BBC America 1-hour documentary with Top Gear star premieres Tuesday, November 10th, 8pm ET/PT **** Four Stars
By Robin Rowe

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/5/2009 – “Going to space changed the way we look at the Earth,” says Top Gear presenter James May, who’s taking a look at the moon missions forty years later. “At 46 I’m too old, too unfit and too long-haired to ever know what it would be to be an astronaut. The U-2 is the peak of 50s aviation from the dawn of the space age. The Air Force has offered to take me up to 70,000 feet where I’ll be able to look into the blackness of space.”

Top Gear presenter James May fulfills a childhood dream of flying to the edge of space. Driven by a passion for technology, May seeks out the astronauts and the engineering heroes of the space race, the few who flew and built the machines that may be man’s greatest technological achievement.

“NASA’s first space suits were based on the ones worn by U-2 pilots,” says May. He has three days to prepare for his flight in the U-2. That includes experiencing weightlessness on G-Force One, more commonly known as the “vomit comet”. Before his first flight, May notes hopefully that, “At no time in my life have I ever been sick on an airplane.”

May looks at the Saturn V rocket on display at NASA. It’s one of the most complex machines ever made. “This rocket has six million components, even with NASA’s target rate of 99.99% success, they could expect 6,000 parts to fail even on a good launch.”

The idea of using a multi-stage rocket to reach the moon has been around a long time. Cyrano de Bergerac wrote of it in France in 1657 in the sci-fi novel Histoire Comique de la Lune. A little more than 300 years later, it was the multi-stage Saturn V that took man to the moon.

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon as mission commander of Apollo 11. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had descended to the lunar surface in the LEM. They had 2½ hours to explore while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. The weight of the fuel necessary to return to Earth precluded landing the Command Module. It would take too much power to lift the fuel off the moon again.

May’s quest includes visits with space veterans including Charlie Duke, Alan Bean and Harrison Schmitt, one of the last to visit the moon. Forty years later, these veterans have become old men. Twelve men walked on the moon. Nine are still alive. Unless there’s a return to the moon, it won’t be long until there’s no man left alive who’s stepped foot on the moon.

Although the United States hasn’t been back to Earth’s moon, in the 21st century unmanned probes from ESA, Japan, India and China have reached the surface of the moon. The United States landed an unmanned probe on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005. Russia, India and China are interested in pursuing manned missions to the moon, but no formal plans have been announced. The obstacle is the tremendous expense of a manned moon mission. The Google Lunar X Prize offers a $20 million award for the first privately-funded team to land a robotic probe on the moon.

BBC America is premiering two more documentaries in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing in July 1969. James May On the Moon premieres Tuesday, November 10th at 8pm ET/PT. Apollo Wives premieres Tuesday, November 17th at 8pm ET/PT. Being Neil Armstrong premieres Tuesday, November 24th at 8pm ET/PT.

James May on the Moon

BBC America 1-hour documentary with Top Gear star premieres Tuesday, November 10th, 8pm ET/PT

By Robin Rowe

HOLLYWOOD, CA () 11/5/2009 – “Going to space changed the way we look at the Earth,” says Top Gear presenter James May, who’s taking a look at the moon missions forty years later. “At 46 I’m too old, too unfit and too long-haired to ever know what it would be to be an astronaut. The U-2 is the peak of 50s aviation from the dawn of the space age. The Air Force has offered to take me up to 70,000 feet where I’ll be able to look into the blackness of space.”

Top Gear presenter James May fulfills a childhood dream of flying to the edge of space. Driven by a passion for technology, May seeks out the astronauts and the engineering heroes of the space race, the few who flew and built the machines that may be man’s greatest technological achievement.

“NASA’s first space suits were based on the ones worn by U-2 pilots,” says May. He has three days to prepare for his flight in the U-2. That includes experiencing weightlessness on G-Force One, more commonly known as the “vomit comet”. Before his first flight, May notes hopefully that, “At no time in my life have I ever been sick on an airplane.”

May looks at the Saturn V rocket on display at NASA. It’s one of the most complex machines ever made. “This rocket has six million components, even with NASA’s target rate of 99.99% success, they could expect 6,000 parts to fail even on a good launch.”

The idea of using a multi-stage rocket to reach the moon has been around a long time. Cyrano de Bergerac wrote of it in France in 1657 in the sci-fi novel Histoire Comique de la Lune. A little more than 300 years later, it was the multi-stage Saturn V that took man to the moon.

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon as mission commander of Apollo 11. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had descended to the lunar surface in the LEM. They had 2½ hours to explore while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. The weight of the fuel necessary to return to Earth precluded landing the Command Module. It would take too much power to lift the fuel off the moon again.

May’s quest includes visits with space veterans including Charlie Duke, Alan Bean and Harrison Schmitt, one of the last to visit the moon. Forty years later, these veterans have become old men. Twelve men walked on the moon. Nine are still alive. Unless there’s a return to the moon, it won’t be long until there’s no man left alive who’s stepped foot on the moon.

Although the United States hasn’t been back to Earth’s moon, in the 21st century unmanned probes from ESA, Japan, India and China have reached the surface of the moon. The United States landed an unmanned probe on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005. Russia, India and China are interested in pursuing manned missions to the moon, but no formal plans have been announced. The obstacle is the tremendous expense of a manned moon mission. The Google Lunar X Prize offers a $20 million award for the first privately-funded team to land a robotic probe on the moon.

BBC America is premiering two more documentaries in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing in July 1969. James May On the Moon premieres Tuesday, November 10th at 8pm ET/PT. Apollo Wives premieres Tuesday, November 17th at 8pm ET/PT. Being Neil Armstrong premieres Tuesday, November 24th at 8pm ET/PT.