Pictured (l-r): Al Crews, Richard Truly, Richard E. Lawyer, James M. Taylor, Francis G. Neubeck, Michal J. Adams, Lachlan Macleay and John L. Finley

NOVA

AstroSpies

Premieres tonight at 9:30 p.m. following UConn vs. Georgetown

While NASA astronauts were captivating the world with the Apollo lunar landings, the U.S.was engaged in a top-secret military manned space program. Now, investigative author Jim Bamford (acclaimed author of The Puzzle Palace) probes the untoldstory of the elite corps of clandestine astronauts who were never told of the true purpose of their training program. Bamford travels to Russia to reveal the secrets of the Soviet response — the prototypes of the “Almaz” military space stations that, if deployed, might have led to a Cold War showdown in outer space.

William Boeing in 1919, having just completed the first international mail flight from Vancouver, B.C. to Seattle.

PIONEERS IN AVIATION

The Race to the Moon

Premieres tonight at 10:30 p.m.

This program documents the era of the 1950s and 1960s, as post-war America finds itself locked in an ideological struggle with the Soviet Union -- an adversary whose philosophy promised the destruction of capitalism. In 1957, the Soviet launch of Sputnik suddenly shifted the Cold War battlefield to space and heralded the decade-long Race to the Moon. As did his predecessors, President Kennedy turns to the captains of his Aviation Industry – now in the autumn of their years – with the century's greatest aerospace challenge.