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Episode 2

Helen Keen's It Is Rocket Science Series 2
Episode 2 of 4

The 1950s plan to build a nuclear-powered spaceship, Project Orion. Quirky true history with Peter Serafinowicz. From May 2012.

Comic but informative look at the history of space exploration:

The role that leaps of the imagination have played in the science of rocketry, including the strange story of Russian Cosmism, and how their mission to bring back to life everyone who has ever lived produced pioneering work on multi-stage rockets

Plus the even stranger story of a plan in the 1950s for a giant spaceship capable of carrying a hundred and fifty people that could have been built using existing technology - Project Orion. There was just one snag - it was to be fuelled by nuclear bombs.

Starring:

Helen Keen
Peter Serafinowicz
Susy Kane

Written by Helen Keen and Miriam Underhill.

Producer: Gareth Edwards.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2012.

15 minutes

Last on

Wed 31 Jan 2024 23:30
BBC Radio 4 Extra

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Credits

Performer Helen Keen
Actor Peter Serafinowicz
Actor Susy Kane
Producer Gareth Edwards
Writer Helen Keen
Writer Miriam Underhill

Broadcasts

  • Wed 23 May 2012 23:00
    BBC Radio 4
  • Wed 9 Oct 2013 23:15
    BBC Radio 4
  • Mon 18 Jan 2016 23:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 19 Jan 2016 09:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Thu 1 Jun 2017 22:30
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Sat 6 Nov 2021 23:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Wed 31 Jan 2024 23:30
    BBC Radio 4 Extra