Twenty-five years after Neil Armstrong took that famous "giant leap for mankind" and walked on the Moon, the reclusive astronaut has been coaxed back into the public eye to introduce the first two programmes in a four-night celebration of what President
Nixon dubbed "the greatest week since Creation".
A noble achievement for the greater good of mankind wasn't, however, what had motivated President Kennedy in 1961 when he initiated Project
Apollo: he was more interested in beating the Russians.
This openingdocumentary looks back at the early days of the space race and the relentless pressure on Nasa to put an American on the Moon before the end of the decade - pressure which resulted in some tragic mistakes.
The programme includes rarely seen BBC and Nasa archive footage of the key early missions, Apollo 4 and Apollo 8. Thursday's programme, at
9.30pm, continues the story. Producer Jenny Abbott
Executive producer Clare Paterson
Doyou remember 1969?
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