Pluto encounter
Three billion miles away a grand-piano-sized spacecraft is speeding through the outer solar system at nearly 1,000 miles per minute. After nearly a decade in space, the New Horizons space probe will have just 86 seconds to complete its primary mission: Discover the planet Pluto. This time-sensitive special will showcase the first quality pictures of Pluto that the probe will capture.
Nic Young
Christopher Riley
Casts & Crew
Jason Silva
Also Directed by Nic Young
Historians, boat builders and experts examine the tale of Noah's Ark, studying ancient texts and attempting to rebuild a forerunner of the Ark itself.
Examines how a team of doctors saved Ronald Reagan's life after an attempted assassination in 1981.
PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.
Scientists from the mid-nineteenth century have searched for the fossil remains of the "missing link" in evolution - the half-man, half-ape that would explain where mankind came from. But over the last century and a half, it has been the idea of what a missing link is that has evolved. The history of this scientific quest - peopled with fanatics, frauds, amateurs, professionals, the lucky, the unlucky, the unfairly neglected and the undeservedly praised - is the subject of this documentary. Reenactments depict scientists making their discoveries and then stretch back hundreds of thousands, even millions, of years to depict the typical lives of our human and human-like ancestors. Interviews with leading scientists fill in the details.
Dan Snow, Dr Alice Roberts and Dr Albert Lin investigate a series of earth-shattering discoveries at a mighty tomb guarded by the Terracotta Warriors in China.
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
Docu-drama profiling Ying Sheng, the first Emperor of China. Charting the life of the man who unified China, this documentary begins with the future Emperor's rise to power after the death of his father, becoming King of Qin at the age of thirteen. Mostly told through the use of re-enactments, the story continues to the present day and the discovery of the Emperor's tomb and terracotta army in 1974.
Albert Lin and National Geographic Channel unearth the terrible secrets that lie hidden in the tomb of China's first Emperor. The Terracotta Warriors are just the tip of the iceberg in this mausoleum the size of Manhattan, that has gone largely unexcavated…until now. These silent statues guard explosive, macabre findings that rewrite history and paint a very different picture of the ancient world from what we thought we knew.
Also Directed by Christopher Riley
Richard Feynman is one of the most iconic, influential and inspiring scientists of the 20th century. He helped design the atomic bomb, solved the mystery of the Challenger Shuttle catastrophe and won a Nobel Prize. Now, 25 years after his death - in his own words and those of his friends and family - this is the story of the most captivating communicator in the history of science.
This is the story of the most extraordinary journey in human exploration, the Voyager space mission. In 1977 two unmanned spacecraft were launched by NASA, heading for distant worlds. It would be the first time any man-made object would ever visit the farthest planets of the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. On the way the Voyagers would be bombarded by space dust, fried by radiation and discover many of the remarkable wonders of the solar system. At the end of 2012, 35 years and 11 billion miles later, they are leaving the area of the sun's influence. As they journey out into the galaxy beyond they carry a message from Earth, a golden record bolted to the side of each craft describing our civilisation in case of discovery by another. This is the definitive account of the most intrepid explorers in Earth's history.
The history of the making of Moonwalk One, NASA's original Apollo 11 documentary film with the director, Theo Kamecke.
This is your window into the universe… Hubble was launched in April 1990 on board Space Shuttle Discovery. Its release into orbit over 500km above the Earth marked the birth of one of humanity’s biggest dreams; to place a telescope into space, high above the obscuring effects of the atmosphere, to gain the clearest view of the cosmos we could hope to see. But in the months which followed it was clear that the dream had turned into a nightmare, as Hubble’s mirror was found to have a flaw. Three years of heartache and huge human resolve followed, to mount a rescue mission to fix the flaw. The results were breath taking and produced the most complete view of the Universe we’ve ever had. This is the story of the men and women who conceived, built, fixed and operated Hubble – the most celebrated science instrument in history.
This is the story of the most extraordinary and audacious experiment in the history of animal science. It was carried out by visionary 1960s neuroscientist John Lilly, who had a remarkable ambition; to communicate with dolphins by teaching them to speak English. The experiment was seized upon by NASA, who were embarking on the first serious search for extra-terrestrial intelligence beyond the Earth. When they detected a signal from ET, they would need to understand how to communicate with a species other than humans. Here, without leaving the planet, was the opportunity to practice such inter-species communication. But what started with ‘60s idealism would spiral into the darkness of the decade, and end in tragedy, with rumours and scandal about drug abuse and a sexual relationship between Peter and Margaret. Fifty years on, this film tells the real story of just what happened at the Dolphin House.
Neil Armstrong's family and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, tell the story of the first man to set foot on the moon. Drawing heavily on unbroadcast archive footage and the unique perspectives of the contributors, this is an exclusive account of Neil Armstrong's extraordinary life story. From his childhood during America's Great Depression to the heady days of the space programme, his historic first step on the Moon and his famously private later life. Seen through the eyes of those who were with him, the film explores the man behind the myth, a man who was very much a product of his time. The film goes beyond his days as an astronaut and shows that his life after the flight of Apollo 11 was, in many ways equally challenging, as Armstrong came to terms with life outside NASA and the relentless demands of fame until his death in August 2012.
A real time recreation of Yuri Gagarin's pioneering first orbit, shot entirely in space from on board the International Space Station. The film combines this new footage with Gagarin's original mission audio and a new musical score by composer Philip Sheppard.