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Commemorating NASA’s 50th birthday, Discovery Channel presents the dramatic story of the space agency’s pioneering, awe-inspiring missions.
From the early quest of the Mercury programme to put a man in space, to the historic moon landings and the first untethered space walk by Bruce McCandless, watch these historic events as the world has never witnessed them before.
For 50 years America has led the world in space exploration, yet the boundless void that begins just 62 miles above us has been visited by no more than 500 people.
Featuring vintage footage filmed by the astronauts themselves, shown in HD for the first time, this series reveals the incredible story of humankind’s greatest adventures as they happened, told by the people who were actually there.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Episode 1: Ordinary Supermen
NASA, formed in 1958, one year after the launch of Sputnik, is leading the search for test pilots who have what it takes to enter the unknown of outer space. The seven men chosen to fly the Mercury capsule each know what it means to risk their lives. On average, one test pilot a week is dying in an air crash – but the danger of riding in a rocket will not faze these men.
But the first American in space will face a number of unanswered questions: Will a man in space be able to swallow food or drink? Will he go insane? Will he die from radiation exposure?
Faced with fierce Soviet competition, the race is on to answer these and many other important questions. President Kennedy dares America to get to the Moon within 10 years, and early missions are critical steps in a process that will culminate in the ultimate goal of putting a man on the Moon.
Episode 2: Friends and Rivals
NASA understands that getting to the Moon and back means mastering the art of joining two spaceships in space.
With that goal, NASA begins a new program dubbed Gemini and for the first time will launch two men into space in a single spaceship. Gemini is charged with achieving an ambitious set of advanced space travel goals, from long-duration flights to space walks.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov completes the first human space walk in 1965, and astronaut Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space a few months later. Still, the challenges of rendezvous and docking with another spacecraft have yet to be accomplished by either NASA or their Soviet counterparts.
In a bold, complicated mission, NASA plans for Gemini 6 to fly thousands of miles before catching up with an orbiting Gemini 7 in a breathtaking moment of space choreography. The Moon is in their sights.
Episode 3: Landing the Eagle
In the summer of 1968 - with the Gemini programme having achieved its goals and the Apollo programme in full swing - NASA changes the mission of Apollo 8 to be the first manned flight to the Moon.
Commander Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders become the first humans to leave the gravitational pull of Earth and see the far side of the Moon. The astronauts of Apollo 8 had travelled farther than any man had before, at 250,000 miles to the Moon and back.
On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 lifts off for a lunar landing carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and good wishes from the world. The world awaits the crew’s Moon fate: Will the lunar module sink into the dust? Will the crew be attacked by "lunar germs"? Will they be able to blast away from the lunar surface once the mission is completed?
Four days later, the astronauts land on the Moon. It is NASA’s finest hour and one of the most triumphant moments in world history.
Episode 4: The Explorers
As NASA’s confidence grows, the tentative steps taken by Armstrong and Aldrin are overshadowed by the feats of Charlie Duke, John Young and Gene Cernan (among others), who race around the Moon on lunar rovers.
Lunar missions become more ambitious, culminating in Apollo 17’s three-day stay in the Sea of Serenity. But budget worries force the cancellation of the final three missions, and the end of the Apollo programme brings a search for new objectives.
