October Sky

20th Anniversary of the October Revolution. Sergei Prokofiev's epic cantata, telling the story of the Bolshevik revolution and the birth of the Soviet Union.

Chris and Maggie look back at some of the stories they have covered in 2021 in the Sky at Night's big review of the year.

Mercury, unique amongst the planets, is shrinking. And that's only the beginning of how strange the solar system's smallest planet is. In October 2018 a new mission to Mercury was launched - BepiColombo. It's a spacecraft consisting of two separate orbiters. Together, these hope to achieve the most complete exploration of Mercury to date. Since its launch, the spacecraft has been hurtling through space towards the inner solar system on an arduous seven-year journey that includes nine fly-bys of other planets. Its destination is dangerous: Mercury has some of the most extreme conditions in the Solar System.

In October 2017, astronomers made a spectacular discovery - they spotted the first ever object to visit our solar system from outer space. They gave it a suitably exotic name… 'Oumuamua. Its discovery set off a hurricane of press speculation and a major scientific investigation. To investigate this spectacular astronomical detective story, The Sky at Night goes to Queen's University in Belfast, which has become the centre of scientific research on this cosmic visitor. When they first spotted it, all scientists knew was that it was small, it was travelling fast, and it came from outside our solar system.

From foot soldiers to fighter pilots, step into the shoes of those who fought for one of the largest armies in history. This series highlights ordinary foot soldiers, intelligence officers, mine pickers, gunners, tank men, marines, alpine and airborne raiders and fighter and attack aviation pilots whose role in the Allied victory over the Nazis played a crucial part in the war effort. Using the latest computer graphics and technology, viewers witness the combat equipment design, tactics and strategy of conducting a battle. Rare newsreel shots and the reconstruction of the events allow viewers to feel they are being transported back to the battlegroud, allowing them to see war through a soldier's eyes.

On 22nd June 1941, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa–the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia. Four million troops, backed by 19 panzer divisions, fought their way east, confident of total victory within a just few short months. They were wrong.

A dramatic non-fiction series, Air Crash Investigations (known also as MAYDAY) investigates recent high-profile air disasters to uncover how and why they happened. Air Crash Investigations takes viewers on board six different flights in trouble, recreating the tension and the pressure in the cockpit and cabin. These expertly crafted dramatic reenactments are based on transcripts from recovered flight data recorders.

Unravelling the events that led to two modern passenger jets falling out of the sky, and why the story of the fastest-selling aircraft in Boeing's history ended in tragedy. On 29 October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea, and all 189 people on board died. Less than five months later, on 10 March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX also crashed, and the 157 people on board were all killed. The documentary examines the crash reports to explore how these catastrophes could have been avoided, using state-of-the-art flight simulation and vivid CGI sequences to chart the flights' final moment.

Unravelling the events that led to two modern passenger jets falling out of the sky, and why the story of the fastest-selling aircraft in Boeing's history ended in tragedy. On 29 October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea, and all 189 people on board died. Less than five months later, on 10 March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX also crashed, and the 157 people on board were all killed. The documentary examines the crash reports to explore how these catastrophes could have been avoided, using state-of-the-art flight simulation and vivid CGI sequences to chart the flights' final moment.