Liftoff Videos
Every mission, with the videos that tell it
Every mission we cover, by year.
Mission: 1970Published: 1 Nov 2026
Apollo 13 was meant to be the third Moon landing, targeting the Fra Mauro region, but an oxygen tank burst about 55 hours into the flight, around 200,000 miles from Earth.
Published: 1 Nov 2026
An explainer on why Starship's Super Heavy booster has 33 Raptor engines, giving four reasons: redundancy, avoiding the combustion instability that troubled huge engines like the F-1, the throttle…
Mission: 1969Published: 11 Aug 2026
Part three of the PBS American Experience film Chasing the Moon follows Apollo 11 from the crew announcement through launch on July 16, 1969, the landing at Tranquility Base, the moonwalk and the…
Published: 6 Feb 2026
A documentary on Skylab, NASA's first space station, built from Apollo hardware.
Mission: 1970Published: 26 Jan 2026
Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970, planning the first landing in the Fra Mauro highlands, but an oxygen tank explosion turned it into a survival mission.
Mission: 1970Published: 3 Jan 2026
A long-form documentary-style retelling of Apollo 13 built from the mission voice recordings and the Review Board report.
Published: 7 Dec 2025
A five-minute survey of space stations: Salyut 1, Skylab, the Salyut program, Mir, the ISS, Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, the Tiangong Space Station, and planned future stations such as the Lunar…
Published: 29 Oct 2025
Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot Charlie Duke gave this keynote at the 2nd Annual Astro Awards on January 26, 2025, recalling his career, the Saturn V launch, a control-system problem that nearly…
Mission: 1970Published: 10 May 2025
Part one of a documentary on Apollo 13, launched in April 1970 with Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise.
Published: 17 Nov 2024
A look at the history of solid rocket motors and the Aerojet AJ260, a 260-inch motor built in the 1960s as a possible backup to the F-1 engine on the Saturn V.
Mission: 1970Published: 6 Nov 2024
Apollo 13 was launched in April 1970 toward the Moon with Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise.
Published: 16 Oct 2024
A documentary history of Skylab, NASA's first space station, built from Apollo-era hardware.
Published: 16 Aug 2024
The lunar module ascent engine was the one Apollo engine classed as so critical that even minor changes needed sign-off from NASA's highest management, because a failure on the Moon would leave no…
Mission: 1998Published: 22 Jul 2024
The video explains why the International Space Station is due to be deorbited by SpaceX around 2030 and sent into the sea at Point Nemo.
Published: 18 Jun 2024
Compares the 33 Raptor engines on SpaceX's Super Heavy booster with the five F1 engines of the Saturn V.
Published: 5 May 2024
A history of Skylab, America's first space station, from the Apollo Applications Program origins and the switch from a wet to a dry workshop, through the damaged launch on May 14, 1973, the three…
Mission: 1969Published: 3 May 2023
This documentary traces the road to Apollo 11, from Sputnik and Kennedy's 1961 goal through Mercury, Gemini and the early Apollo flights.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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