The Bomb

A brand new season of the BBC’s space podcast explores the story of the revolutionary Hubble Space Telescope and the tiny flaw that almost destroyed the dream. This is the first episode in the season, to listen to more just search 13 Minutes wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
In this episode, our view of the universe could be transformed by one of the most ambitious scientific instruments ever built but a terrible disaster strikes Nasa. After decades of meticulous planning, will the Hubble Space Telescope make it into space?
Nasa believes the telescope is capable of doing the impossible: peering deeper into the universe than ever before and unlocking some of its greatest secrets. But Hubble is delicate and extraordinarily complex and it will be Astronaut Kathy Sullivan’s responsibility to help get it into space, no matter what.
Archive: Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office
Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg, and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.
13 Minutes: Trouble with Hubble is a BBC Audio Science Unit production for the BBC World Service.
Presenter: Dame Dr Maggie Aderin
Series producer: Harrison Lewis
Sound design: Tony Churnside
Series editor: Ilan Goodman
Senior commissioning producer: Katy Davis
Commissioning editor: Jon Manel

Can Khrushchev and Kennedy stop a spiral into nuclear devastation? Khrushchev realises he has lost control of the crisis, as an American plane is shot down over Cuba. With the Americans preparing for war, can the two leaders communicate quickly enough to avoid it? Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, reflect on what might have been, in this extraordinary chapter in 20th Century history.

Soviet anti-aircraft fire takes down an American spy plane over Cuba, as the crisis spirals. The pilot is killed. With nuclear missiles almost ready for launch in Cuba, how can the two superpower leaders pull back from the brink of war? This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.

Troops in Cuba fear an attack is imminent, as alarm grows around the world. Fidel Castro urges Khrushchev to strike first. The Soviet premier warns President Kennedy, in a long and emotional letter, that “the knot of war” has been tied - soon "even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it”. This is the personal and political story of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.

President Kennedy sends shockwaves around the world with a televised speech to the nation. He imposes a blockade on all ships bound for Cuba - Premier Khrushchev brands it “an act of piracy”. But he knows that hidden in a tiny Cuban port, there’s a Soviet ship laden with unimaginable destructive power. Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.