REACHING FOR THE STARS

I vividly remember the day when former U.S. Space and Rocket Center director Deborah Barnhart brought Wernher von Braun’s desk notes and a few related items to our ANTIQUES ROADSHOW event in Birmingham. Appraiser James Supp’s jaw dropped. Dr. Barnhart showed him a few memorable pages from the notes, like the one dated July 20, 1969, where von Braun simple wrote “Landed on Moon.”  On the subject of value, the appraiser declared that the collection was “priceless and then some.”

This week as we continue with A Summer of Space programming, we are bringing back a few shows that are FULL of priceless moments. Our documentary MISSILE TO MOON, Thursday at 8:00pm, produced with the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, follows the intertwining tales of Wernher von Braun and Huntsville in the 1950s and 1960s, as the once-proclaimed “Watercress Capitol of the World” became “Rocket City USA” and von Braun transformed from German missile engineer to an American hero.

Friday night at 8:30, PBS brings back the American Experience series CHASING THE MOON from filmmaker Robert Stone. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which had never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played key roles in these historic events.

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS, another of our APT originals airing Friday night at 10:30 and Sunday afternoon at 2:00, tells the story of the Russellville City School’s world champion amateur rocketry program.

Later in the week, the new PBS series ONCE UPON A TIME IN SPACE continues on Tuesday at 8:00 with a look at the International Space Station and a new era of cooperation in space exploration. That’s followed at 9:00 on Tuesday by part two of NOVA: Operation Space Station, featuring tales of survival on the ISS.  Wednesday night, NOVA brings us “Pluto and Beyond” and “Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds.”

I hope you’re enjoying our Summer of Space. Follow the link below for an even deeper dive into space and space travel.

Mike McKenzie
Director of Programming and Public Information