Man, Moment, Machine -- History Channel - Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - 10:00 p.m. (EDT)

Ok, I admit it -- I'm still a bit of a NASA junkie. It goes back to remembering the early days of Mercury and Apollo a/k/a the heyday of spaceflight, when we actually knew the astronauts' names. Yes, I was a space geek, and so I remember that April morning when Apollo 13 blasted off on still another visit to the moon - the second since Apollo 11 less than a year earlier. I was 14 and remember to this day Walter Cronkite's words as the rocket rose into the sky, "It's a beauty. It's another beauty." At least it WAS until 178,000 miles later, when an explosion nearly ended the astronauts' lives and began an odyssey of scientists desperately trying to return the three explorers to Earth. In this season premiere of Man, Moment, Machine, we get to relive the anxious days that brought the astronauts home safe and sound.