Atomic Age Declassified

The bombing of Japan, the Soviet's "First Lightning" test, and America's H-bomb detonations were powerful signs that the Nuclear Age was upon us. But as recently declassified files reveal, explosive events were also carried out in secret. Discover how far the U.S. government went to protect its Cold War intel and how close the world came to total annihilation. From the framing of Ethel Rosenberg to radiation experiments on unsuspecting civilians, this is a grim look at the quieter side of the Atomic Age.

In the SPIES IN SPACE episode, we see that sometimes, secrecy did have its benefits. Just two years ago, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) declassified a top-secret 1960s program to put a manned spy platform into orbit. It was called MOL, a fitting acronym for the secretive Manned Orbiting Laboratory. While Apollo got all the attention and the glory in its race to the Moon, the men and women behind MOL worked in the shadows to give America the eyes and ears it needed to navigate an increasingly dangerous world. After 50 years of secrecy, SPIES IN SPACE will be the first television program to weave together rarely seen footage from America’s secret spy satellite systems with interviews from experts and MOL crew members themselves to tell the story of the space race’s unsung heroes.

The FILMING THE BOMB episode reveals the ways cameras became as important as the weapons themselves. In 2017, the U.S. released films from a generation of nuclear tests -- allowing scientists to study the last images of thermonuclear explosions we hope we’ll ever see. But just getting them took years of trying – and dozens of nuclear explosions. In Los Angeles, a secret film studio, Lookout Mountain, staffed by Hollywood professionals, produced countless films aimed at diverse audiences from policymakers to soldiers, scientists to civilians. The goal: convince anyone who will listen – including themselves – that they knew how to wield this new power. Many of these films are being made public for the first time ever, shedding new light on one of the darkest and most dangerous times in history. New waves of declassified films, photographs and documents are telling us more than we ever knew about the Cold War.