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BBC World Service

Epic space stories. From the first Moon landing, to Apollo 13, to the Space Shuttle. Told by the people who made them happen.

NEW: Season 3: The Space Shuttle. A sci-fi dream that changed spaceflight forever. From the boldest test flight in history to one of Nasa’s darkest days – the Challenger disaster. Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock tells the awe-inspiring story of the programme that brought triumph and tragedy. Some scenes in this series use recreated sound effects. 

Season 2: Apollo 13. Apollo 13 should have been the third Moon landing, but after an explosion, it almost ended in tragedy. Told by the people who flew it and saved it. Presented and co-written by Kevin Fong.

Season 1: 13 Minutes to the Moon. The first Moon landing. In the final dramatic 13-minute descent to the Moon, the Apollo 11 mission came close to going badly wrong. Communication was breaking down, technology was failing and fuel was running out. This is the story of how the first Moon landing was saved. Presented by Kevin Fong.

13 Minutes is produced by the BBC Audio Science Unit for the BBC World Service. 

Season 3 theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.

13 Minutes to the Moon

To launch like a rocket and land like a plane. The space shuttle: A sci-fi dream that became reality and changed spaceflight forever. Told by the Nasa astronauts, engineers, scientists and support staff who made it happen. 

Our multi award-winning podcast returns on 14 July 2025 with: 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle. Presented by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock. She tells the story of triumph and tragedy, and the human story behind the technology and scientific endeavour. 

A BBC Audio Science Unit production for the BBC World Service. 

Season 3 theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg, and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.

Archive: Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office.

Introducing: The Space Shuttle

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 Space Shuttle: 1. The spaceplane

The countdown begins. The story of Apollo 11 – coming soon.

13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 4

Introducing 13 Minutes to the Moon, with Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham and former Apollo engineer Poppy Northcutt - the first woman to work as an engineer in an operational support role in NASA's Mission Control.

13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 3

Hans Zimmer has composed the 13 Minutes to the Moon theme music. It is the first time the Grammy and Academy Award winner has created music for a podcast.

13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 2

President John F. Kennedy boldly vows that America will land the first astronaut on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. It’s the height of the Cold War. But with superpower rival the Soviet Union leading the space race, after launching the first human spaceflight, the odds seem stacked against them. The Apollo programme, the USA’s daring answer to the race to the Moon, is an epic journey of innovation and exploration. Can Nasa change the course of space history?

Hosted by Kevin Fong.

Starring:
Michael Collins
Steve Bales
Margaret Hamilton
Jim Lovell 
Charlie Duke

Theme music by Hans Zimmer for Bleeding Fingers Music

#13MinutestotheMoon 
www.bbcworldservice.com/13minutes

This episode was updated on 14 May 2019.

13 Minutes to the Moon: 1. ‘We choose to go’, Apollo 11

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 easy to crash”. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent hundreds of hours in the simulator to prepare for every possible manoeuvre required for the daring, final thirteen-minute descent to the lunar surface.

Hosted by Kevin Fong.

Starring:
Charlie Duke
Dick Dunne
John Devaney
Alan Contessa
Neil Armstrong courtesy of the Johnson Space Center Oral History Project
Tom Kelly courtesy of the MIT Museum Collections

Archive: 
Johnson Space Center Oral History Project
Archive: MIT Museum Collections

Theme music by Hans Zimmer for Bleeding Fingers Music

#13MinutestotheMoon 
www.bbcworldservice.com/13minutes

13 Minutes to the Moon: 3. Long Island Eagle

The final part of our audio countdown to the launch of 13 Minutes to the Moon, with Kevin Fong. Lift off is on 13 May 2019.

13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 1

Crisis strikes Apollo 11. The Moon landing is threatened when an alarm goes off. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are minutes from the lunar surface when the spacecraft computer flashes error code 1202. It’s a major test for Nasa mission control - average age just 26. Flight controller Steve Bales must decide if the Moon landing can proceed. Can he and his team save this epic spaceflight in time? These engineers, scientists, controllers and programmers are the unsung heroes who worked behind the scenes to make one of history’s greatest space missions possible.

Hosted by Kevin Fong.

Starring:
Steve Bales
Charlie Duke
John Aaron
Glynn Lunney
Gerry Griffin
Jerry Bostick
Gene Kranz courtesy of the Johnson Space Center History Office 

Archive: Johnson Space Center History Office

Theme music by Hans Zimmer for Bleeding Fingers Music

#13MinutestotheMoon 
www.bbcworldservice.com/13minutes

13 Minutes to the Moon: 2. Kids in control

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 into space, tests the Apollo spacecraft, and paves the way for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s legendary first steps on the lunar surface.

Hosted by Kevin Fong.

Starring:
George Abbey
Walt Cunningham 
Glynn Lunney
Gerry Griffin
John Aaron
Jerry Bostick

Courtesy of the Johnson Space Center Oral History Project: 
Chris Kraft
Gene Kranz 
Wally Schirra
George Jeffs 

Courtesy of CBS News: 
Gus Grissom
Ed White
Roger Chaffee

Theme music by Hans Zimmer for Bleeding Fingers Music
#13MinutestotheMoon 
www.bbcworldservice.com/13minutes

13 Minutes to the Moon: 4. Fire to the Phoenix

Nasa flight controller John Aaron talks to Kevin Fong about the ill-fated Apollo mission, from the moment of learning about the explosion to his fears during the spacecraft’s final descent through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg for Bleeding Fingers Music.

Apollo 13: Bonus 2. John Aaron

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