NASA's Voyager 2 gave humanity its first glimpse of Neptune 25 years ago, in the summer of 1989. As part of that historic moment, PBS aired NEPTUNE ALL NIGHT across America's public broadcasting network. It was the first time that television carried uninterrupted coverage of deep space exploration. Produced at WHYY in Philadelphia and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, this program was designed for true science geeks.
Hosted by Ira Flatow and Derrick Pitts and featuring Jack Horkheimer, Mike Weilbacher and dozens of other science and space experts. Kids Corner Producer Robert Drake was lucky enough to be part of that production team, overseeing the viewers calls into the 800 number, all wanting to interact with the in-studio guests. In today's era, where space images are taken for granted (Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey) - it's hard to describe just how magical that overnight experience was .. but leave it to Derrick to do just that!
Enjoy these two audio clips - each about 20 minutes long (originally aired on Kids Corner/WXPN, September 4, 2014)
