Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race

Overview

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969, America went down in popular history as the winner of the space race. But that history is bunk. The real pioneers of space exploration were the Soviet cosmonauts. This remarkable feature-length documentary combines rare and unseen archive footage with interviews with the surviving cosmonauts to tell the fascinating and at times terrifying story of how the Russians led us into the space age. A particular highlight is Alexei Leonov, the man who performed the first spacewalk, explaining how he found himself trapped outside his spacecraft 500 miles above the Earth. Scary stuff.

Details

Status

Released

Release date

October 13, 2014

Original language

English

Spoken languages

English, Russian

Countries

United Kingdom

Production

BBC,BBC London

Cast

Paul McGann

Director

Michael Lachmann

Writer

Michael Lachmann

Producer

Jonathan Renouf

Budget

Not recorded

Revenue

Not recorded

Homepage

Official site

IMDb

tt4482288