NPR American Chronicles: Exploring Space

NPR's American Chronicles collects the organization's pieces that focus on a particular aspect of history (e.g., civil rights). This installment looks at space exploration. Ranging in length, quality, and year of creation, these chronologically track the development of NASA's space program from the space race against the Russians to the early Gemini missions, through the Apollo era, and across the shuttle program's long decades. Sound quality on all is excellent. Some, like a four-minute essay from 1972 about the Apollo 17's moon landing, are dated, if charming, throwbacks. Others, such as Fred Rogers's interview with Apollo astronaut Alfred Worden using questions from children, are revealing and informative. Especially fascinating is an eight-minute piece about the secret "Mercury 13" women who trained for pilot duty in the early 1960s. All interviewees—from ground crew to astronauts—speak adamantly (sometimes hubristically) about continuing NASA's manned space program.