Television

Step Inside the Apollo 11 spacecraft and relive its historic journey

WLRN Public Media

Published April 25, 2026 at 9:00 PM EDT

The story of the Apollo 11 mission as told in the voices of the first men to set foot on the Moon. Using dramatic reconstruction, declassified cockpit audio recorded by the astronauts themselves and film archive, this is the untold story of the first Moon landing.

9pm Thursday 8 DAYS TO THE MOON AND BACK - Documentary
Join Apollo 11 on its historic journey. The film seamlessly blends mission audio featuring conversations among Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins with new footage, NASA archive and stunning CGI to recreate the first moon landing.

8 Days to The Moon and Back

Apollo 11’s journey is brought to life with crucial scenes recreated. From the exhilarating launch, the first sight of the moon, the dramatic touchdown and nail-biting journey home. Original archive footage from the Apollo program is combined with newly shot film and cinematic CGI to create the ultimate documentary of the ultimate human adventure.

In the ongoing exploration of space, we turn to a compelling “what if” scenario in the documentary First Contact.

10:30pm FIRST CONTACT: AN ALIEN ENCOUNTER - Documentary
The dramatic story of an encounter with an extraterrestrial artifact and explores the new tools we have available in the search for life beyond earth.

First Contact: An Alien Encounter

In the last 20 years, new technologies have dramatically improved our ability to see and hear the universe around us. We've built networks of radio telescopes to scan the stars for signals and discovered over 50 potentially habitable worlds in the milky way galaxy alone. As a result, many leading scientists now believe there's a genuine possibility we may soon detect the first evidence of extraterrestrial life.

First Contact offers up an exploration of just what might happen in this unprecedented scenario. Using a collage of fictional podcasts, media feeds and international news programs, this 21st century "War of the Worlds" tells the dramatic story of an encounter with an extraterrestrial artifact traveling through our solar system over the course of 12 days and explores how the world responds.

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