Air & Space Smithsonian: Dreams of Flight - Another Step Into the Unknown (1994)

Spheres

An immersive journey through the cosmos, its origins and its songs.

The Secret Spitfires

Spitfires were the nemesis of the Luftwaffe and the instrument which halted Hitler’s plans for invasion. After relentless bombing of the Spitfire factories in Southampton, the Germans were convinced they had halted the production of the Spitfires for good. But across the South of England, hidden in sheds, garages, back gardens, bedrooms, a bus depot, and even a hotel, a workforce of unskilled young girls, boys, women, elderly men, and a handful of engineers secretly built thousands of Spitfires to help win the war. Witnesses recount this never-before-told story of amazing achievement.

Armstrong

Dramatic, moving and deeply human, ARMSTRONG offers the definitive life story of Neil Armstrong: from his childhood in Ohio to his first steps on the Moon, and beyond.

The Lockerbie Bombing

On 21 December 1988 a Pan Am 747 jet exploded over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. On the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on British soil, this is the story.

747: The Jumbo Revolution

At any given moment hundreds of people are soaring above us in a 747. From the moment the very first jumbo jet took off in 1969, it has been the aircraft against which all others are judged. But its 45-year journey has been anything but smooth. This is the definitive story of the Boeing 747, from its milestones and triumphs to its turning points and disasters. Witness its history through rare archival footage and tales from pilots, engineers, designers, and passengers who were there when it all began.

How to See a Black Hole: The Universe's Greatest Mystery

Documentary following researchers as they try to take the first-ever picture of a black hole. They must travel the globe to build a revolutionary telescope that spans planet Earth.

Return to Space

The inspirational rise of SpaceX as well as Elon Musk's two-decade effort to resurrect America’s space travel ambitions.

Comet: A Great British Air Disaster

The De Havilland Comet was the world's first passenger jet airliner. But less than two years into service, two aircraft blew up in mid-air, killing all aboard. PM Winston Churchill ordered an assemblage of experts to discover what went wrong - in the process, inventing many of the air crash investigation techniques still used today.

In the Shadow of the Moon

Archival material from the original NASA film footage – much of it seen for the first time – plus interviews with the surviving astronauts, including Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt.

A Life's Work

What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.

The Mars Generation

Aspiring teenage astronauts reveal that a journey to Mars is closer than you think.

Destiny in Space

Travel alongside the astronauts as they deploy and repair the Hubble Space Telescope, soar above Venus and Mars, and find proof of new planets and the possibility of other life forming around distant stars.

Winged Migration

This documentary follows various migratory bird species on their long journeys from their summer homes to the equator and back, covering thousands of miles and navigating by the stars. These arduous treks are crucial for survival, seeking hospitable climates and food sources. Birds face numerous challenges, including crossing oceans and evading predators, illness, and injury. Although migrations are undertaken as a community, birds disperse into family units once they reach their destinations, and every continent is affected by these migrations, hosting migratory bird species at least part of the year.

National Geographic: Journey to the Edge of the Universe

In one single, epic camera move we journey from Earth's surface to the outermost reaches of the universe on a grand tour of the cosmos, to explore newborn stars, distant planets, black holes and beyond.

Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine

A unique behind-the-scenes access to NASA’s ambitious mission to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, following a team of engineers and scientists as they take the next giant leap in our quest to understand the universe.

The Longest Month

Four hard-hitting stores, from the deadliest period in U.S. Army Aviation, since Vietnam. Actual footage from the events, and interviews from the Soldiers, who were there - bring these intense and touching stories of courage and sacrifice to life.

The Magic of Flight

Take a technological thrill ride The Magic of Flight takes you on a technological thrill ride faster, higher and wider than modern science or even your imagination! Relive the first flight of the Wright Brothers, then soar with the Blue Angels as they defy the laws of gravity. Narrated by Tom Selleck.

The Wonder of It All

The Wonder of it All focuses on the human side of the men behind the Apollo missions through candid interviews with seven of the Apollo astronauts: Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. They all reflect on the training, the tragedies, the camaraderie, and the effect that their space travel has had on their families.

The White Diamond

This 2004 documentary by Werner Herzog diaries the struggle of a passionate English inventor to design and test a unique airship during its maiden flight above the jungle canopy.

Blush: An Extraordinary Voyage

For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.

Secrets of the Sun

It contains 99.9 percent of all the matter in our solar system and sheds hot plasma at nearly a million miles an hour. The temperature at its core is a staggering 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. It convulses, it blazes, it sings. You know it as the sun. Scientists know it as one of the most amazing physics laboratories in the universe.

Architecture of Infinity

How can structures, which take up defined, rigid portions of space, make us feel transcendence? How can chapels turn into places of introspection? How can walls grant boundless freedom? Driven by intense childhood impressions, director Christoph Schaub visits extraordinary churches, both ancient and futuristic, and discovers works of art that take him up to the skies and all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. With the help of architects Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli, and Álvaro Siza Vieira, artists James Turrell and Cristina Iglesias, and drummer Sergé “Jojo” Mayer, he tries to make sense of the world and decipher our spiritual experiences using the seemingly abstract concepts of light, time, rhythm, sound, and shape. The superb cinematography turns this contemplative search into a multi-sensory experience.

Brian Cox: Seven Days on Mars

With unique access to Nasa, Brian Cox follows Perseverance rover’s search for life on Mars during a critical seven-day period as it undertakes an epic journey across the red planet.

Lunar

In the year 1957 the cold war expands to space. The Soviet-Union sends Sputnik as the first manmade object into earth-orbit. 3 years later Yuri Gagarin enters space as the first man in space. The so called "Space Race" seems to be decided. But in 1961 President Kennedy promised to send American Astronauts to the Moon. The Apollo Project was born. A space ship had to be built that is strong enough to escape earth's gravitation, land on the moon and bring the crew safely back to earth. Motion Designer Christian worked with his brother and Composer Wolfgang for 18 months on this shortfilm. The foundation were thousands original NASA photographies, taken from the Astronauts during the Apollo Missions, which were released in September 2015. It is an animated collage using different techniques to bring the stills to life.

Erebus: Operation Overdue

On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.

The Balloonist

Meet Brian Boland—the beloved, eccentric hot air balloonist and artist from the rural Upper Valley of Vermont.

The Hunt for Dark Matter

CERN and the University of California-Santa Barbara are collaborating in the search for the elusive substance that physicists and astronomers believe holds the universe together -- dark matter. Where is this search now in the realm of particle physics and what comes next?

Built for Mars: The Perseverance Rover

BUILT FOR MARS: THE PERSEVERANCE ROVER goes behind the scenes at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to follow the birth of the Perseverance rover.

Armageddon: The Future of the Planet is at Stake

The Future of the Planet is at stake by biblical brophecy to spaceborn calamity.

The Day We Walked on the Moon

On July 16, 1969, hundreds of thousands of spectators and an army of reporters gathered at Cape Kennedy to witness one of the great spectacles of the century: the launch of Apollo 11. Over the next few days, the world watched on with wonder and rapture as humankind prepared for its "one giant leap" onto the moon--and into history. Witness this incredible day, presented through stunning, remastered footage and interviews that takes you behind-the-scenes and inside the spacecraft, Mission Control, and the homes of the astronaut's families.

Guy Martin's Lost WW2 Bomber

Guy joins an ambitious engineering project to recover a crashed WW2 Lancaster Bomber – and the remains of its missing crew members – from the depths of the Dutch lake where it’s lain for 80 years.

The UFO Movie THEY Don't Want You to See

In an age when misinformation, alternative facts, and conspiracy theories have become mainstream, UFOs have risen to become one of the most-talked about pop culture phenomena. With all of this noise, how can we expect anyone to know how much of this is true? What is in our skies? What do we know, and how do we know it? And most importantly: Are we being visited?

Miniverse

What if you could get behind the wheel and race through space? We scale down the Solar System to the continental United States and place the planets along the way to better appreciate the immense scale of the Universe. See space as never before, with Mars looming over the Freedom Tower and Jupiter towering above the Lincoln Memorial. Join former astronaut Chris Hadfield - a YouTube sensation for his performance of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” aboard the International Space Station - and his interstellar hitchhikers Michio Kaku and astronomers Derrick Pitts and Laura Danly. It’s a joyride from coast to coast - and from the sun to Pluto.

Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon

Twelve men who belong to one of the world's most exclusive fraternities -- people who've walked on the surface of the moon -- are paid homage in this documentary. Using newsreel footage, rare NASA photographs, and digitally animated re-creations, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon examines the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972 which put astronauts on the moon.

Space Dogs

Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being to be sent into space and thus to a certain death. A legend says that she returned to Earth as a ghost and still roams the streets of Moscow alongside her free-drifting descendants. While shooting this film, the directors little by little realised that they knew the street dogs only as part of our human world; they have never looked at humans as a part of the dogs’ world.

Mysterious Crash of Flight 201

US federal investigators are called in to determine the cause of a mysterious jetliner crash in Panama. Nothing about the accident makes sense, until a key clue emerges.

Apollo 11 : Retour vers la lune

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The Real Top Gun

The 2022 film "Top Gun: Maverick" continues the adventures of the ace fighter pilot made famous by Tom Cruise. But how true to life is the fictional story to the real Naval Fighter Weapons School? TOPGUN flight instructors take us inside the most famous and prestigious training program in the sky, where only the top 5% of U.S. naval aviators are accepted. We reveal the tactics and techniques taught in the classroom and in the air. We also examine how the real Navy TOPGUN came to be, an origin story that is truly stranger than fiction.

Homo Spatius

Can Homo sapiens evolve into Homo spatius? For over 50 years now, we have been testing our human nature in our effort to conquer outer space, and still 30 years away from a possible human exploration of Mars, a question remains: Can our body take such travels? Will it ever adapt? Combining human adventure and the exploration of the human body, this film offers unique insights into the physical and psychological effects of space travel on the Astronauts and measures the impact on medical sciences.

400 Years of the Telescope

A documentary chronicling the history of the telescope from the time of Galileo. Featuring interviews with leading scientists discussing Galileo's first use of the telescope to the latest discoveries in cosmology.