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The previous instalments of this superlative documentary series tackled conflicts. In 2020, Once Upon a Time in Iraq told the story of the Iraq war, while its 2023 follow-up, Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, examined the Troubles. In taking an oral-history approach, speaking to those in power and those who were there on the ground, these programmes offered delicately balanced and deeply humane tales of suffering and hope. Directed by James Bluemel, both series were excellent and deserving of their many accolades.
Using the same template to tell the story of space, with its inherent lack of boundaries, could have been a radical departure, but this open-endedness plays to the format’s strengths. A note at the beginning succinctly explains why this subject — and why now. Until this moment in history, fewer than 700 people have gone into space. But that is about to change, as billionaires and celebrities go where only astronauts and cosmonauts have gone before. Sci-fi fans already know that whoever rules space, rules the world. What can the history of space exploration tell us about its future?
What unfolds is an elegant and densely layered story, handled with the series’ trademark conversational ease. The first episode explores the US’s role in the space race, its competition with the USSR, and the long-lasting impact of the knowledge that the Soviet Union was the first nation to send a man into space. The cold war also provides an intriguing backdrop to the second episode, which focuses on the unlikely US and Russian co-operation on the Mir space station and, later, on the International Space Station. When the Soviet Union collapsed, rocket scientists who had also worked on its nuclear programme were not being paid for long periods. By working with Russia and helping to fund the collaborative Shuttle-Mir project, the US also aimed to prevent the scientists’ knowledge from falling into the hands of rogue states.
Portrait of the STS-84 and Mir 23 crews © BBC/KEO Films/NASA
One astronaut recalls being told in the early 1980s that one in 25 of Nasa’s Space Shuttle flights was expected to fail, and that if that bothered them, they could leave — plenty of others were waiting to take their place. Even when the story turns to the best-known successes and most infamous tragedies, the danger is thrilling and horrifying.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the makers survey more terrestrial matters with a cool eye. Women and people of colour had to fight for a chance to be astronauts. Ronald McNair, the second Black American in space, was killed in the Challenger disaster of 1986, and his astonishing life story is told with humour and heart by those who knew him. The underlying message: once, you had to be extraordinary to go into space; now you just have to be rich.
★★★★★
On BBC2 from October 27 at 9pm