 flight and being so disappointed there were no canals. These early shots only hinted at the splendor of the Martian landscape that later missions displayed.

Watching the documentaries from JPL is thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating. I am confident that scientists and engineers from different countries can work together, for the benefit of the planet, unlike the politicians from the same countries. Scientists and engineers are truly more human like than politicians!

This documentary is an absolute homerun. ❤

Wow what an awesome documentary. Thank you.

Love these documentaries about JPL's journey. Excellent depth, with great details. Hope to see more in future! Great job!

Always amazing how Mariner 2 made it to Venus with a Ranger platform, while Ranger still couldn't crash into the Moon. But Ranger was a great learning process for Nasa. Mostly for learning that you don't sacrifice redundancy for more science experiments and listen to your engineers even if the scientists shout at you.

What a great video. I lived through Apollo and Viking, and I was one of those very disappointed individuals who watched in horror as we gave up on planetary exploration. I’m glad those days are behind us.

Outstanding!!! Thank you for uploading!

Excellent documentary! I'll enjoy watching this again and again! - - Audrey in Chicago

This was absolutely spectacular!

Oh wow!...this is a pure & priceless rockumentary....one big red rock...one giant leap for humankind spread over decades of ingenious anxiety, exhilaration & endeavour . Absolutely fascinating, thank you :)

The Viking labelled gas release experiment of course, by any measure, found life on Mars. Subsequent experiments focused on geology, not biology. Why the label gas experiments weren't properly followed up is a mystery

Absolutely loved this!

Awesome video keep up the good work !

I remember watching this story on tv. I was just a kid. It had a great impact on me.

Thank you! Wonderful work!

Thoroughly enjoying these documentaries posted by JPL,well done team.

This is an awesome documentary! I really love the footage and moments captured of the engineers and scientists in these tense moments. Very cool to see the people behind these incredible projects. And their hairstyles and clothes.

I remember the Viking lander. I delivered the Chicago Tribune that day in July 1976. I made sure everyone got their copy. All 150 stops. This was news to important to miss. Great doc and I look forward to watching them all.

I still have my VIP tickets to the May 23 2017 Beckman Auditorium debut of this documentary. Blaine Baggett and his crew - including Eric Conway - has done an extraordinary job of developing these documentaries of the missions involving JPL.

Proof, if it is ever needed, that when we as a species work together, we can achieve the once thought unachievable.

Great quality. Keep them coming. Would love an in depth documentary on the Apollo applications 'what might have beens' such as proposed Venus flybys and the more advanced Lunar options

I want more videos like this!

Loved this documentary. I hope you continue with the lead up to Pathfinder/Sojourner.

One of the better of a great series. I found these thru the JPL site after being referred there from the Saturn cassini mission documentary. Not sure why these are not made find able via youtube.

I can't help but feel a bit weepy considering all the hopes and aspirations that went into these launches

Wow the Beautiful views in the planet

Excellent material and presentation! Thanks

Nice, well done.

Very,very amazing and astonishing-Pioneers☻🎇

I wished to be part of the JPL team this time. Thanks for the real good video.

From these incredible bright minds, science has traveled to give images to our collective dreams and imagination. We have to physically go, and be there. Thanks JPL

A curious information is that JPL, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was founded in 1936 in Pasadena, California by, among others, Qian Xuesen, who in the 1950s was forced by McCarthyism to move back to China, where he built up China's space and missile program. And became China's answer to the United States' Wernher von Braun, and the Soviet Union's Sergei Korolev. Qian Xuesen inspired young people in the country to invest in space, which today has placed China at the forefront, among the world's foremost space nations. China may even surprise by becoming the nation that places the first man on Mars. We humans would surely have had outposts, colonies on other celestial bodies today, if Qian Xuesen, Wernher von Braun and Sergei Korolev had had the opportunity to cooperate.

Excellent documentary. Not sure why there's only ~900 views after being up for a year.

Fantastic video. Not often I will stay engrossed in a 1 1/2 youtube video

Bravo on an excellent explanation program!

You look at the equipment of the 60's and compare it to today, 2022, and you wonder how they made it... Now try to imagine what it will be in another 60yrs???

Wow so they transmitted pictures by uhf radio signal 39.9 million miles away and the signals went through the van Allen belts without dispersing, totally amazing!

Great documentary!

It just is amazing what they accomplished with so little technology compared to what we have now. Just brilliant

I was a proto-geek at 8 years old and listened to every Mercury, Gemini and Apollo mission that was broadcast. And Viking. My uncle was a nuclear physicist and mostly couldn't say anything about where he was in '44 and '45. He was disturbed they killed the nuclear engine which he worked on. He took me on a brief tour of Lawrence Livermore labs. In 1963 he predicted break even fusion reactor by 2,000. Scientist can reliable predict anything (arguable) within 1 order of magnitude so between 20 and 200 years from 1963. What you are not seeing in these videos is what killed this zeal for scientific and technological prowess. It was the stupidest idea the US has ever tried and failed to execute. All the money for space exploration was eaten by DOD and the Vietnam war. Defense contractors fund the campaigns of congresspersons and Senators who give them money. This is the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warns us of in his last speech as president. Reverse Citizen's United!!!

"If Only We Had Taller Been" By Ray Bradbury The Fence We Walked Between The Years Did Balance Us Serene; It Was A Place Half In The Sky Where In The Green Of Leaf And Promising Of Peach We’d Reach Our Hands To Touch And Almost Touch The Sky, If We Could Reach And Touch, We Said, ‘Twould Teach Us, Not To, Never To Be Dead. We Ached, And Almost Touched That Stuff; Our Reach Was Never Quite Enough. If Only We Had Taller Been, And Touched God’s Cuff, His Hem, We Would Not Have To Go With Them Who’ve Gone Before, Who, Short As We, Stood Tall As They Could Stand And Hoped By Stretching Tall To Keep Their Land, Their Home, Their Hearth, Their Flesh And Soul. But They, Like Us, Were Standing In A Hole. O, Thomas, Will A Race One Day Stand Really Tall Across The Void, Across The Universe And All? And, Measured Out With Rocket Fire, At Last Put Adam’s Finger Forth As On The Sistine Ceiling, And God’s Hand Come Down The Other Way To Measure Man And Find Him Good, And Gift Him With Forever’s Day? I Work For That. Short Man, Large Dream. I Send My Rockets Forth Between My Ears, Hoping An Inch Of Good Is Worth A Pound Of Years. Aching To Hear A Voice Cry Back Along The Universal Mall: We’ve Reached Alpha Centauri! We’re Tall, O God, We’re Tall!

Awesome ... just awesome!

Thank you very much for so interesting and amazing documentary film!

_M.A.R.S_ These people where far ahead of the time I literally thought spirit / opportunity where the first Mars rovers to capture it's surface images

There is now absolute proof of an intelligent and technologically advanced presence on Mars. It's us. 😺

These scientists and engineers of the 60s were gods. astounding what they were able to accomplish with limited tech.

This is a great video and should be seen by all.

With all these complications, I really wonder if there was ever a man who truly left our atmosphere to be in the environment of another dimension…due to the difficulties involved it could always be suicidal so which man would really be that brave, well yes we are as a species but somehow I don’t believe these men ever did.

JPL - John Parson -The Occult - Scientology - Blown up

Fantastic video! I felt like i was there along wiith these geniuses experiencing the thrill of discovery.

Outstanding!

Outstanding. We need to thoroughly explore Mars via robotics and AI much, much more before wasting big $$$ on manned (suicide) trips.

One of the best documentaries on this subject I have ever seen! Thank you. The negative comments from the Flat Earth believers here make for a humorous contrast. "Mars is a light"? Lol.

Perfect documentary 👍🏻

Those engineers rocked. And the engineers of today creating these missions are just as amazing people. Go JPL

How did u get through the Firmament? How come after all the missions to Mars Never been a REAL AUTHENTIC PICTURE OF EARTH NOT CUMPUTOR COMPOSITES. WHY ALL THE CGI

Thoroughly enjoying your Disney graphics. Hey, DreamWorks are still better.

What a great experience!!!

A very well done and educational doumentary!

NASA = NEVER A STRIGHT ANSWER :)

Nothing new. All CGI / photoshopped images. It's already 2022 and we can't even "go back" to the moon (assuming we did in the first place), and people still imagine going to Mars as if it's something that we can land on (probably somewhere in Egypt or some desert? lol). Keep on dreaming NASA fanbois :)

in all my high school and college days I followed this it was my wish at the time to get into science. I ended up a different path but still loved it even after

Great doc, the few clips at 60fps interspersed with everything else at 24fps was extremely weird. Still wondering why it was exported that way.