Podcast: 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle (LS 73 · TOP 0.01% what is this?)
Episode: The Space Shuttle: 1. The spaceplane
Pub date: 2025-07-14

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

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 mission to land humans on the moon. But meanwhile, hidden away from public view, Nasa is thinking the unthinkable.

Maverick engineer Dr Max Faget is already a legend within Nasa. He’s fascinated by what could be next for human spaceflight. In a backroom, of Building 36 at Johnson Space Center, he invites a handful of engineers to a meeting. One of them is Ivy Hooks, a mathematician and engineer. And one of the first female engineers at Nasa.

Some scenes in this series use recreated sound effects.

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle is a BBC Audio Science Unit production for BBC World Service.

Hosted by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg, and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.

Archive:

Richard Nixon launches Nasa’s space shuttle programme, CBS News, 1972

Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC World Service, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.