13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle
Epic space stories. From the first Moon landing, to Apollo 13, to the Space Shuttle. Told by the people who made them happen.
NEW: Season 3: The Space Shuttle. A sci-fi dream that changed spaceflight forever. From the boldest test flight in history to one of Nasa’s darkest days – the Challenger disaster. Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock tells the awe-inspiring story of the programme that brought triumph and tragedy. Some scenes in this series use recreated sound effects.
Season 2: Apollo 13. Apollo 13 should have been the third Moon landing, but after an explosion, it almost ended in tragedy. Told by the people who flew it and saved it. Presented and co-written by Kevin Fong.
Season 1: 13 Minutes to the Moon. The first Moon landing. In the final dramatic 13-minute descent to the Moon, the Apollo 11 mission came close to going badly wrong. Communication was breaking down, technology was failing and fuel was running out. This is the story of how the first Moon landing was saved. Presented by Kevin Fong.
13 Minutes is produced by the BBC Audio Science Unit for the BBC World Service.
Season 3 theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.
Episodes (39)
What to listen to next: History’s Toughest Heroes
13 Minutes will return with a new season in 2026 but in the meantime, we recommend History’s Toughest Heroes. The actor Ray Winstone tells stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life...
The Space Shuttle: 10. Return to flight
The space shuttle is back. Discovery stands waiting on launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center. It has taken more than two years to get here. Nasa has listened and changed. After all these months of...
The Space Shuttle: 9. What is it all for?
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...
The Space Shuttle: 8. A major malfunction
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...
The Space Shuttle: 7. Teacher in space
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...
The Space Shuttle: 6. Satellite for sale
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....
The Space Shuttle: 5. Space truck
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...
The Space Shuttle: 4. The 35 new guys
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....
The Space Shuttle: 3. Glass rocket
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 Space Shuttle: 2. The greatest test flight
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....
The Space Shuttle: 1. The spaceplane
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...
Introducing: The Space Shuttle
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...
Apollo 13: 7. Resurrection
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...
Apollo 13: Bonus 2. John Aaron
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 the...
Apollo 13: Bonus 1. Jim Lovell
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...
Apollo 13: 6. Earth in view
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...
Apollo 13: 5. Life support
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 of...
Apollo 13: 4. Power brokers
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...
Apollo 13: 3. Lifeboat
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?...
Apollo 13: 2. Death of the Odyssey
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...
Apollo 13: 1. Time bomb
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...
Apollo 13: Trailer, The Countdown
Jump on board a doomed mission to the Moon. Apollo 13: the extraordinary story, told by the people who flew it and saved it. Lift off is on 9 March.
#13MinutestotheMoon
Presenter: Kevin Fong
Written...
#13MinutestotheMoon
Presenter: Kevin Fong
Written...
13 Minutes to the Moon: Bonus - The making of the music
Oscar and Grammy-winning composer Hans Zimmer reveals how he crafted the iconic 13 Minutes to the Moon theme. In this special episode, Zimmer reflects on the art of storytelling, his creative process,...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 12. Live from Houston
Fifty years after the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing, we’re at Houston’s Rice University, where President John F. Kennedy delivered his iconic “We choose to go to the Moon” speech to reflect on one...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 11. The 13 minutes
Nasa archive audio of the astronauts’ dramatic 13 minutes to the Moon, as heard by mission control. All of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s tense moments as they make space history. The recording...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 10. ‘For all mankind’
The epic story of the final 13 minutes of the Apollo Moon landing, including Nasa archive tape of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s historic space mission. The men and women behind this pioneering...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 9. Tranquility Base
Apollo 11 mission is on the edge of failure, minutes away from the Moon landing. Fuel is low, the tech is stretched and astronaut Neil Armstrong is struggling with the rocky lunar surface. He’s flying...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 8. ‘We’re go for powered descent’
The 13-minute descent to the Moon begins, and it’s all going wrong for Apollo 11. They’re going too fast, alarms are flashing and the crew loses contact with Nasa mission control. The epic moments...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 7. Michael Collins: The third man
The story of Michael Collins, Apollo 11’s third astronaut, in Nasa’s historic spaceflight. He played a crucial role as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. During those final 13 minutes...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 6. Saving 1968
Nasa astronauts circle the Moon for the first time, capturing an iconic photo of Earth. Back home, the country is rocked by war, riots and the assassinations Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy....
13 Minutes to the Moon: 5. The fourth astronaut
How a briefcase-sized computer, less powerful than a smartphone, pioneered space tech for the first Moon landing. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin rely on the software to guide their...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 4. Fire to the Phoenix
Nasa’s ambitions for a historic Moon landing by the end of the 1960s are threatened by a deadly launchpad inferno. Three astronauts are killed, and it is one of the Apollo programme’s darkest moments....
13 Minutes to the Moon: 3. Long Island Eagle
The extraordinary story of the ‘Eagle’ spacecraft, which landed astronauts on the Moon. Built by Long Island engineers, it was a spacecraft like no other - one designed to land on another world. The...
13 Minutes to the Moon: 2. Kids in control
Crisis strikes Apollo 11. The Moon landing is threatened when an alarm goes off. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are minutes from the lunar surface when the spacecraft computer flashes error code 1202....
13 Minutes to the Moon: 1. ‘We choose to go’, Apollo 11
President John F. Kennedy boldly vows that America will land the first astronaut on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. It’s the height of the Cold War. But with superpower rival the Soviet Union...
13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 1
The final part of our audio countdown to the launch of 13 Minutes to the Moon, with Kevin Fong. Lift off is on 13 May 2019.
13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 2
Hans Zimmer has composed the 13 Minutes to the Moon theme music. It is the first time the Grammy and Academy Award winner has created music for a podcast.
13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 3
Introducing 13 Minutes to the Moon, with Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham and former Apollo engineer Poppy Northcutt - the first woman to work as an engineer in an operational support role in NASA's...
13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 4
The countdown begins. The story of Apollo 11 – coming soon.
About this Podcast
Copyright
(C) BBC 2025
Language
en
Categories
History, Society & Culture, Documentary