Return to Flight: The Series

I should be on the payroll at Discovery Channel, but alas I am not. That said, they are following last night's spectacular special Alien Planet, with a pair of documentaries on NASA: "Return to Flight" and "Astronaut Diaries: Remembering the Columbia Shuttle Crew."
The latter aired on The Science Channel last night, but will certainly be airing again, just in case, like me, you missed it. "Return to Flight" airs tonight at 8 p.m. est.

"Alien Planet" was great; a realistic peek at the future of interstellar Space exploration. Although I was surprised that thousands of nano-bots didn't come streaming out of the probes upon arrival, perhaps dispersed in the atmospere to float freely; a more likely scenario, I believe, than just a few probes exploring a small area. But it was still great.
Watching it last night I was reminded of something I heard years ago: When considering what to expect when we venture out into the Universe, we should consider not just what we can imagine, but also what we cannot.
(If you know who I can attribute that phrase to, please drop me an e-mail.)

"Astronaut Diaries" is comprised mainly of never-before-seen video taken by Astronaut Dave Brown . For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past decade, Brown and his six STS-107 crewmates, Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson and Ilan Ramon were killed during a re-entry tragedy.
The documentary promises to show us how close the crew was, almost like family, and through the camera lens offers us a glimpse at their true humanity.
Because even astronauts--risk takers, daredevils, heroes that they are--are still human beings just like you and me.
So, check these shows out...if you're going to watch television all weekend at least try to learn something.