It Is Rocket Science

Helen Keen, Peter Serafinowicz and Susy Kane star in this funny, offbeat but factual expedition through the universe, boldly going where no Radio 4 comedy show has gone before.    

This 'shamelessly nerdy...deeply silly' (Radio Times) space extravaganza features fewer close-ups of Professor Brian Cox looking cool in front of a rocket than Wonders of the Universe but more weird, wonderful and occasionally woeful stories about the geniuses, Nazis and Satanists who plotted to propel humankind to the stars. Find out the many and varied ways to leave the planet as It Is Rocket Science takes you on a 'gleefully irreverent' (The Scotsman) whistle-stop comic tour of the Great Brains who put monkeys, ladies, dogs and gentlemen into orbit.    

Discover the daring Mercury 13 women - the astronauts and moonwalkers that never were; hear the adventures of Felix the French Space Cat; raise your eyebrows at the career trajectory of Wernher von Braun, from Nazi to Disney to NASA; meet the man who (metaphorically) connects rocket fuel to Aleister Crowley; explore your options in case an asteroid is heading directly your way; and discover some of the more surprising suggestions scientists have advanced for how to get in touch with life on other planets, from giant burning parallelograms in the Sahara to sending nude pictures into space....   

The show won several major awards including The Association of British Science Writers’ Royal Society Radio Prize.  

Audio files have been updated as of January 2019.