Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race

Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race

7.417

2014-10-13

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.

Watch Trailer

OVERVIEW
VIDEOS
PHOTOS
WATCH
Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race

Storyline

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.

Released

2014-10-13

Runtime

90

Director

Michael Lachmann

Budget

$0

Revenue

$0

Genres

Documentary

Language

English

Production

BBC

Casts

  • Image 2

    Paul McGann

    Paul McGann