The Space Race -- Things We Forgot to Remember [30min]

Former British Conservative politician Michael Portillo presents a series which revisits the great moments of history to discover that they often conceal other events of equal, but forgotten, importance. As the Space Race of the 1950s and 60s is reduced to neat paragraphs in 20th-century text books, is there a danger that the image of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon has become too dominant? Michael Portillo argues the case for the earlier Apollo 8 mission, the first manned Moonshot and the moment at which many now claim the Space Race was won. Apollo 8 pilot Jim Lovell is among those remembering the risks and the sheer pioneering panache of the mission that saw the first Earth-rise.