Space Men

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

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Space Men

Season 28 Episode 6 | 52m 9s | CC

In the 1950s and early '60s, a small band of high-altitude pioneers exposed themselves to the extreme forces of the space age long before NASA's acclaimed Mercury 7 would make headlines. Though largely forgotten today, balloonists were the first to venture into the frozen near-vacuum on the edge of our world, exploring the very limits of human physiology and human ingenuity in this lethal realm.

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Funding for Season 28 of American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS stations. Additional funding for Space Men provided by The Yawkey Foundations.

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