“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.”
— Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, pioneer of Astronautic Theory
Laika, the famous first dog in space is shown in both black and white and colour footage, and her two successors Belka and Streka are shown before and after their return from space.
Earlier this year in July, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 voyage. Now it’s winter, and the night sky draws in earlier each evening, we’re once again looking to the skies for our footage inspiration.
From Soviet Cosmonaut programme to the Astronaut training course in the US, both Buzz Aldrin and Yuri Gagarin are shown going through the motions – not for the faint-hearted!
Humanity’s space travel efforts spotlight the enormous ambition and drive for exploration we all share. Like any experiment, there are successes and unfortunate failures. While visions of the future tend to date, the space race highlights how an element of competition can accelerate the rate of discovery; many of these achievements were considerably ahead of their time.
Contemporary footage of space monitoring technology, such as large radio telescopes against a variety of backdrops.
From Soviet propaganda and laboratory footage to US Cartoons about the potential of space flight, a variety of cartoons and animations are held in the archive.
For a mix of science and technology that is both out of this world and firmly down to Earth, look no further than our Science Showreel: Glimpses of past innovations and futuristic visions.
Our archive of exclusive footage clips is growing all the time so there is always something new to discover.
We offer free research, so please contact us if you need help sourcing anything from the archive.