The Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC.
The show had the same permanent presenter, Patrick Moore, from its first broadcast on 24 April 1957 until 7 January 2013. The latter date was a posthumous broadcast, which followed Moore’s death on 9 December 2012. This made it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history. Many early episodes are missing, either because the tapes were wiped, thrown out, or because the episode was broadcast live and never recorded in the first place. Beginning with the 3 February 2013 edition, the show was co-presented by Lucie Green and Chris Lintott. Since December 2013 Maggie Aderin-Pocock has been a presenter. The programme’s opening and closing theme music is “At the Castle Gate”, from the incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande, written in 1905 by Jean Sibelius, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.
This episode: Three, two, one, lift off! This edition launches into the extraordinary – and extraterrestrial – world of astronaut training, discovering what it truly takes to become a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut.
As Europe looks to play a more prominent role in space exploration, we shine a spotlight on the candidates who are pushing boundaries and preparing to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland amongst the stars.
But first, the programme is honoured to welcome back Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut. Chris Lintott is with Helen at the Science Museum, London, celebrating the opening of the brand new space gallery. Chris finds out what it was like to go to space and how Helen became an astronaut, from the selection process to learning the essential skills needed for life beyond Earth. While exploring the treasures of the exhibition, including Helen’s own space suit from her voyage in 1991, Tim Peake’s Soyuz descent module and a three-billion-year-old chunk of the moon, Chris and Helen contemplate the rise of commercial missions and the future of international collaboration in space.
In France, guest presenter and astrophysicist Jen Gupta joins space scientist Rosemary Coogan, one of the UK’s latest ESA astronaut recruits, as she works toward her private pilot’s licence. Recounting her journey from academia to astronaut selection, we find out if Rosemary’s background in space science might come in handy amongst the stars.
Meanwhile in Germany, Maggie Aderin-Pocock dives into the deep end with British-Australian materials chemist Meganne Christian as she prepares for her first underwater ‘spacewalk’. In ESA’s XR lab, Meganne demonstrates to Maggie how virtual reality is used to train astronauts by immersing them in a simulated ISS environment – without ever leaving Earth.
Maggie also follows up a story from last year, checking in with bronze medal-winning Paralympian John McFall as he continues his historic journey as the world’s first astronaut with a physical disability. Selected for ESA’s feasibility study on making space travel more inclusive, John is undergoing a bespoke training programme designed to assess how physical disabilities can be accommodated during space missions. As he adapts to his prosthetic ‘space leg’, he continues to prove that space can – and should – be accessible to all.
The Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC.
The show had the same permanent presenter, Patrick Moore, from its first broadcast on 24 April 1957 until 7 January 2013. The latter date was a posthumous broadcast, which followed Moore’s death on 9 December 2012. This made it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history. Many early episodes are missing, either because the tapes were wiped, thrown out, or because the episode was broadcast live and never recorded in the first place. Beginning with the 3 February 2013 edition, the show was co-presented by Lucie Green and Chris Lintott. Since December 2013 Maggie Aderin-Pocock has been a presenter. The programme’s opening and closing theme music is “At the Castle Gate”, from the incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande, written in 1905 by Jean Sibelius, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.
This episode:
Three, two, one, lift off! This edition launches into the extraordinary – and extraterrestrial – world of astronaut training, discovering what it truly takes to become a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut.
As Europe looks to play a more prominent role in space exploration, we shine a spotlight on the candidates who are pushing boundaries and preparing to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland amongst the stars.
But first, the programme is honoured to welcome back Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut. Chris Lintott is with Helen at the Science Museum, London, celebrating the opening of the brand new space gallery. Chris finds out what it was like to go to space and how Helen became an astronaut, from the selection process to learning the essential skills needed for life beyond Earth. While exploring the treasures of the exhibition, including Helen’s own space suit from her voyage in 1991, Tim Peake’s Soyuz descent module and a three-billion-year-old chunk of the moon, Chris and Helen contemplate the rise of commercial missions and the future of international collaboration in space.
In France, guest presenter and astrophysicist Jen Gupta joins space scientist Rosemary Coogan, one of the UK’s latest ESA astronaut recruits, as she works toward her private pilot’s licence. Recounting her journey from academia to astronaut selection, we find out if Rosemary’s background in space science might come in handy amongst the stars.
Meanwhile in Germany, Maggie Aderin-Pocock dives into the deep end with British-Australian materials chemist Meganne Christian as she prepares for her first underwater ‘spacewalk’. In ESA’s XR lab, Meganne demonstrates to Maggie how virtual reality is used to train astronauts by immersing them in a simulated ISS environment – without ever leaving Earth.
Maggie also follows up a story from last year, checking in with bronze medal-winning Paralympian John McFall as he continues his historic journey as the world’s first astronaut with a physical disability. Selected for ESA’s feasibility study on making space travel more inclusive, John is undergoing a bespoke training programme designed to assess how physical disabilities can be accommodated during space missions. As he adapts to his prosthetic ‘space leg’, he continues to prove that space can – and should – be accessible to all.
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