13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II

42 episodes

Artemis II: 1. Why humans are returning to the Moon
2026-03-30 | 46 mins.
Nasa’s Artemis II mission looks set to launch towards the Moon on April 1st, after months of delays.
Presenters Tim Peake and Maggie Aderin are joined by space journalist Kristin Fisher and BBC News Science Editor Rebecca Morelle for the latest updates from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
And more than 50 years on from the last lunar crewed mission, why is Nasa returning to the Moon now? And what is the international context? Journalist and author Tim Marshall calls in to discuss the new space race.
Join us as we follow the Artemis II mission every day for the next two weeks.
13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II is a BBC Audio Science production for the BBC World Service.
13 Minutes Season 4 theme music is by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.
Presenters: Tim Peake and Maggie Aderin
Producers: Alex Mansfield and Sophie Ormiston
Series editor: Martin Smith
Artemis II: Update: Aiming for April
2026-03-17 | 2 mins.
Artemis II is “on track” to launch in April. And so are we – with our brand-new season of 13 Minutes, which will start a couple of days before lift off. Astronaut Tim Peake is co-presenting 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II and has the latest news. The mission had been set to begin in early March, but a helium leak was discovered. Nasa says it's confident the problem has been fixed. Now, the earliest possible launch date is 1 April.
The mission is set to see astronauts flying around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Tim spent 186 days at the International Space Station, so what’s it like to be an astronaut waiting for lift off? What final preparations are made? And what determines the launch date?
13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II will take off two days before the launch. Tim will be joined by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock and US space journalist Kristin Fisher to bring you a space story in real time. Every day of the mission, the team will have the latest news, key details about the rocket and the crew, and they’ll hear from the people who’re making it all happen.
Join us later this month as we travel together towards the far side of the Moon.
Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.
Artemis II: Trailer: The new mission to the Moon
2026-02-17 | 4 mins.
The countdown is on to 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II, following Nasa’s mission to loop around the Moon. We’ll have an Artemis II episode every day. Nasa is hoping to return to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century. The story of Artemis II will be told by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock, British astronaut Tim Peake, and US space journalist Kristin Fisher. Strap yourself in for another epic journey from the BBC’s space podcast, 13 Minutes. The Artemis II mission aims to send four astronauts – on a spacecraft called Orion - to loop around the Moon. They plan to go further from Earth than any human in history. Orion’s crew is scheduled to be Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II will begin around two days before the launch.
Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.
What to listen to next: History’s Toughest Heroes
2025-10-22 | 28 mins.
13 Minutes will return with a new season in 2026 but in the meantime, we recommend History’s Toughest Heroes. The actor Ray Winstone tells stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge. These are tales of fearsome heroes from across history including arctic explorers, medieval knights and Hollywood stuntwomen. This episode is about an arctic explorer, trapped in a snow drift the size of a coffin. How will he survive frostbite and make it out alive?
Please note, this episode contains some vivid descriptions of what it is like to have frostbite.

To listen to more episodes of History’s Toughest Heroes, search wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
The Space Shuttle: 10. Return to flight
2025-09-15 | 32 mins.
The space shuttle is back. Discovery stands waiting on launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center. It has taken more than two years to get here. Nasa has listened and changed. After all these months of work, this should be one of the safest missions ever flown.
But as Discovery finally rises skyward, the Challenger disaster is on everyone’s mind. There are unspoken questions about the very future of spaceflight.
Some scenes in this series use recreated sound effects.
13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle is a BBC Audio Science Unit production for the BBC World Service.
Hosted by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock.
Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg, and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.
Archive:
Return to flight, Nasa Archives, 1988
Ronald Reagan speaks at STS-4 launch, Reagan Library, 1982
STS-26 coverage, CNN, CBS News, BBC, 1988
Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office

About 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II

NEW: Artemis and the return to the Moon. The BBC’s space podcast is following Artemis II, with an episode every day during the mission. Nasa plans to return to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century and the next step is Artemis II. The mission aims to send four astronauts – on a spacecraft called Orion - to loop around the Moon. They plan to go further from Earth than any human in history. The story of Artemis II is being told by space scientist, Maggie Aderin, and British astronaut, Tim Peake. They are joined by expert contributors, US space journalist Kristin Fisher and the BBC News Science Editor, Rebecca Morelle. Orion’s crew is Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. The last crewed mission to The Moon was Apollo 17 in 1972.13 Minutes is the BBC’s space podcast, telling epic space stories. It’s produced by the BBC Audio Science Unit for the BBC World Service. Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.Previous seasons:Season 1: 13 Minutes to the Moon. The first Moon landing. In the final dramatic 13-minute descent to the Moon, the Apollo 11 mission came close to going badly wrong. Communication was breaking down, technology was failing and fuel was running out. This is the story of how the first Moon landing was saved. Presented by Kevin Fong.Season 2: Apollo 13. Apollo 13 should have been the third Moon landing, but after an explosion, it almost ended in tragedy. Told by the people who flew it and saved it. Presented and co-written by Kevin Fong.Season 3: The Space Shuttle. A sci-fi dream that changed spaceflight forever. From the boldest test flight in history to one of Nasa’s darkest days – the Challenger disaster. Space scientist Maggie Aderin tells the awe-inspiring story of the programme that brought triumph and tragedy. Some scenes in this series use recreated sound effects.

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