New technologies are making rockets cheaper and more powerful than ever before. As companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic make space more accessible, and NASA returns to crewed spaceflight, a new era of space exploration may be on the horizon.
The most innovative area of human motion lies not on Earth, but with the exploration of space. Space is the most hostile environment we know. Navigating it involves crossing unprecedented distances. It's the greatest engineering challenge humanity has ever undertaken. Meet the pioneers who've dreamed of reaching other worlds, pushing the boundaries of space exploration, and the private space entrepreneurs jostling to offer the tantalizing prospect of cheap, frequent travel beyond the atmosphere into Earth orbit.
The Apollo equipment has sat abandoned on the lunar surface for over 40 years. Now there is a renewed excitement and drive to return to the moon. This time, not to just plant a flag, but to colonize. How would we accomplish this? And why would we do it? The race is on to colonize the Moon, to uncover its hidden riches and discover if humanity can really survive on another world. The Moon is our gateway to our solar system, it's the stepping stone we have to become a multi-planetary species.
NASA’s vaults open for the first time to spill this exquisite, never-before seen audio and 70 mm film footage of the Apollo 11 mission. The meandering cameras in Cape Canaveral capture a dreamy-eyed portrait of America as it stepped into the future, and from inside the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the amazingly jocular conversation of the astronauts punctuates each stage of the mission with lightness and charm. Yet the crowds watching the rocket are oblivious to the enormous pressure mission control is under to succeed.
For all of human history, the Sun, our home star, has measured our days and our seasons while fueling all life on Earth. Yet it remains an enigma. NASA's Parker Probe Plus is on a mission to change that, flying through dangerous radiation to become the closest spaceship to orbit our Sun. It's a journey to the center of our solar system, a mission to gather information about the most critical celestial body in the sky, our star.
