Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,25 Sep 2025,44 mins

Bonus. 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

The Documentary Podcast

Available for over a year

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. This is the epic story of the space shuttle, a dream to make spaceflight routine. Told by the astronauts and team who made it happen. You can listen to episode 1 here. For more, search for 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is a BBC Audio Science Unit production for the 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

Programme Website
More episodes