Some years ago I stumbled upon an "old" documentary on the Voyager missions, from the 80s or 90s I think. It covered the work done on orbit mechanics in the early 70s, the realisation that in a couple of years time there'd be a once in a generation window to send a probe to visit all the planets in the outer solar system, and the political and engineering challenges that had to be overcome to make it happen. It really clarified what an incredible achievement the whole project was, and is by far the most thrilling and inspirational documentary I've ever watched. Sadly can't remember what it was called. I've looked on youtube, there are other voyager documentaries on there, but not this one.
That's putting it mildly—the alignment Voyager used occurs once every 176 years! That we went from mucking around with sounding rockets in the New Mexico desert to venturing out of the solar system in a couple decades remains, in my opinion, the crowning technical achievement of humankind.
