Liftoff Videos
Every mission, with the videos that tell it
Every mission we cover, by year.
Mission: 1970Published: 13 Nov 2022
An hour-by-hour account of Apollo 13, from launch on a Saturn V to the oxygen tank 2 explosion at about hour 56.
Mission: 1986Published: 17 Apr 2022
The video recounts the Challenger launch, in which a flame from a solid rocket booster appeared 73 seconds after liftoff and the vehicle came apart.
Mission: 2003Published: 22 Oct 2021
A retrospective on the loss of space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003, during reentry after a roughly two-week science mission, which killed all seven crew members.
Published: 20 Jul 2021
An overview of NASA's Apollo Program, from Kennedy's goal of a lunar landing and the choice of lunar orbit rendezvous through the Apollo 1 fire, Apollo 7 to 11, and the missions through Apollo 17.
Published: 23 Jun 2021
A documentary-style account of the Mir space station, from its 1986 core module launch to the troubled year 1997.
Mission: 1971Published: 18 May 2021
Scott Manley marks 50 years since Salyut 1, the first space station, launched by the Soviet Union in 1971.
Mission: 1970Published: 1 Jan 2021
After an oxygen tank rupture crippled Apollo 13, NASA and the crew used the lunar module as a lifeboat.
Mission: 1970Published: 25 Dec 2020
Part one of a documentary on Apollo 13 covers the crew change, the launch, the pogo vibration on ascent and the oxygen tank rupture 56 hours into the flight.
Mission: 1993Published: 2 Dec 2020
Servicing Mission 1 launched on December 2, 1993, aboard the space shuttle Endeavour to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, whose primary mirror had been ground too flat.
Mission: 2003Published: 31 Oct 2020
A NOVA documentary on the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia, which broke apart over Texas on re-entry in 2003 and killed all seven crew.
Published: 21 Sep 2020
Skylab was a solely US space station that orbited Earth between 1973 and 1979.
Published: 18 Apr 2020
A documentary on how Skylab was damaged during its Saturn V launch, when a heat shield was torn away and one solar array was left stuck.
Mission: 1970Published: 11 Apr 2020
NASA's documentary on Apollo 13 draws on interviews with astronauts Jim Lovell and Fred Haise and flight directors Gene Kranz and Glynn Lunney.
Mission: 1986Published: 19 Nov 2019
A long documentary on the January 1986 loss of Space Shuttle Challenger on mission 51-L.
Mission: 1970Published: 2 Oct 2019
Apollo 13 launched April 11, 1970, and was meant to land at Fra Mauro.
Mission: 1986Published: 20 Jul 2019
Challenger STS-51L, carrying seven crew including teacher Christa McAuliffe, began to disintegrate 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986, killing all seven.
Mission: 1969Published: 6 Jul 2019
An explainer on how NASA sent live television from the Moon during Apollo 11's first moonwalk, watched by 600 million people.
Mission: 1969Published: 23 Oct 2018
Apollo 11 launched on July 16, 1969, carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
Mission: 1970Published: 3 Mar 2018
This 1994 documentary follows Apollo 13 from its April 11, 1970 launch through the oxygen tank explosion on the way to the Moon.
Published: 25 Sep 2017
A NASA documentary on Skylab, which launched on May 14, 1973.
Published: 12 Jul 2017
The History Guy recounts Skylab, America's first manned space station, built from the second stage of a Saturn V and launched on May 14, 1973.
Mission: 1986Published: 2 Jun 2014
A Retro Report film from The New York Times on the Challenger disaster of Jan.
Mission: 1970Published: 16 Mar 2012
Apollo 13 lifted off on April 11, 1970, but an oxygen tank explosion about 200,000 miles from Earth ended its Moon landing plans.
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