Space Race (TV series)
| Space Race | |
|---|---|
BBC DVD Cover
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| Genre | Docudrama |
| Written by | Christopher Spencer |
| Directed by | |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Robert Lindsay |
| Composer(s) | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jill Fullerton-Smith |
| Producer(s) | |
| Running time | 240 minutes |
| Distributor | BBC |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Picture format | 16:9 576i |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 14 September – 5 October 2005 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Nuclear Secrets |
For the children's space TV show, see Space Racers.
Space Race is a BBC docudrama series first shown in Britain on BBC2 between 14 September and 5 October 2005, chronicling the major events and characters in the American/Soviet space race up to the first landing of a man on the moon. It focuses on Sergei Korolev, the Soviet chief rocket designer, and Wernher von Braun, his American counterpart. The series was a joint effort between British, German, American and Russian production teams.
We see the results of Wernher von Braun's work on the V-2 for the Nazis at Mittelwerk and Peenemünde, and his final activities within Germany during the last years of the Second World War, as both American and Soviet forces race to capture German rocket technology. When the Americans gain the upper hand by recovering von Braun and most of his senior staff, along with all their technical documents and much other materiel, we see Sergei Korolev's release from the Gulag to act as the Soviets' rocketry expert alongside former colleague Valentin Glushko, and how he is set to work bringing Soviet rocket technology up to date with that of von Braun, working with what material and personnel are left after von Braun's escape to the US.
As the Cold War intensifies, Korolev is asked to build a rocket capable of carrying a five-ton warhead to America - he designs and constructs the R-7 Semyorka, the first ICBM, and is later allowed to use it to launch the first satellite, Sputnik 1, quickly following up with the rushed Sputnik 2. Meanwhile, von Braun struggles to persuade the US government to allow him to launch his own satellite - after Sputnik's launch and the failure of the US Navy to launch a Vanguard satellite, he is finally allowed to launch the first American satellite, Explorer 1. Korolev announces that the Americans have evened the score and that they are in a space race, which they intend to win. At the end of the episode we see the silhouettes of two men walking down a corridor, one appears to be in a spacesuit. This could be Yuri Gagarin.
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