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

The world is on the brink of nuclear war. How can the Soviet Union and the USA prevent it? Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders President John F Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Together Nina and Max explore what drove JFK and Khrushchev during the darkest days of October 1962. And when the crisis moves beyond their control as a U-2 spy plane is shot down over Cuba, how do they avoid global catastrophe?Released from 1st December. Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.

A double life implodes. Fuchs faces judge and jury, but will he confess? A future as an eminent physicist is slipping away. And the friends who took him in as a young scientist are blindsided - they want answers. But first he must face the court. #thebomb

The interrogation of a spymaster. Ursula is questioned as Klaus Fuchs returns to England. Secrets threaten to be spilled and loyalties are tested. The war has ended, and the physicist could have a promising future. But will his past catch up with him? Could British intelligence services be on to him? #thebomb

A double life gets more dangerous. Fuchs joins America's bomb project and the race with Russia is on. But as the nuclear mission ramps up, security tightens too. Now at the heart of the mission, his skills in science and espionage are tested to the limit. #thebomb

The fate of the world is decided: Klaus Fuchs joins a top-secret atomic mission. The race to build the bomb is on. In Birmingham, England, Klaus Fuchs is working on “TUBE ALLOYS” – the codename for the British atomic bomb project. But at the same time, he’s slipping secrets to the Soviets. Host Rosa Ellis finds out how he did it. #thebomb

The man who stole the atomic bomb. And why he did it. Klaus Fuchs was a talented scientist - but he was also a Soviet spy. He worked on the British American atomic bomb project, whilst handing nuclear secrets to the Russians. Host Rosa Ellis uncovers the double lives of Klaus Fuchs and her great-aunt Ursula. #thebomb

"She was not just a spy - she was a spymaster". The family secret of Rosa Ellis, host of season 2 of The Bomb. Emily Strasser takes us behind the scenes of this espionage thriller, as Rosa talks about her great-aunt's double life. Season 2 begins on 9 July 2022.