Discovery Channel Canada announced today that it will air an original Canadian presentation – NEIL ARMSTRONG: THE LEGACY (working title) – paying tribute to the iconic astronaut, the first person to walk on the moon. Premiering Thursday, August 30 at 8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel, and anchored by DAILY PLANET co-hosts Ziya Tong and Dan Riskin, the one-hour special – conceived and produced in-house by Exploration Production Inc. (EPI) – will feature legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin along with leading space experts and historians looking at the iconic explorer’s legacy, Apollo 11’s contribution to science and technology and the next frontier: is there a future for human’s in space?
Highlights from NEIL ARMSTRONG: THE LEGACY (wt) will include:
- The Mission: A first-person account of what it felt like for the Apollo 11 astronauts. History’s most legendary spaceflight…as told by the crew themselves.
- The Legacy of Apollo: The legacy of the Apollo program is still felt four decades later. Its technology and design – cutting edge at the time – is still helping carve space travel to this day.
- The Neil Armstrong Museum: Ziya Tong goes behind-the-scenes to check out Ohio’s Armstrong Air and Space Museum. Tong meets up with the Museum’s recently retired manager John Zwez, who knew Neil Armstrong all of his life. Zwez talks about Armstrong’s legacy and his impact on the community. Then, Tong gets close up with the Museum’s one-of-a-kind artifacts, including the Gemini VIII spacecraft, Armstrong’s Gemini and Apollo spacesuits, and an Apollo 11 moon rock.
- Archiving Apollo: Richard Nafzger isn’t a TV guy. He’s the TV guy. Nafzger is the man responsible for setting up the Apollo mission broadcasts and for beaming out Armstrong and Aldrin to the world – but the project isn’t quite over yet… In 2006, never-before-seen footage of the Apollo 11 mission was discovered, and ever since, Nafzger and the team from Reliance Restoration have been re-mastering the original star trek.
- The Next Frontier: In the last years of his life, Armstrong was a strong advocate for manned non-commercial space travel and was extremely critical of the U.S. government’s space priorities and handling of NASA. Former astronaut Gene Cernan sits down to talk about his friend’s personal quest and into the ongoing debate of manned vs. robotic space travel.
- The Race to Return: British astrophysicist Ian Crawford shares his thoughts on the future of Moon exploration – from probes, to rovers and a possible newly manned mission – find out what governments in China, Canada and the U.S. are planning.
NEIL ARMSTRONG: THE LEGACY (wt) is executive produced by Kelly McKeown for Exploration Production Inc. in association with Discovery Channel Canada and Science Channel U.S.
August 30th edit: The name of the show is now: A Tribute To Neil Armstrong and it will premiere as expected on august 30th at 8pm ET. It will repeat at 1am the same night and at 1pm on august 31st.
