Best movies like James May at the Edge of Space

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like James May at the Edge of Space Starring James May, and more. If you liked James May at the Edge of Space then you may also like: Operation Avalanche, Out of the Blue, The Right Stuff, Journey Together, Airport 1975 and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

James May at the Edge of Space is a British documentary in which television presenter James May came close to fulfilling his lifelong dream to be an astronaut by flying to the edge of space in a Lockheed U-2 spy plane. It was first aired on BBC Four on 21 June 2009 as part of commemorations of the 40th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing, and tied in with another May documentary an hour earlier on BBC Two called James May on the Moon. The programme followed May's three days of training with the United States Air Force at Beale Air Force Base in which he practised safety drills and learnt how to use a space suit correctly. With training complete, he was taken on a three-hour flight reaching an altitude of over 70,000 feet (21,000 m), piloted by instructor pilot Major John "Cabi" Cabigas.

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Operation Avalanche

In 1967, four undercover CIA agents were sent to NASA posing as a documentary film crew. What they discovered led to one of the biggest conspiracies in American history.

Out of the Blue

This documentary on The UFO Phenomenon aims to show that some UFOs may be extraterrestrial and that secrecy and ridicule are regularly employed to keep the truth about UFOs hidden.

The Right Stuff

A chronicle of the original Mercury astronauts in the formation of America's space program: Alan Shepherd, the first American in space; Gus Grissom, the benighted astronaut for whom nothing works out as planned; John Glenn, the straight-arrow 'boy scout' of the bunch who was the first American to orbit the earth; and the remaining pilots: Deke Slayton, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, and Gordon Cooper.

Journey Together

Two Englishmen (Richard Attenborough, Jack Watling) train with the Royal Air Force, ending with a bombing raid on Berlin.

Airport 1975

When an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardess Nancy Pryor is forced to take over the controls. From the ground, her boyfriend Alan Murdock, a retired test pilot, tries to talk her through piloting and landing the 747 aircraft. Worse yet, the anxious passengers — among which are a noisy nun and a cranky man — are aggravating the already tense atmosphere.

Altitude

After a mysterious malfunction sends their small plane climbing out of control, a rookie pilot and her four teenage friends find themselves trapped in a deadly showdown with a supernatural force.

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood

A man narrates stories of his life as a 10-year-old boy in 1969 Houston, weaving tales of nostalgia with a fantastical account of a journey to the moon.

Apollo 13

The true story of technical troubles that scuttle the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, risking the lives of astronaut Jim Lovell and his crew, with the failed journey turning into a thrilling saga of heroism. Drifting more than 200,000 miles from Earth, the astronauts work furiously with the ground crew to avert tragedy.

Apollo 18

Officially, Apollo 17 was the last manned mission to the moon. But a year later in 1973, three American astronauts were sent on a secret mission to the moon funded by the US Department of Defense. What you are about to see is the actual footage which the astronauts captured on that mission. While NASA denies its authenticity, others say it's the real reason we've never gone back to the moon.

Beyond the Time Barrier

In 1960, a pilot testing an experimental rocket powered aircraft accidentally flies into the future and finds himself in a sealed city whose people suspect he is a spy from outside their walls, but who want to keep him to procreate with the ruler's daughter because the majority of the inhabitants are sterile.

The Blue Max

A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.

Top Gun

For Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell and his friend and co-pilot Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete's dreams of becoming an ace pilot.

Countdown

Desperate to land a man on the moon before Russia does, NASA hastily preps a would-be spaceman for a mission that would leave him alone in a lunar shelter for a year.

First Man

A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

Sully

On 15 January 2009, the world witnessed the 'Miracle on the Hudson' when Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger glided his disabled plane onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 souls aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, an investigation was unfolding that threatened to destroy his reputation and career.

Dive Bomber

A military surgeon teams with a ranking navy flyer to develop a high-altitude suit which will protect pilots from blacking out when they go into a steep dive.

For All Mankind

A testament to NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s and '70s. Composed of actual NASA footage of the missions and astronaut interviews, the documentary offers the viewpoint of the individuals who braved the remarkable journey to the moon and back.

Astronaut

A lonely widower battles his family, ill health and time to win a competition for a golden ticket to space.

In the Shadow of the Moon

Archival material from the original NASA film footage – much of it seen for the first time – plus interviews with the surviving astronauts, including Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt.

Marooned

After spending several months in an orbiting lab, three astronauts prepare to return to Earth only to find their de-orbit thrusters won't activate. After initially thinking they might have to abandon them in orbit, NASA decides to launch a daring rescue. Their plans are complicated by a Hurricane headed towards the launch site—and a shrinking air supply in the astronauts' capsule.

Mayday at 40,000 Feet!

The co-pilot and engineer of a passenger jet struggle to keep the plane airborne after a marshal onboard, transporting a murderer to prison, has a heart attack and the killer uses his gun to shoot the captain and blow out the hydraulics.

Men of the Sky

A propaganda film, made in the early months of World War II, dramatizing a new group of U.S. Army Air Force pilots receiving their wings from Lt. General H.H. Arnold. An off-screen narrator introduces four of them to us; we see them before the war, during flight training, and in their first assignments as pilots.

Moon Zero Two

On the Moon in the year 2021, a former-astronaut-turned-salvager helps a millionaire space industrialist capture a 6000-ton sapphire asteroid, while also assisting a woman in finding her missing miner/prospector brother

Space Cowboys

Frank Corvin, ‘Hawk’ Hawkins, Jerry O'Neill and ‘Tank’ Sullivan were hotdog members of Project Daedalus, the Air Force's test program for space travel, but their hopes were dashed in 1958 with the formation of NASA and the use of trained chimps. They blackmail their way into orbit when Russia's mysterious ‘Ikon’ communications satellite's orbit begins to degrade and threatens to crash to Earth.

Air Cadet

A group of cadets have assorted problems at the U.S. Air Force Pilot Training Academy.

Necessity

A model discovers her wealthy husband is a dangerous drug dealer. She leaves him, taking along two million dollars of his money, but what she really wants is custody of their daughter. She hatches a plan to abduct her daughter and take her to safety. Meanwhile, her husband dispatches someone to find and eliminate her.

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land

Starflight One, a commercial aircraft that can whisk passengers around the globe in a matter of hours, embarks on its maiden voyage. The trip goes horribly awry, however, when the aircraft is forced out of the atmosphere and into outer space. As it is too dangerous to attempt reentry, Captain Cody Briggs, his passengers and his crew brave declining levels of oxygen while NASA scientists scramble to launch a rescue mission in a race against time.

Turbulent Skies

When a new airplane that's equipped with a new computer that can fly the plane on its own, is about to have its first flight. But the son of the owner decides to upload more software, he doesn't bother to check if there are any viruses with it. And he also invites some potential investors to try it. So the plane appears to be working well but suddenly it veers off course and it can't be shut down. When the military learns of this and fears what if something happens if it's over a populated area; decides to shoot it down along with everyone on board. The man who built the computer whose wife is among the passengers thinks if he can get on board he might be able to shut it down and regain control of the plane. So the military using a new plane gets him on board. But what he didn't know is that both pilots are incapacitated so there's no one who can fly the plane.

Air Strike

Tasked with training a group of untested new recruits, a no-nonsense Navy commander faces a host of challenges as he attempts to transform the greenhorns into a squadron of crackerjack jet pilots. Don Haggerty co-stars as the unit's second-in-command who clashes bitterly with the cocky young upstart of the team after the lad shows off with some reckless aerial acrobatics.

Flight Command

A rookie flyer, Ens. Alan Drake, joins the famous Hellcats Squadron right out of flight school in Pensacola. He doesn't make a great first impression when he is forced to ditch his airplane and parachute to safety when he arrives at the base but is unable to land due to heavy fog. On his first day on the job, his poor shooting skills results in the Hellcats losing an air combat competition. His fellow pilots accept him anyways but they think he's crossed the line when they erroneously conclude that while their CO Billy Gray is away, Drake has an affair with his wife Lorna. Drake is now an outcast and is prepared to resign from the Navy but his extreme heroism in saving Billy Gray's life turns things around.

8 Days: To the Moon and Back

Join Apollo 11 on its historic journey. The film seamlessly blends mission audio featuring conversations among Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins with new footage, NASA archive and stunning CGI to recreate the first moon landing.

Apollo 17: The Untold Story of the Last Men on the Moon

The remarkable story of the determination and courage of a generation. A tribute to three brave astronauts and the thousands of men and women behind them during the final days of NASA's Apollo program.

First Man on the Moon

Neil Armstrong's family and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, tell the story of the first man to set foot on the moon. Drawing heavily on unbroadcast archive footage and the unique perspectives of the contributors, this is an exclusive account of Neil Armstrong's extraordinary life story. From his childhood during America's Great Depression to the heady days of the space programme, his historic first step on the Moon and his famously private later life. Seen through the eyes of those who were with him, the film explores the man behind the myth, a man who was very much a product of his time. The film goes beyond his days as an astronaut and shows that his life after the flight of Apollo 11 was, in many ways equally challenging, as Armstrong came to terms with life outside NASA and the relentless demands of fame until his death in August 2012.

Apollo 13: The Inside Story

NASA mounts a rescue operation after an explosion tears through the hull of the Apollo 13 spacecraft while it is in flight to the moon.

Space Shuttle: The Final Mission

In the last month of the space shuttle programme, Kevin Fong is granted extraordinary access to the astronauts and ground crew as they prepare for their final mission. He is in mission control as the astronauts go through their final launch simulation, and he flies with the last shuttle commander as he undertakes his last practice landing flight. Kevin also gains privileged access to the shuttle itself, visiting the launchpad in the company of the astronaut who will guide the final flight from mission control.

James May on the Moon

Top Gear presenter James May presents this informative program that examines the historic moon missions. Traveling to America, May meets three of the men who walked on the surface of the moon, learning how it felt and how the now antiquated technology was used to achieve such an historic feat.

On a Wing and a Prayer

After their pilot dies unexpectedly mid-flight, passenger Doug White must safely land a plane and save his entire family from insurmountable danger.

Battle Stations

The crew of a U.S. Navy ship in World War II goes into battle against the Japanese fleet.

The Night My Number Came Up

British Air Marshal Hardie is attending a party in Hong Kong when he hears of a dream, told by a pilot, in which Hardie's flight to Tokyo on a small Dakota propeller plane crashes on a Japanese beach. Hardie dismisses the dream as pure fantasy, but while he is flying to Tokyo the next day, circumstances start changing to align with the pilot's vivid vision, and it looks like the dream disaster may become a reality.

The First Men in the Moon

Mark Gatiss's adaptation of HG Wells's science fiction classic. July 1969, and as the world waits with bated breath for the Apollo astronauts to land on the Moon, a young boy meets 90-year-old Julius Bedford. He's a man with an extraordinary story of how, way back in 1909, he got to the Moon first, and, together with the eccentric Professor Cavor, discovered a terrifying secret deep beneath its seemingly-barren surface.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

Man's landing on the moon was our greatest technological achievement. The Apollo 11 mission was truly the stuff of dreams. For the first time, our species walked on another celestial body. Even more remarkable was their ability to make it back. This is the story of the July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 moon landing. Drama with digitally remastered original footage.

Dragonfly Squadron

A Korean War film with a secondary plot of the training of South Korean pilots, to fly fighters in air defense, by American Air Force instructors,led by Major Brady, a famed and skilled-but-grounded pilot, assigned to the Kongku base.

Stowaway to the Moon

E.J. Mackernutt, Jr., an 11-year-old boy who has always been fascinated by space and astronauts, sneaks into Cape Kennedy and becomes a stowaway on a spaceship scheduled for a lunar landing. After he is discovered, NASA at first cancels the landing, but E.J. and the astronauts convince them to go forward with it. Problems arise when one of the astronauts is incapacitated by illness and the other two are stranded on the moon's surface, but E.J. is able to command the space capsule and save the day.

Project Moon Base

In the future (1970) the US sends a mission to the moon to investigate the building of a moon base.

Apollo 11

A look at the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon led by commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin.

Return to Space

The inspirational rise of SpaceX as well as Elon Musk's two-decade effort to resurrect America’s space travel ambitions.

Apollo: Missions to the Moon

National Geographic's riveting effort recounts all 12 crewed missions using only archival footage, photos and audio.

The Blue Angels

Follow the veterans and newest class of Navy and Marine Corps flight squadron as they go through intense training and into a season of heart-stopping aerial artistry.

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