13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

Is human spaceflight worth the risk? It’s a time of soul searching for the whole shuttle crew. The space shuttle programme is put on hold for two years, as Nasa and the team come to terms with what h…

The Challenger tragedy shocks a nation, as millions watch on TV screens across the USA.

Something has gone catastrophically wrong with the launch of space shuttle mission STS-51L. As they watch a fi…

Nasa needs to kick-start new interest in the space shuttle. After multiple missions, public attention is waning and funding could suffer. Nasa want to do something about it. And come up with an innov…

Can the crew rescue the million-dollar space satellite lost in orbit? Two car-sized satellites, worth $75 million each, are stranded in space. Five astronauts have been selected to bring them back. I…

President Ronald Reagan declares the space shuttle open for business. It’s Independence Day 1982. And we’re in the sweltering Mojave desert of California.

Carrying commercial satellites into orbit is…

Nasa recruits women and ethnic minorities for the first time to its astronaut class. In the beginning of American spaceflight, all astronauts selected for the programme came from the same background.…

Columbia reaches orbit. But astronaut Bob Crippen discovers that the shuttle has been damaged – can he and John Young make it home safely?

Parts of the heatshield to protect the shuttle from searing …

The astronauts count down to flying a brand-new spacecraft for the very first time. If they pull it off, they will earn a place in space history.

The rocket is built. The astronauts are trained. Missi…

Can Nasa build the most complex flying machine in space history? The plan is to create a permanent human presence in space.

It’s Spring 1969 - two months before the launch of Apollo 11 – the first US…

To launch like a rocket and land like a plane. The space shuttle: A sci-fi dream that became reality and changed spaceflight forever. Told by the Nasa astronauts, engineers, scientists and support st…

Can the Apollo 13 crew survive re-entering Earth’s atmosphere aboard the revived Odyssey spacecraft? After four days in a spacecraft with dwindling power and oxygen supplies, the astronauts face a se…

Nasa flight controller John Aaron talks to Kevin Fong about the ill-fated Apollo mission, from the moment of learning about the explosion to his fears during the spacecraft’s final descent through th…

Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell talks to Kevin Fong about the doomed Nasa mission, from the shocking moment of the explosion to the enormous relief of splashdown. Lovell reflects on survival, the glob…

The Apollo 13 spacecraft goes off course. With no computer to guide them, the astronauts must rely on their flying skills to perform a high-stakes manoeuvre, timed with Commander Jim Lovell’s wristwa…

Nasa mission control helps Apollo 13’s cold, exhausted astronauts survive deadly carbon dioxide levels in the spacecraft. The constant troubleshooting to stay alive has taken its toll, and the crew o…

Apollo astronauts freeze in darkness, struggling to save power. If the battery dies, so do the space crew. And as the damaged spacecraft loses its navigation systems, they must rely on the Sun for gu…

The Apollo 13 astronauts escape to the lunar module, but their problems are far from over. The crew must now survive in a spacecraft never meant for such a journey. Will this fragile refuge be enough…

Nasa mission control scrambles to diagnose the Apollo 13 disaster. Aboard the spacecraft, warning lights flash and oxygen leaks into space, plunging Commander Jim Lovell and his crew into chaos. In H…

Nasa’s third mission to land astronauts on the Moon almost ends in tragedy. Apollo 13 is doomed from the start - it will never touch down on the lunar surface. Even before launch, a last-minute crew…