Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns, and parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the moon in the 1960s. But few know that both countries also ran parallel space programs, whose covert goal was to launch military astronauts on spying missions. In this program, NOVA delves into the untold story of this top-secret space race, which might easily have turned into a shooting war in o
The great PBS science series Nova scores another hit with Mars: Dead or Alive, capturing all the excitement surrounding the Mars rover landings of early 2004.Originally broadcast just as the first of the twin rovers (“Spirit” and “Opportunity”) was experiencing temporary communication problems with Earth-bound mission controllers, this riveting hour-long episode chronicles the risky $820 million
Can technology help us tame nature’s most violent tornadoes? Little on this earth can withstand the violent fury of an F5 tornado. A churning vortex with winds over 300 miles an hour, these tornadoes create immense swaths of death and destruction in a matter of seconds. But today, experts are exploring the supertwister’s complex inner workings in bold new ways in the hopes of one day being able to
We’ve all heard of the witch, but do witches have a real existence? Yes, they have existed since the dawn of history, and most likely for millenia before. In the Bible, Saul, afraid of the might of the Philistine army, took himself off to be counseled by the Witch of Endor.In Classical literature we have Homer’s Circe who bewitched men and turned them into swine. Ovid tells us of the Strigae;
A hot summer afternoon in the northeast. Residents of New York and Toronto look forward to the weekend. No one could predict what is about to happen.In a matter of seconds, 50 million people simply fall off the grid. Phone lines and water systems fail, and thousands of people are trapped in elevators and subways. It is August 14th 2003, and the largest blackout in North American history causes
A hot summer afternoon in the northeast. Residents of New York and Toronto look forward to the weekend. No one could predict what is about to happen.In a matter of seconds, 50 million people simply fall off the grid. Phone lines and water systems fail, and thousands of people are trapped in elevators and subways. It is August 14th 2003, and the largest blackout in North American history causes
A hot summer afternoon in the northeast. Residents of New York and Toronto look forward to the weekend. No one could predict what is about to happen.In a matter of seconds, 50 million people simply fall off the grid. Phone lines and water systems fail, and thousands of people are trapped in elevators and subways. It is August 14th 2003, and the largest blackout in North American history causes
(For Preview Only) In this unique 2-hrs DVD, Petenera – a Flamenco Drama in Music and Dance recreates the legendary femme fatale that has haunted flamenco lore for centuries. It portrays her loneliness and evokes compassion for a woman understood by none. Petenera reveals her personal story, her tragedy and how the villagers who saw her as a symbol come to see her as another human being worthy of
This is a documentary about mankind's first major ocean crossing the groundbreaking first arrival in Australia. It holds the secrets as to how and why modern humans were able to dominate this planet and beyond. In this one hour film experts explore the mysteries that surround this historic journey - how and when it was achieved, was it a purposeful mission or simply an accident and exactly what it