The 21st Century Race For Space

The captivating tales of the people and events behind one of humanity's greatest achievements in exploration: NASA's Voyager mission.

Travel into the world of aviation and explore the dreams of flight with the Smithsonian as they step into the unknown.

From the unique vantage point of 200 miles above Earth's surface, we see how natural forces - volcanoes, earthquakes and hurricanes - affect our world, and how a powerful new force - humankind - has begun to alter the face of the planet. From Amazon rain forests to Serengeti grasslands, Blue Planet inspires a new appreciation of life on Earth, our only home.

Travel alongside the astronauts as they deploy and repair the Hubble Space Telescope, soar above Venus and Mars, and find proof of new planets and the possibility of other life forming around distant stars.

FORTITUDE is a new documentary about the people, perils and promises behind the emerging space industry. A new Space Renaissance is emerging: Sparked by humanity’s unquenchable thirst for exploration, fuelled by capitalism’s insatiable hunger for profits and propelled by breath-taking technological advances. Fortitude uncovers how a few influential individuals with utopian ideas and vast fortunes are forging a trillion-dollar off-world industry while inspiring millions of us back on Earth. This is the story of those who take risks, invest the capital, and endeavour to turn science fiction into science fact.

It contains 99.9 percent of all the matter in our solar system and sheds hot plasma at nearly a million miles an hour. The temperature at its core is a staggering 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. It convulses, it blazes, it sings. You know it as the sun. Scientists know it as one of the most amazing physics laboratories in the universe.

For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.

The Future of the Planet is at stake by biblical brophecy to spaceborn calamity.

How can structures, which take up defined, rigid portions of space, make us feel transcendence? How can chapels turn into places of introspection? How can walls grant boundless freedom? Driven by intense childhood impressions, director Christoph Schaub visits extraordinary churches, both ancient and futuristic, and discovers works of art that take him up to the skies and all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. With the help of architects Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli, and Álvaro Siza Vieira, artists James Turrell and Cristina Iglesias, and drummer Sergé “Jojo” Mayer, he tries to make sense of the world and decipher our spiritual experiences using the seemingly abstract concepts of light, time, rhythm, sound, and shape. The superb cinematography turns this contemplative search into a multi-sensory experience.

Aspiring teenage astronauts reveal that a journey to Mars is closer than you think.

This film consists of three parts. The first dramatizes the life of the founder of Soviet astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky; the second describes the development of rocket technology; and the third visualizes the future with enactments of the first manned spaceflight, spacewalk, space station construction and humans on the moon.

In an age when misinformation, alternative facts, and conspiracy theories have become mainstream, UFOs have risen to become one of the most-talked about pop culture phenomena. With all of this noise, how can we expect anyone to know how much of this is true? What is in our skies? What do we know, and how do we know it? And most importantly: Are we being visited?

Archival material from the original NASA film footage – much of it seen for the first time – plus interviews with the surviving astronauts, including Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt.

Documentary about an African-American girl who grows up to help NASA put astronauts into space and bring them home safely. She was one of the main characters in the movie, "Hidden Figures." Includes interview with Johnson.

Computer animation and footage from NASA space missions explain how our solar system evolved and the place Earth has within the system.