This week we’re looking at the history of space travel, including the 60th anniversary of the first ever space-walk by Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.

Also, the speech that would have been given if the Apollo 11 astronauts didn’t make their way back from the moon; the founding of the European Space Agency and how Brazil came back from tragedy to launch their fist successful rocket.

The Sky at Night’s Dr Ezzy Pearson joins us to tell us about the history of robot’s in space and the Soviet Union’s exploration of Venus.

Contributors:

Archive of Alexei Leonov – the first man to walk in space

Dr Ezzy Pearson – Features Editor for the BBC’s Sky at Night magazine

Felix Palmerio – engineer for Brazil’s space programme

Archive of William Safire – speechwriter for US President Richard Nixon

Bill Holland – former historian for NASA

Andrea Amaldi – grandson of Edoardo Amaldi, one of the founding fathers of the European Space Agency

(Photo: Alexei Leonov on his first space walk in 1965. Credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)