Rocket Science is a miniseries

Miniseries

A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 first released in 2002-2003, chronicling the major events in the American/Soviet space race

Space Race

The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...

, starting from the first hypersonic

Hypersonic

In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that is highly supersonic. Since the 1970s, the term has generally been assumed to refer to speeds of Mach 5 and above...

 rocket planes to human space flight. It focuses mainly on the American side of the race, briefly mentioning major Soviet achievements. The series' music was composed by Eric Robertson

Eric Robertson (composer)

Eric Nathan Robertson is a Scottish composer, organist, pianist, and record producer who has been primarily active in Canada. A two time Gemini Award winner, he has composed more than 60 film scores and written music for a number of television series in Canada and the United States...

.

The series was released in 2004 in DVD-video

DVD-Video

DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...

 format as a three-disc box set with total running time of 540 minutes.

Disc 1

• The rocketeers — the history of the X series of aircraft, with emphasis on the Bell X-1
  Bell X-1
  The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S. Army/US Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived in 1944 and designed and built over 1945, it eventually reached nearly 1,000 mph in 1948...
  
   and on the North American X-15
  North American X-15
  The North American X-15 rocket-powered aircraft/spaceplane was part of the X-series of experimental aircraft, initiated with the Bell X-1, that were made for the USAAF/USAF, NACA/NASA, and the USN. The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the early 1960s, reaching the edge of outer space and...
  
   spaceplanes, and on Chuck Yeager
  Chuck Yeager
  Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
  
  's role in breaking the sound barrier.
• The last empty sky — the development of the rocket: 1920 to 1957. The episode mentions Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
  Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
  Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics...
  
  , Hermann Oberth
  Hermann Oberth
  Hermann Julius Oberth was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.- Early life :...
  
  , Robert Goddard, Wernher von Braun
  Wernher von Braun
  Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
  
   and Sergey Korolyov
  Sergey Korolyov
  Sergei Pavlovich Korolev ; died 14 January 1966 in Moscow, Russia) was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s...
  
   as the key figures in development of multistage liquid-fueled rockets.
• The high ground — the first artificial satellite and the first humans in space. The episode mentions Soviet Sputnik program, the R-7 rocket, the American Vanguard, Redstone
  Redstone (rocket)
  The PGM-11 Redstone was the first large American ballistic missile. A short-range surface-to-surface rocket, it was in active service with the U.S. Army in West Germany from June 1958 to June 1964 as part of NATO's Cold War defense of Western Europe...
  
   and Atlas
  Mercury-Atlas
  Mercury-Atlas was a subprogram of Project Mercury which comprised most of the flights and tests using the Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle. The Atlas was also used for one Mercury flight under the Big Joe subprogram.- Mission numbering :...
  
   rockets and the project Mercury
  Project Mercury
  In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
  
  .
• Mercury rising — Project Mercury and first American astronauts.

Controversial statements

• The Soviet R-7 rocket is called a five-stage rocket. In reality, the original rocket that boosted the Sputnik and then Yuri Gagarin
  Yuri Gagarin
  Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
  
   into space was a two-stage rocket.
• The R-16 missile and the Nedelin catastrophe
  Nedelin catastrophe
  The Nedelin catastrophe or Nedelin disaster was a launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960, at Baikonur Cosmodrome during the development of the Soviet R-16 ICBM...
  
  are mentioned as part of the Soviet space program, while in fact the missile was strictly a military weapon not intended for space flight.