"Destination Moon" is the third in the trio of documentaries about the beginnings of the space age. It documents JPL's ambitious plan to beat the Soviet Union in robotic space exploration by reaching not only for the moon, but also the inner planets. But as the hour-long episode documents, JPL would be humbled by a series of failures in attempting to merely hit the moon, let alone visit the other planets. "We didn't know what we were doing," one veteran JPL engineer confides, "and there was no one around to tell us." This film shows how JPL did learn to go to the moon and to the planet Venus, giving the United States its first "First in Space."

"Destination Moon" is the third in the trio of documentaries about the beginnings of the space age. It documents JPL's ambitious plan to beat the Soviet Union in robotic space exploration by reaching not only for the moon, but also the inner planets. But as the hour-long episode documents, JPL would be humbled by a series of failures in attempting to merely hit the moon, let alone visit the other planets. "We didn't know what we were doing," one veteran JPL engineer confides, "and there was no one around to tell us." This film shows how JPL did learn to go to the moon and to the planet Venus, giving the United States its first "First in Space."
2011-11-17
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7.5Archival material from the original NASA film footage – much of it seen for the first time – plus interviews with the surviving astronauts, including Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt.
7.8A testament to NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s and '70s. Composed of actual NASA footage of the missions and astronaut interviews, the documentary offers the viewpoint of the individuals who braved the remarkable journey to the moon and back.
7.3National Geographic's riveting effort recounts all 12 crewed missions using only archival footage, photos and audio.
7.8A look behind the lens of Christopher Nolan's space epic.
6.5Aspiring teenage astronauts reveal that a journey to Mars is closer than you think.
7.5The inspirational true story of Opportunity, a rover that was sent to Mars for a 90-day mission but ended up surviving for 15 years. Follow Opportunity’s groundbreaking journey on Mars and the remarkable bond forged between a robot and her humans millions of miles away.
5.8Desperate to land a man on the moon before Russia does, NASA hastily preps a would-be spaceman for a mission that would leave him alone in a lunar shelter for a year.
7.5The James Webb Telescope stirs imaginations with vivid photos of distant galaxies. This documentary tracks its historic journey from inception to launch.
8.0Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
7.5The inside story of SpaceX's plan to get humanity to Mars, providing an unprecedented glimpse into one of the world's most revolutionary companies. A behind-the-scenes journey with Elon Musk and his engineers as they persevere amidst both disheartening setbacks and huge triumphs to advance the space industry faster than we ever thought possible.
7.2Fueled by memories of her mother, resourceful Fei Fei builds a rocket to the moon on a mission to prove the existence of a legendary moon goddess.
7.3At the heart of the Apollo program was the special team in Mission Control who put a man on the moon and helped create the future.
6.2A planet is discovered in the same orbit as Earth's but is located on the exact opposite side of the sun, making it not visible from Earth. The European Space Exploration Council decide to send American astronaut Glenn Ross and British scientist John Kane via spaceship to explore the other planet.
7.2Using original footage and interviews, this documentary tells the nail-biting story of Apollo 13 and the struggle to bring its astronauts safely home.
6.5This remarkable journey across our planet and universe explores how meteorites, shooting stars, and deep impacts have awoken our wonder about other realms—and make us rethink our destinies.
6.5Some 220 miles above Earth lies the International Space Station, a one-of-a-kind outer space laboratory that 16 nations came together to build. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this extraordinary structure in this spectacular IMAX film. Viewers will blast off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia for this incredible journey -- IMAX's first-ever space film. Tom Cruise narrates.
7.1A detailing of the rise to prominence and global sporting superstardom of six supremely talented young Manchester United football players (David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville). The film covers the period 1992-1999, culminating in Manchester United's European Cup triumph.
7.8The captivating tales of the people and events behind one of humanity's greatest achievements in exploration: NASA's Voyager mission.
7.9On a January night in 1985, music's biggest stars gathered to record "We Are the World." This documentary goes behind the scenes of the historic event.
6.9A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.
6.1From the unique vantage point of 200 miles above Earth's surface, we see how natural forces - volcanoes, earthquakes and hurricanes - affect our world, and how a powerful new force - humankind - has begun to alter the face of the planet. From Amazon rain forests to Serengeti grasslands, Blue Planet inspires a new appreciation of life on Earth, our only home.
7.3Travel alongside the astronauts as they deploy and repair the Hubble Space Telescope, soar above Venus and Mars, and find proof of new planets and the possibility of other life forming around distant stars.
7.2This film shows how far we have come since the cold-war days of the 50s and 60s. Back then the Russians were our "enemies". And to them the Americans were their "enemies" who couldn't be trusted. Somewhere in all this a young girl in Oklahoma named Shannon set her sights on becoming one of those space explorers, even though she was told "girls can't do that." But she did.
6.5Never-before-heard audio tapes recorded with Neil Armstrong during the final years of his life reveal an intimate portrait of this iconic - and famously private - man. Illustrated through previously unseen personal photographs and archival footage, this documentary special takes viewers on an emotional journey into the thoughts and experiences of the first man on the Moon.
5.6On July 16, 1969, hundreds of thousands of spectators and an army of reporters gathered at Cape Kennedy to witness one of the great spectacles of the century: the launch of Apollo 11. Over the next few days, the world watched on with wonder and rapture as humankind prepared for its "one giant leap" onto the moon--and into history. Witness this incredible day, presented through stunning, remastered footage and interviews that takes you behind-the-scenes and inside the spacecraft, Mission Control, and the homes of the astronaut's families.
7.2Recently discovered footage reveals the secret history of NASA's first landing on the moon, and using this brand-new evidence, former astronauts and experts challenge everything known about the Apollo missions.
When Kennedy announced in 1961 that he wanted to take humans to the moon within a decade, Charles M. Duke was skeptical. Almost 11 years later, however, Charles M. Duke was standing on the moon himself. He gave Neil Armstrong the go-ahead for the landing on Apollo 11. Because he contracted rubella, the Apollo 13 crew had to be changed. In 1972, he landed with Apollo 16 and looked down on Earth from the moon himself.
7.8A testament to NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s and '70s. Composed of actual NASA footage of the missions and astronaut interviews, the documentary offers the viewpoint of the individuals who braved the remarkable journey to the moon and back.
7.0All of the necessary technologies required to reach the Moon was first tested during Project Gemini, which comprised of ten missions in the mid-1960s.
8.2With access to the scientists and engineers responsible for the Curiosity rover's on-the-ground experiments, NOVA captures its landing on Mars
5.0Explores the $10 billion JWST's engineering and construction process, historic Dec. 25, 2021 launch, and the release of its first full-color, galaxy-sprinkled images on July 12, 2022 witnessed by the entire planet.
7.5NASA launches its most ambitious hunt for traces of life on Mars, landing a car-sized rover in a rocky, ancient river delta. The rover will stow samples for possible return to Earth and test technology that may pave the way for human travel to Mars.
An inspiring documentary film that details the life mission of Col. Ilan Ramon, the first and only Astronaut from Israel, who blasted off on the Shuttle Columbia. He carries with him a cherished artifact, a miniature Torah scroll, that had survived the Holocaust. From the "Depths of hell to the heights of space," his simple gesture would serve to honor the hope of a nation and to fulfill a promise made to generations past and future.
7.2Join the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity for an awe-inspiring journey to the surface of the mysterious red planet.
6.5Some 220 miles above Earth lies the International Space Station, a one-of-a-kind outer space laboratory that 16 nations came together to build. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this extraordinary structure in this spectacular IMAX film. Viewers will blast off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia for this incredible journey -- IMAX's first-ever space film. Tom Cruise narrates.
7.3The Academy Award® nominee Cosmic Voyage combines live action with state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery to pinpoint where humans fit in our ever-expanding universe. Highlighting this journey is a "cosmic zoom" based on the powers of 10, extending from the Earth to the largest observable structures in the universe, and then back to the subnuclear realm.
5.9This film consists of three parts. The first dramatizes the life of the founder of Soviet astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky; the second describes the development of rocket technology; and the third visualizes the future with enactments of the first manned spaceflight, spacewalk, space station construction and humans on the moon.
7.8BUILT FOR MARS: THE PERSEVERANCE ROVER goes behind the scenes at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to follow the birth of the Perseverance rover.
1.0Documentary covering the current state of both the theoretical and practical development of the various scientific basic principles that served, as per Gene Roddenberry's dictum, as a believable basis at the time for The Original Series. Several real-world scientists are interviewed, not a few of them unabashedly admitting they went into their chosen field of profession because of Star Trek: The Original Series.
5.9Twelve men who belong to one of the world's most exclusive fraternities -- people who've walked on the surface of the moon -- are paid homage in this documentary. Using newsreel footage, rare NASA photographs, and digitally animated re-creations, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon examines the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972 which put astronauts on the moon.