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The Space Shuttle: 3. Glass rocket

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle
Episode 3 of 10

Columbia reaches orbit but astronaut Bob Crippen discovers that the shuttle has been damaged 鈥� can they make it home safely?

Columbia reaches orbit. But astronaut Bob Crippen discovers that the shuttle has been damaged 鈥� can he and John Young make it home safely?

Parts of the heatshield to protect the shuttle from searing temperatures on re-entry to Earth have fallen off during the journey into space. This new heatshield has never been tested before in orbit. Could more tiles be missing?

Some scenes in this series use recreated sound effects.

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle is a 蜜芽传媒 Audio Science Unit production for 蜜芽传媒 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:
Nichelle Nichols NASA advertisement, Nasa Archives, 1977
STS-1 Columbia landing sequence, ABC News, CBS News, 1981
Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office

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47 minutes

Last on

Sat 9 Aug 2025 21:32GMT
蜜芽传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only

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