TVNewser called it “awe-inspiring” and said that “Host Chris Jansing, primetime specials EP David Kelley, director Carrie Wysocki and senior producer Helen Young should get bonuses…”

ICN, being a hard core space junkie, is a bit more jaded. The special probably did as much as it could with the amount of time it had. It was a great primer for someone who didn’t have an in-depth knowledge of the subject. Even the more knowledgeable had reason to tune in to listen to Gene Cernan recount his time in space. But it would be impossible to properly hit all the areas of U.S. manned space activity in only an hour. MSNBC would have had to do a series of documentaries on the subject in order to accomplish that. As a result some areas of the space program didn’t get as prominent a mention as maybe they should have. This was particularly true for Skylab, which was a fixture of U.S. space activity in the 70s and early 80s. ICN would have loved to have heard a Skylab astronaut and an International Space Station astronaut compare “war stories”.

What the special did do very well is convey the feelings of some of the people involved in the program and put the story in to human terms without getting hung up on techno speak. And it did a good job of boiling down what is admittedly a very expansive subject into a form that would fit the time alloted for it. MSNBC doesn’t do a lot of in house specials but the ones they have done have all been first rate. ICN hopes MSNBC will continue this habit…