Summer of Space | KCET
This summer, celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with KCET’s “Summer of Space” with 20 new hours of out of this world programming.
Get an exclusive first look “Blue Sky Metropolis,” composed of four one-hour episodes that examine Southern California’s role in the history of aviation and aerospace. The documentary series explores untold story of the largest homegrown industry that has received only a fraction of the attention heaped upon the Hollywood entertainment business. Narrated by Emmy Award® winning actor Tony Goldwyn, "Blue Sky Metropolis" airs Sundays at 8 p.m. PT.
Relive the excitement of man’s first steps on the moon and the long journey it took to get there with such programs as a new five-part “Nova: The Planets” (premiering Sunday, July 28, 9 p.m. PT), “American Experience: Chasing the Moon” (premiering Saturday, July 20, 6 p.m. PT) and more.
Stay tuned to KCET and check back often for upcoming programming dates. Stream the episodes on kcet.org or the free PBS App.
Related Shows
Upcoming Airdates
Blue Sky Metropolis
Wings: Aviation Takes Flight in Early Los Angeles
Episode 1
In this episode, the documentary establishes Southern California as the undisputed aviation capital of the world and introduce the industry founders — Jack Northrop, Glenn Martin and Donald Douglas. Nice weather attracted them but so did a climate friendly to dreamers, risk takers and entrepreneurs. Amelia Earhart learned to fly here, becoming only the 16th woman in the world to earn a pilot’s license, succeeding in an industry dominated by men.
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2019-07-19T07:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-19T12:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-07-21T10:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-08-11T13:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-11T16:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-12T07:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-08-16T07:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Space Chase USA
Space Chase USA
"Space Chase USA" explores the extraordinary events that transformed the small beach town of Cocoa Beach, Florida into a bustling center for the American space program. Featuring a trove of archival material and interviews with long-time residents, former Apollo astronauts, and Cape Canaveral-based engineers and employees, the program charts the history of the space program in Florida during the 1950s and 1960s.
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2019-07-19T11:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
Chasing The Moon: American Experience
A Place Beyond the Sky
Episode 1
“A Place Beyond the Sky” begins in 1957 and tracks the early years of the space race as the United States struggled to catch up with the Soviet Union. The episode explores both the successes and failures of America’s early space program, and the enormous stakes involved in the quest to reach the moon.
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2019-07-20T11:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-27T11:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-03T11:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Year In Space
Year In Space
Follow astronaut Scott Kelly's record-breaking 12-month mission on the International Space Station, from launch to landing, as NASA charts the effects of long-duration spaceflight by comparing him to his identical twin on Earth, astronaut Mark Kelly.
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2019-07-21T12:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Blue Sky Metropolis
The Big Chill: The Cold War Fuels Business and Anxiety
Episode 2
This episode traces how The Cold War and Pentagon dollars fund the explosive growth of modern Los Angeles. The end of World War II meant massive unemployment for the millions of workers in Southern California who built the aircraft that helped win the war, but a series of world events changed all that, creating a permanent wartime economy. First, the Soviets successfully tested an atomic bomb. Next, Mao Tse-Tung created a second Communist empire with his People’s Republic of China. Finally, the Korean War marked the first communism/capitalism military showdown
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2019-07-21T13:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-21T16:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-22T07:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-07-26T07:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-26T12:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-07-28T10:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-08-18T13:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-18T16:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
8 Days: to the Moon and Back
8 Days: to the Moon and Back
Join Apollo 11 on its historic journey. The film seamlessly blends mission audio featuring conversations among Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins with new footage, NASA archive and stunning CGI to recreate the first moon landing.
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2019-07-21T14:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-21T17:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Ancient Skies
Gods and Monsters
Episode 1
Explore the origins of our relationship with the skies. Our ancestors use the sky to navigate and tell time, and give religious significance to what they see in it. Then, a revolution gives birth to modern science.
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2019-07-28T12:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Blue Sky Metropolis
A Space Odyssey: Southern California Spearheads Mankind’s Greatest Achievement
Episode 3
The triumphant and tragic Space Race unfolds in the first-hand accounts of those who pioneered the technology and built the hardware that made possible mankind’s greatest achievement. Meantime, the military-industrial-complex expands unchecked.
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2019-07-28T13:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-28T16:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-29T07:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-08-02T07:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-02T12:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-08-04T10:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
Nova
The Planets: Inner Worlds
Season 46 Episode 12
The rocky planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - were born of similar material around the same time, yet only one supports life. Were Earth's neighbors always so extreme? Is there somewhere else in the solar system where life might flourish?
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2019-07-28T14:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-28T17:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Nova
The Planets: Mars
Season 46 Episode 13
Mars was once a blue water world studded with active volcanoes. But when its magnetic field and protective atmosphere faded, it became the frozen desert planet we know today. With so many necessary elements in place, did life ever form on Mars?
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2019-07-28T15:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-07-28T18:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Ancient Skies
Finding The Center
Episode 2
Follow the efforts to give the Earth a shape and a place. From flat Earth legends to Galileo's telescope, track major changes in scientific understanding. Ideas rise and fall as we continue to explore our ancient skies.
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2019-08-04T12:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Blue Sky Metropolis
Back to the Future: A New Space Age Dawns in Southern California
Episode 4
“Back to the Future” explores the decline of the industry in Southern California and its resurgence in recent years. We hear first-person testimony from Southern California residents who came of age during the Cold War and Space Race.
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2019-08-04T13:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-04T16:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-05T07:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-08-09T07:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-09T12:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-08-11T10:00:00-07:00KCETLINK
Nova
The Planets: Jupiter
Season 46 Episode 14
Jupiter's massive gravitational force made it a wrecking ball when it barreled through the early solar system. But it also shaped life on Earth, delivering comets laden with water - and perhaps even the fateful asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
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2019-08-04T14:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-04T17:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Ancient Skies
Our Place in the Universe
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2019-08-11T12:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Nova
The Planets: Saturn
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2019-08-11T14:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-08-11T17:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Nova
Pluto and Beyond
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2019-08-18T12:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Nova
The Planets: Ice Worlds
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2019-08-18T14:00:00-07:00KCET-HD
Full Episodes
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Aviation takes flight in early Los Angeles, becoming an industry of dreamers, risk takers and entrepreneurs. The region is America’s “arsenal of democracy” during World War II, as two million workers build 300,000 aircrafts.
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"Space Chase USA" explores the extraordinary events that transformed the small beach town of Cocoa Beach, Florida into a bustling center for the American space program.
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Fifty years after humans first set foot on the Moon, new scientific discoveries are fueling excitement for a return to the lunar surface—this time, perhaps, to stay.
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Meet the pioneering Air Force scientists and pilots whose Project Manhigh, which collected data about the biological and technical factors required to support human activity in space, laid the groundwork for the US space program.
Clips & Segments
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Once a month in California, air raid sirens would go off, marking the time when all residents would begin their duck and cover drills. Listen to the stories of an older generation who lived under constant threat of nuclear annihilation.
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Born in Lockheed’s Skunkworks division, the U-2 aircraft is a marvel of flight that enabled the United States to get a leg up in recon. It is still a plane that is in use today.
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The early days of aviation was not as idyllic as it seems.
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The Hollywood machine gets a hold of aviation and celebrities are born.
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Blue Sky Metropolis
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Blue Sky Metropolis
Blue Sky Metropolis
An Illustrated History of Aviation in Southern California (Part II)
After the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the United States entered a period of heightened antagonism as jet propulsion made plane travel commonplace and a new American obsession took hold — space travel.
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Blue Sky Metropolis
Blue Sky Metropolis
Soaring into Herstory: The Women's Air Derby of 1929
In 1929, Santa Monica was overflowing with spectators as the host for the first Intercontinental Woman’s Air Derby, where twenty female aviators signed up to participate in the 2,759-mile course to the finish line in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Blue Sky Metropolis
Blue Sky Metropolis
Dare to Dream: William J. Powell, Booster of Black Flight
Ever since his first flight, William J. Powell became infatuated with aviation. He saw it as a way for African American men and women to soar far above a racist world.
Read More
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aviation
Blue Sky Metropolis
An Illustrated History of Aviation in Southern California (Part II)
After the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the United States entered a period of heightened antagonism as jet propulsion made plane travel commonplace and a new American obsession took hold — space travel.
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aviation
Summer of Space
How the Tuskegee Airmen Rose Above Racism
Even though black men served as pilots for France in WWl, many Americans thought black men were incapable of becoming pilots to fight in WWII, but the Tuskegee Airmen proved them wrong.
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aviation
Blue Sky Metropolis
Soaring into Herstory: The Women's Air Derby of 1929
In 1929, Santa Monica was overflowing with spectators as the host for the first Intercontinental Woman’s Air Derby, where twenty female aviators signed up to participate in the 2,759-mile course to the finish line in Cleveland, Ohio.
-
aviation
Blue Sky Metropolis
Dare to Dream: William J. Powell, Booster of Black Flight
Ever since his first flight, William J. Powell became infatuated with aviation. He saw it as a way for African American men and women to soar far above a racist world.
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planetary science
Summer of Space
My Son, the Martian
The Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, operated by The Mars Society and staffed by dedicated astronaut-volunteers, is dedicated to examining how humans may explore Mars.
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Aerospace
Summer of Space
Astronaut Snoopy's 50-Plus Year History with NASA
Unknown to many, Snoopy has been working with NASA since the late 1950s, even before man first stepped on the moon. Space, as it turns out, is the final frontier — even for beagles.
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