When We Left Earth

I don't know that I can begin to describe how awesome Discovery's When We Left Earth series is. Even though I'm familiar with a lot of the missions the show highlights, just seeing the archived footage, as well as some previously unreleased footage from NASA makes for some really spectacular segments.

What I found especially amazing were the space walks. Not only is the footage incredible, but the concept of a spacewalk itself is just mind-blowing to me. You're approximately 340 miles above the Earth, everything you've ever known is below you, and yet you're not a part of it. If you can wrap your head around that, consider also that while you're in Earth's orbit, you're moving at about 5 miles/second. Imagine working on the space station, seeing the Earth below you, moving at 5 miles/second. Imagine the sun coming up and down every 45 minutes, as you circle the Earth in 90 minutes.

Watching this has re-awakened the space geek in me, and I do hope to actually see a shuttle launch before the program retires in 2010. Maybe one of these days I'll get to go to KSC or Johnson Space Center with my Dad. For now, I'll have to rely on Discovery and Ron Howard.
If you're interested, this site has a list of notable space walks, along with some really great shots. For a compilation of really amazing photographs from NASA, check out pictures from this blog. And if you can, try to catch When We Left Earth. There's also an HD broadcast (Blu ray comes out mid-July) for all you fancy people.