logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2019
46m 41s

13 Minutes to the Moon: 6. Saving 1968

Bbc World Service
About this episode

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. The crew of the historic spaceflight lift the nation’s spirits with a televised Christmas Eve broadcast from space.

Hosted by Kevin Fong.

Starring: John Aaron Bill Anders Frank Borman Jerry Bostick Michael Collins Jim Lovell Poppy Northcutt Katherine Johnson courtesy of WHRO Chris Kraft courtesy of the Johnson Space Center Oral History Project

Theme music by Hans Zimmer for Bleeding Fingers Music.

#13MinutestotheMoon www.bbcworldservice.com/13minutes

This episode was updated on 19 June 2019.

Up next
Jun 2019
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 spaceflight to the lunar surface. Developed by a pioneering team of programmers, includi ... Show More
47m 56s
Jun 2019
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. After making safety changes, Nasa turns tragedy into triumph. It sends a crew i ... Show More
45m 45s
May 2019
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 result was the spidery lunar module, a spacecraft that was “difficult to fly and ... Show More
42m 52s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2024
A hundred weeks in space exploration
Sarah Al-Ahmed, the host of Planetary Radio, marks her 100th episode with a look back at the defining moments of the past 100 weeks of space exploration. We'll revisit previous Planetary Radio interviews, including the launch of ESA's Juice mission to the icy moons of Jupiter wit ... Show More
59m 45s
Aug 2024
A sticky situation
The US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are currently stranded on the ISS. They arrived on the Boeing Starliner, which was meant to bring them home after eight days. Unfortunately, it has run into tech issues, meaning that the astronauts may be stuck up there for up to ... Show More
49m 30s
Dec 2024
Dark Side of the Earth
Back in 2012, when we were putting together our live show In the Dark, Jad and Robert called up Dave Wolf to ask him if he had any stories about darkness. And boy, did he. Dave told us two stories that became the finale of our show.Back in late 1997, Dave Wolf was on his first sp ... Show More
24m 4s
Jul 2024
Atomic Station by Frank Belknap Long - Short Sci Fi Story From the 1940s
When the energy of Earth’s experimental station in space runs amuck, scientist Roger Sheldon puts up a big battle! Atomic Station by Frank Belknap Long, that’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. This is the second appearance on the podcast for Frank Belknap Long. You may remember t ... Show More
46m 48s
Sep 2024
#446 – Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America
Ed Barnhart is an archaeologist and explorer specializing in ancient civilizations of the Americas. He is the Director of the Maya Exploration Center, host of the ArchaeoEd Podcast, and lecturer on the ancient history of North, Central, and South America. Ed is in part known for ... Show More
3h 36m
Jul 2
Space science and the Artemis Accords: Highlights from the 2025 H2M2 Summit
Recorded at the 2025 Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit (H2M2) in Washington, D.C., this episode features two powerful conversations about the future of human space exploration. Hosted by Mat Kaplan, senior communications adviser at The Planetary Society, these panel discussions ... Show More
1h 9m
Oct 2024
#449 – Graham Hancock: Lost Civilization of the Ice Age & Ancient Human History
Graham Hancock a journalist and author who for over 30 years has explored the controversial possibility that there existed a lost civilization during the last Ice Age, and that it was destroyed in a global cataclysm some 12,000 years ago. He is the presenter of the Netflix docume ... Show More
2h 41m
May 5
#468 – Janna Levin: Black Holes, Wormholes, Aliens, Paradoxes & Extra Dimensions
Janna Levin is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist specializing in black holes, cosmology of extra dimensions, topology of the universe, and gravitational waves. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep468-sc See below for timestamp ... Show More
3h 7m
Aug 2024
Ramses and rockets: Commercial space adventures and the race to Apophis
Get up to speed on the latest in commercial space news. Mat Kaplan, the senior communications advisor for The Planetary Society, returns with an update on the fate of the Boeing Starliner astronauts, the imploding and exploding adventures of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, and a ... Show More
59m 33s
Nov 2021
Daniel K. L. Chua and Alexander Rehding, "Alien Listening: Voyager's Golden Record and Music from Earth" (Zone Book, 2021)
In 1977 NASA shot a mixtape into outer space, and it remains the only human-made object to have left the solar system. The Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecrafts contained world music and sounds of Earth to represent humanity to any extraterrestrial civilizations. Alien Lis ... Show More
48m 40s