Canada

United States

Northern Mariana Islands

Puerto Rico

American Samoa

Guam

U.S. Virgin Islands

U.S. Minor Outlying Islands

US, US Territories, Canada

US & Territories

(This program is no longer available for streaming.) Jupiter is not just the oldest planet orbiting the sun—it’s also the largest. So when the young gas giant went on a rampage through the inner solar system, it shaped the fate of everything in its path. Speeding towards the Sun, Jupiter’s massive gravitational force hurled debris into interstellar space, stunting the growth of would-be planets. Earth might have been doomed had Saturn not pulled Jupiter back. Today, Jupiter resides in the outer solar system, where its gravity bends the paths of asteroids and stokes volcanic activity on its moon Io. But it could one day wreak havoc again. (Premiered July 31, 2019).

Jupiter's massive gravitational force has made it both a wrecking ball and a protector of Earth.

The Planets: Jupiter

Rockets are becoming cheaper and more powerful than ever before thanks to stunning new technologies. As companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic make space more accessible, and NASA returns to crewed spaceflight, a new era of space exploration seems to be on the horizon. But will this seeming rocket Renaissance become more than just hype? NOVA explores the latest rocket technologies and the growing role private citizens may have in space. (Premiered February 13, 2019)

With new technologies, NASA and private companies are promising a new renaissance in space travel.

Rise of the Rockets

Black holes are the most enigmatic and exotic objects in the universe. They’re also the most powerful, with gravity so strong it can trap light. And they’re destructive, swallowing entire planets, even giant stars. Anything that falls into them vanishes…gone forever. Now, astrophysicists are realizing that black holes may be essential to how our universe evolved—their influence possibly leading to life on Earth and, ultimately, us. In this two-hour special, astrophysicist and author Janna Levin takes viewers on a journey to the frontiers of black hole science. Along the way, we meet leading astronomers and physicists on the verge of finding new answers to provocative questions about these shadowy monsters: Where do they come from? What’s inside? What happens if you fall into one? And what can they tell us about the nature of space, time, and gravity? (Premiered January 10, 2018)

Take a mind-blowing voyage to the most powerful and mysterious objects in the universe.

Black Hole Apocalypse

Spacecraft passing in front of the moon with the Earth in the background

Return to the Moon

Follow the Artemis mission to bring humanity back to the Moon for the first time since Apollo.
A half-century after American astronauts walked on the Moon, NASA and its international partners are taking the dream of Apollo a giant step further. In the coming years, the Artemis missions – named after Apollo&#x27;s twin sister in Greek mythology – aim to bring astronauts back to the Moon and establish a lunar space station for scientific and commercial exploration. Follow the four members of the Artemis II crew as they embark on a perilous 10-day journey to orbit the Moon, venturing beyond Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo and farther into the Solar System than any humans have gone before. And get an inside look at the preparations needed to overcome the extreme engineering challenges of human-crewed spaceflight, all the way from launch to splashdown. &quot;Return to the Moon&quot; will be available shortly after the completion of the Artemis II mission&quot;

Follow the Artemis mission to bring humanity back to the Moon for the first time since Apollo.

The Failure That Led to the Columbia Tragedy

A small piece of insulation caused catastrophic damage.
During the construction of the ISS, tragedy struck the Space Shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew.
The Failure That Led to the Columbia TragedyPublished: December 10, 2025NARRATOR: After more than two weeks conducting experiments in orbit, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on reentry, killing all seven crew members.ROBERT CURBEAM: Those were my friends. I knew them personally. I knew them professionally. Some of them were in my class. I miss them every day. It caused us to lose seven very incredible people. And believe me, they were incredible.CREW: This is amazing. It&#x27;s really getting really bright out there. Yup. Yeah, you definitely don&#x27;t want to be outside now.ROBERT CURBEAM: The Columbia disaster we later found out was due to foam shedding off of the external tank.NARRATOR: During launch, a falling piece of insulating foam struck the shuttle&#x27;s left wing, damaging the thermal protection tiles designed to shield it from extreme heat during reentry.ROBERT CURBEAM: And what that did was that allowed very hot plasma to get inside of the wing and basically melt the inner structure of the spacecraft.NARRATOR: Test simulations back on the ground reveal the devastating impact of this seemingly small briefcase size chunk of foam traveling at high speed.

A small piece of insulation caused catastrophic damage.

How Astronauts Avoided Disaster Building the International Space Station

A dangerous spacewalk, a toxic leak, and a breathtaking view of Earth.
Astronauts faced a life-threatening challenge during construction of the International Space Station.
How Astronauts Avoided Disaster Building the International Space StationPublished: December 9, 2025NARRATOR: 250 miles above the surface of the earth, astronauts Tom Jones and Robert Beamer Curbeam prepare for an extra vehicular activity. A spacewalk. Just over two years into construction of the International Space Station, the structure is far from complete. The Space Shuttle Atlantis has brought up a new component. The laboratory module destiny. Tom and Beamer need to connect vital life support systems to enable astronauts to live and work in the lab. They are working in a lethally dangerous environment, and suddenly something goes wrong. A coolant valve fails, spewing toxic ammonia crystals into the vacuum of space.ROBERT CURBEAM: Getting a lot of ice. Cutting bony all over the place.NARRATOR: Years of training mean Beamer remains calm, but it&#x27;s a serious problem.TOM JONES: Need a hand, Beam?ROBERT CURBEAM: Yeah, I am going to need one.TOM JONES: We don&#x27;t know exactly what the leak rate was, but I knew we didn&#x27;t have long.NARRATOR: Beamer needs to find the shutoff valve upstream and turn it off.ROBERT CURBEAM: I did find very quickly that it was going to be a lot harder than I thought.NARRATOR: The valve is stuck.ROBERT CURBEAM: When I tried to close it didn&#x27;t close. I tried again, it didn&#x27;t close. They said it was going to be about 25 lbs of force. I&#x27;ve spent a lot of time in the gym. It was not 25 lbs of force. It was much, much more. I tried to close it again, and finally after four or five tries, I got to close it.TOM JONES: Just pulled the bail?ROBERT CURBEAM: Yeah. And that stopped the leak.TOM JONES: Very good, Beam. Good idea.NARRATOR: Mission control breathes a sigh of relief. With the leak stopped...... the astronauts can connect Destiny&#x27;s cooling lines to the station. The ISS is safe, but now Beamer is covered in toxic ammonia.TOM JONES: And sooner or later he&#x27;s got to come back in the cabin and expose the outside of the suit to his crewmates who are not interested in dying horrible deaths.ROBERT CURBEAM: I thought to myself, &quot;What are they going to do with me, now that I have this toxin on the outside of the suit?&quot; I knew that the procedure to go back into the spacecraft was going to change. I just didn&#x27;t know how.NARRATOR: Tom wipes the toxic crystals off his crewmate&#x27;s spacesuit, using a brush in their EVA kit. But before he can reenter the space station, Beamer must burn the last remaining traces of ammonia off his suit in the baking heat of the sun.ROBERT CURBEAM: The amazing thing about the procedure to help me decontaminate the outside of my space suit, was that it gave me the opportunity to just sit in the sun and watch the earth go by, for 45 minutes, which was awesome and it was incredible. I loved it. And you see the Gobi Desert, you see all the different parts of Asia, you see the Himalayas to the south, you see a little bit of cloud layer there, and you just bask in it.

A dangerous spacewalk, a toxic leak, and a breathtaking view of Earth.

Signs of Life on Mars? NASA's Discovery, Explained

NASA’s Perseverance rover may have found the clearest signs of ancient life on Mars yet.
Billions of years ago, Mars’ Jezero Crater held a lake fed by rivers that could have carried minerals and maybe even organic matter. On Earth, places like that are teeming with microbial life.
Signs of Life on Mars? NASA&#x27;s Discovery, ExplainedPublished: September 23, 2025NARRATOR: This speckled rock could be evidence of ancient life on Mars. NASA called it,SEAN DUFFY: The clearest sign of life that we have ever found.NARRATOR: Scientists say that traces of minerals here could have been left behind by ancient microbial life, maybe after a meal, about three and a half billion years ago, a time when primitive life was thriving on Earth.Using tools on the Perseverance Mars Rover, scientists were able to analyze the chemical makeup of the rock. These teeny tiny dark specks, NASA are calling them poppy seeds, contain vivianite, an iron phosphate mineral. And these areas, nicknamed leopard spots, have vivianite in the dark ring, but in the center contain greigite, an iron sulfide mineral.The rock itself is also rich in organic carbon, sulfur, oxidized iron, which is rust, and phosphorus. And the combination of these could have been a rich energy source for microbes. But there is a possibility the minerals in this martian rock were created by non-living sources.To know for sure, NASA will have to rule out all other geological and chemical processes. And to do that, researchers hope to one day bring the samples from Mars to Earth to study them more closely.So far, the Perseverance Rover has collected more than 20 rock samples from the red planet. Further analysis here on Earth could bring us closer to answering one of the most fundamental questions for humanity: are we alone?Believe it or not, Mars was not always the cold inhospitable desert it is today. Several billion years ago, there were flowing rivers and lakes, and even an atmosphere, but over time, that atmosphere was lost, transforming the climate and the red planet&#x27;s ability to sustain life on its surface.But this area in the northern hemisphere of Mars, called Jezero Crater, has the tell-tale geographic signs of water, fan-shaped deltas. Scientists think rivers once spilled over the crater wall and created a lake. Billions of years ago, active rivers could have deposited minerals and organic molecules here. If Mars ever hosted microbial life, this was the place to look.In 2021, the Perseverance Mars Rover landed in Jezero crater. This crater has some of the oldest rocks in the solar system. And in 2024, the rover found this speckled rock in an ancient river valley called Neretva Vallis in an area known as the Bright Angel Rock formation. But notably, this rock outcrop is younger than most of the other samples the rover has taken, possibly suggesting that the conditions for life could have lasted longer than we thought.Since then, scientists have been trying to understand more about this area of Jezero Crater, and rule out all the possible origins of these minerals. It&#x27;s possible these minerals did not come from microbes, but researchers haven&#x27;t been able to find any evidence of that yet. The rock doesn&#x27;t show signs of extreme heat or acidity that could have been responsible for the compounds.Past missions have found hints of life before, like methane spikes or hints of organic molecules. But the standard of proof for a major discovery like this, life on another planet, is high. NASA actually has a scale to assess confidence. The CoLD scale, which stands for &quot;Confidence of Life Detection,&quot; and this discovery sits at about a two out of seven.So has Perseverance definitely found life on Mars? No, not yet. But this discovery is one of the strongest clues so far. Bits of chemistry and context that supports habitability. It doesn&#x27;t settle the question, but it pushes us one step closer, reminding us that the story of life on Mars isn&#x27;t totally fictional. It may be written in stone.

NASA’s Perseverance rover may have found the clearest signs of ancient life on Mars yet.

International Space Station floating above the Earth

Operation Space Station: Science and Survival

See how ingenuity and teamwork keep the crew alive and doing science 250 miles above Earth.

Operation Space Station

Experience dramatic life-or-death moments on the remarkable science lab that orbits Earth.
The size of a football field, the International Space Station hurtles around Earth at 17,000 mph, shielding its astronauts from the most hostile environment humans have ever endured. After 25 years of continuous human presence in space, astronauts and Mission Control insiders reveal the most terrifying moments aboard this remarkable orbiting laboratory, where a single mistake could prove fatal. From ammonia leaks, meteor strikes, and docking disasters, to spacewalk horrors, potentially lethal showers of space junk, and the moment the entire ISS backflipped out of control, follow life-or-death dramas unfolding 250 miles above our planet – and the human ingenuity and teamwork that save the day. (A two-part series premiering November 5, 2025 at 9 pm on PBS)

Experience dramatic life-or-death moments on the remarkable science lab that orbits Earth.

Operation Space Station: High-Risk Build

Astronauts and Mission Control relive terrifying moments during construction of the ISS.

Topic: Space & Flight

Hero Feature