Purely technically, this show has some wonky decisions, particularly when Jamestown and the LSAM are introduced. It's not Armageddon-bad, but it's not up to the level of Voyage or the space ATL timelines on this site. That's an unfair standard to hold it to, perhaps, but I think we can come up with more technically-accurate ways to present the same scenarios. Maybe it's artistic license--they didn't want to do the same scene in two consecutive episodes, so they had to invent another way to recover the CSM, and they needed to send Ed home to tie up the episode. So the show's not perfect, but perhaps it's the best we can hope for.
The storylines have their strengths and weaknesses. The weakest, as the early reviewers said, is the immigrant plot, but I think that'll get better. The Gordo-and-Tracy plot seems tied up, so I expect it to be downplayed--it had a satisfying resolution. Ed and Karen's marriage will have suffered from his long absence and, I think, he will blame himself for his son's death. I expect that to flare up next season.
Others have noted that it would be nice to get a look at the Russian side. I don't expect we'll get that--filming an ATL version of Gagarin: First in Space would be tough, particularly for an American crew--getting the right Russian cultural flavor, the right Soviet bureaucratic nightmare, and, of course, the collapse of the Soviet Union would require its own season.
I would like, and think they can pull off, a subplot about the engineers building the vehicles--something like Baxter's plot about the builders of the Mars Excursion Module in Voyage.
I half-expect Larry to get AIDS next season. This being a show that addresses social issues, now set in the 1980s and he being a gay man in it. It would be ignoring the elephant in the room to have him not contract it. Which will put a lot of pressure on Ellen.