Bridge to Space

WBGU-TV celebrates the 50th anniversary of the moon landing (July 2019) with a special collection of interviews from the friends and family of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to step on the moon. Through never-before-seen footage and home movies, interviewees share memories of growing up in Northwest Ohio. The documentary also includes as a look at the momentous 1969 Homecoming Celebration.

A documentary about the Apollo 17 mission to the Taurus-Littrow on the moon, the final lunar landing mission in the Apollo program, December 1972. Produced by A-V Corporation for NASA. The film was distributed both as an ephemeral film (shown to an audience via a 16mm film projector), and was also shown on TV (and was shown on both public and commercial stations per a search of vintage newspapers).

The Space Race comes alive through the eyes of the ultimate insider - retired NASA Mission Control Flight Director Gene Kranz. A history of the U.S. manned space program from Mercury to Apollo 17, as seen by the men of Mission Control.

The Dream Is Alive takes you into space alongside the astronauts on the space shuttle. Share with them the delights of zero gravity while working, eating and sleeping in orbit around the Earth. Float as never before over the towering Andes, the boot of Italy, Egypt and the Nile. Witness firsthand a tension-filled satellite capture and repair and the historic first spacewalk by an American woman.

NASA may have just gotten one step closer to the answering the question: are we alone? The Spitzer Telescope has made a groundbreaking discovery of exoplanets that could be similar to our own. And as Kepler also continues its search, our understanding of the universe continues to be redefined.

It has been said that 10,000 years from now only one name will still be remembered, that of Neil Armstrong. But in the four decades since he first set foot on the moon, Armstrong has become increasingly reclusive. Andrew Smith, author of the best-selling book Moondust, journeys across America to try and discover the real Neil Armstrong. He tracks down the people who knew Armstrong, from his closest childhood friend to fellow astronauts and Houston technicians, and even the barber who sold his hair, in a wry and sideways look at the reluctant hero of the greatest event of the 20th century.

NASA's biggest spacecraft, Cassini, plunges into Saturn in the final act of a 20-year mission showcasing the planet like never before. An incredible first full look at the Saturn mission with a spotlight on the team that dreamed to explore the planet deeper than ever before.

Designed for class instruction and career education, and to prove that space exploration isn’t just for the boys. The film interviews women employed in the space transportation programs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and shows the variety of positions that they hold as electrical engineers, aerial photography analysts, safety specialists and astronaut mission specialists. It notes how the women obtained their training and qualified for their positions. Astronaut Anna Lee Fisher, Dr. Patricia Cowings, Shirley Chevalier, Sue Norman, Sharon Orkansky, Brenda Willis, and Astronaut Catherine Sullivan are profiled. Narrated by Ricardo Montalban. Winner of NAACP Image Award For Picture Of The Year

In the last month of the space shuttle programme, Kevin Fong is granted extraordinary access to the astronauts and ground crew as they prepare for their final mission. He is in mission control as the astronauts go through their final launch simulation, and he flies with the last shuttle commander as he undertakes his last practice landing flight. Kevin also gains privileged access to the shuttle itself, visiting the launchpad in the company of the astronaut who will guide the final flight from mission control.

It started with an order to land something on Mars - cheaply. In NASA's new era of "faster, better, cheaper," this mission had to create a radically different way of building a spacecraft. "The Pathfinders" tells the story of a small group of JPL'ers who dismissed warnings that a cut-rate mission to Earth's distant neighbor would cut short their careers. With a Martian parachute that could not be tested in Earth's atmosphere, and the last-minute addition of a remote controlled vehicle that would not look out of place in a toy store, the Pathfinder mission was a doubter's dream. Vet the future prospects of JPL and of a Mars program in its infancy, depended on bouncing successfully onto the rocky Red Planet and releasing a curious six-wheeled wanderer, in hopes of starting a revolution in space exploration.

A billion miles from home, running low on fuel, and almost out of time. After 13 years traversing the Saturn system, the spacecraft Cassini is plunging to a fiery death, becoming part of the very planet it has been exploring. As it embarks on its final assignment - a one-way trip into the heart of Saturn - Horizon celebrates the incredible achievements and discoveries of a mission that has changed the way we see the solar system. Strange new worlds with gigantic ice geysers, hidden underground oceans that could harbour life and a brand new moon coalescing in Saturn's magnificent rings. As the world says goodbye to the great explorer Cassini, Horizon will be there for with a ringside seat for its final moments.

"Houston, we've had a problem." Apollo 13 has become known as “a successful failure” that saw a safe return of the crew in spite of a catastrophic explosion in the middle of their lunar journey. This 30-minute documentary features interviews with Apollo 13 Astronauts Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, as well as Flight Directors Gene Kranz and Glynn Lunney, with engineer Hank Rotter. Parts of their interviews take place in the restored Apollo mission control room. This documentary also features original NASA footage and newly synchronized audio from Mission Control. Thanks to Stephen Slater and Ben Feist/Apollo in Real-Time (apolloinrealtime.org/13) for providing additional footage and audio.

A 6-minute animated movie about NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, asteroid Bennu, and the formation of our solar system.

Using extraordinarily high resolution data sets from some of the most innovative and powerful scientific instruments ever built, the media team at NASA Goddard presents PURSUIT OF LIGHT. The presentation showcases top level goals of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, with an eye toward capturing the imagination of mainstream audiences. Data visualizations at resolutions far greater than HDTV present NASA's science goals like never before. Interspersed with inventive live action footage also designed to make use of that vast canvas, this six and a half minute presentation captivates and moves viewers.

Everyone knows Neil Armstrong came back from the Moon in 1969 – but it wasn’t until three years later, when the people of a tiny Scottish town stepped in, that he finally got home. Neil Armstrong and the Langholmites is a film about the day one of the world’s most famous men visited the small ‘burgh’ of Langholm and the profound emotional effect the place, and its people, had on the normally stoic astronaut. From Industria Studios and Duncan Cowles, director of acclaimed 2024 feature Silent Men, comes a wry and beautiful slice of Scottish life and a unique, lesser-known tale about one of America’s most famous sons.

On January 28, 1986, NASA Challenger mission STS-51-L ended in tragedy when the shuttle exploded 73 seconds after takeoff. On board was physicist Ronald E. McNair, the second African American to enter space. But first, he was a kid with big dreams in Lake City, South Carolina.

Relive humankind's incredible accomplishment of walking on the moon in this program that presents highlights of Walter Cronkite and the CBS News Team's comprehensive coverage of the thrilling nine-day Apollo 11 mission. Then, Cronkite reports on the treacherous voyage of Apollo 13, as the brave crew struggles to regain control after an explosion rips through the ship hundreds of thousands of miles above Earth.

Apollo XI : L'Aventure en direct

200 years after Chopin's birth, the Space Shuttle Endeavour, like a giant piano, took the music of Chopin into orbit.

This documentary by Theo Kamecke from 1970 gives an in-depth and profound look at the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. NASA footage is interspersed with reactions to the mission around the world as the film captures the intensity as well of the philosophical significance of the event. Won special award at Cannes.