All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S10E08.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
They're watching you.

More than 5,000 satellites
circle the earth.

Every day,
they uncover

new, mysterious phenomena
that defy explanation.

Booze and bombs in
the New Jersey Murder Dome.

MORGAN:
By the time it was all over,

$20 million dollars
had gone up in smoke.

NARRATOR: The curse of
King Solomon's Island.

The ultimate outcome was that
there were no survivors.

NARRATOR:
And the desert doomsday clock.

This is deeply concerning for
the stability of the world.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena,
mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

[theme music playing]

March 7th, 2021.

A satellite scanning
a dense, marshy

forest in New Jersey
captures this image.

I'm seeing, in the landscape,

a gigantic oval.

It's huge.

SILBEY: The oval's actually
not entirely by itself.

There's also a very strange
grid pattern

that's been carved out of
the woods.

It's as if these
are ghosts of structures

that have been swallowed up
into the pines.

NARRATOR: This is
the New Jersey Pine Barrens,

an ancient forest with
an infamous history,

one that could help explain
the weird shapes in the image.

For over 250 years,

its vast, inaccessible interior
was a haven for murderers,

outlaws, and thieves.

The New Jersey
Pine Barrens were

the perfect cover
for illicit activity.

Here, they would be invisible
to law enforcement.

The possibility that I'm
considering is that what we're

looking at is some sort of
a hideout settlement.

NARRATOR: The lure of
clandestine activity has drawn

historian Martin Morgan into
these remote woodlands.

My suspicions immediately go
to the Prohibition era, where,

in the Pine Barrens,

it was known that rum runners
were producing stills

and hiding out
in a remote area.

NARRATOR:
Beginning in 1920,

distilleries spring up
throughout the forest,

part of an illegal
nationwide industry,

which turns out nearly
35 million gallons of

home-brewed booze.

The distilleries were actually
fairly substantial in size,

and so the grid pattern fits
in terms of what

the bootleggers might have
needed to produce

their own alcohol.

Maybe they built
an entire village

out here to support this
distillery operation.

NARRATOR: The 150-proof
moonshine produced in

the Pine Barrens is known
as Jersey Lightning.

Even though this concoction
did not have a good taste,

it got the job done.

And if you were somebody
who barely had two dimes to

rub together, it was going
to be your salvation.

NARRATOR: To amplify the kick
from their hooch,

moonshiners mix in bleach,
embalming fluid, and manure.

HORTON:
There was no regulation.

There was no control, additives
were placed into the booze

and all sorts of
horrendous things,

like paint stripper,
for example.

We know that these structures
have been around for at

least 90 years, because they
show up in older photographs.

NARRATOR: Yet when Morgan closes
in on the imprints spotted

from space...

What's this, then?

...he discovers they don't
appear to

be the remains of
a moonshine factory.

This isn't just

some flimsy structure.

This thing is beefy.
It's made of concrete.

Whoa.

NARRATOR: Morgan finds
massive parallel walls,

two feet thick and reinforced
with steel bars,

a sign, he believes, of
military architecture.

The walls are angled backward
away from one another.

In the event that there is
an explosion, it would

direct the blast upward
so that the structure could

conceivably survive.

And so now I have
to think that

we might be dealing with
an explosives plant.

NARRATOR: Declassified records
confirm the structures

are the legacy of a pivotal

but often overlooked
period in American

military history.

This is the site
of the World War I

Amatol munitions
factory -- during the war,

this place becomes
the ultimate boomtown.

NARRATOR: The use of munitions
during World War I

is on a scale without parallel
in human conflict.

As opposing forces fire
a billion artillery

shells across the killing
fields of northern Europe,

the war descends into
a bloody stalemate.

HYMEL: The amount of destruction
and fire power is overwhelming.

Each side is trying to develop
larger and larger munitions

to sort of break the back of
the other side.

Who would win?
Whoever had the most explosives.

NARRATOR: Even before it joins
the conflict in 1917, the U.S.

offers help to its allies
in the form of shipments of TNT,

but reserves soon run out,

forcing scientists to invent
a new explosive --

amatol, a highly potent mix
of TNT and ammonium nitrate.

Amatol was a game-changer
in World War I.

LEVINE: Amatol is the perfect
substance to have discovered in

these circumstances,
because

the supply of TNT was limited,
but there was a plentiful

supply of ammonium nitrate.

NARRATOR:
Following the discovery,

the U.S. government purchases
6,000 acres of

the Pine Barrens and builds
the massive amatol factory in

just four months.

It is part of a staggering
countrywide mobilization,

which produces 160 million
pounds of explosives

per month for
the battlefields of Europe.

MORGAN: It was used
in everything, because you could

liquefy it and pour it
into a shell

or a body of a hand grenade
or whatever you needed to

pour it into.

NARRATOR: The supplies of

vital explosives being sent
from the U.S.

to its allies infuriates
the German government.

The decision
was made by the German high

command to adopt what was known

as Universal War, and this
meant that anyone supplying

Britain with munitions were
subject to German attack.

On July 30th, 1916,
German saboteurs infiltrate

the Black Tom rail yard

in New York and detonate cars
packed with 1,000 tons

of explosives.

[explosion blasts]

The cataclysmic blast
blows out windows in

almost every high rise in
Lower Manhattan

and pockmarks

the Statue of Liberty
with shrapnel.

By the time
it was all over, $20 million

in explosives
had gone up in smoke.

So there was
an increasing shortage

of explosives to supply to
the allies.

NARRATOR: To ramp up production,
the government builds

a town capable of housing

20,000 workers to the east
of the amatol factory.

If there was a large
explosion, you're not going to

kill your work force,

their children,
where they're living.

NARRATOR: Following the end
of World War I,

demand for amatol plummets,

The factory closes, and
the workers leave the forest.

But one mystery remains.

SILBEY:
There's an almost perfect oval,

just sort of sitting there,
where there's no reason for it,

as far as I can tell.

So then, what is it?

NARRATOR: Coming up,

into the murder dome.

This was a blood sport.

There were many fatalities.

NARRATOR:
And the fortress of skulls.

And it's absolutely
beyond imagination.

NARRATOR: Hooked by lost
structures revealed from space,

Martin Morgan is in the depths
of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

This is an explosives factory.

NARRATOR: A mysterious oval
shape sits in its midst.

MORGAN: I'm now in the middle
of the oval structure.

And you don't get
an impression of this when you

look at it from satellite,
but there are

berms on either side.

NARRATOR: The raised ridge of
earth precisely

follows the outline of
the giant structure.

Maybe this was some
sort of a race track?

The presence of
the inner tube

certainly suggests
that could be the case.

Why would there be
a race track

in the middle of
the New Jersey Pine Barrens?

NARRATOR:
Local land records reveal

Morgan has uncovered structures

with a history steeped in
death and riches.

These things are known
as murder domes.

It's really hard to imagine
that this could be taking place

in the early 20th century.

NARRATOR:
The tracks have their origin

in the dawn of the Motor Age.

As the nation transitions
from horses

to horsepower,
racing fever takes hold.

SZULGIT: Speed was king.

The whole idea
that you could go 30,

40, 50 miles an hour was
exciting enough.

But seeing these cars
moving at

100 miles an hour was
just exhilarating.

NARRATOR: As the public's thirst
for speed intensifies,

raceways spring up
across the country.

HORTON: People would
congregate in their thousands

to these places to watch
these incredible machines

and death-defying feats.

NARRATOR:
In 1925, the riches

generated by
these races attract

the attention of millionaire
steel magnate Charles M. Schwab.

Charles M. Schwab
could have been

a Scott Fitzgerald character.

Not only was he a very
successful industrialist,

he was also well known for
his excesses.

HUNT: When you think of
these tycoons having

to flaunt their wealth,

what better way to do it than
to build a speedway?

NARRATOR:
Schwab constructs a track

from 4.5 million feet of lumber

on the site of the old Pine
Barrens explosives factory.

He christens it
the Atlantic City Speedway.

The Atlantic City Speedway
was no ordinary track.

It was basically the Madison
Square Garden of speed racing.

It was actually
the largest race track

in the eastern United States.

NARRATOR: Speedways like
Schwab's are designed to

host what's known
as board track racing.

They are the most dangerous

circuits in the history
of motor sports.

[tires squealing]

HYMEL: Imagine traveling at 160
miles an hour on a wooden track,

you know, hitting these
60-degree angles in the 1920s.

I mean, this is
the definition of daredevil.

[tires squealing]

It was really common
for cars to spin

or lose control, and they could
end up off the track.

They could even end up in
the crowd.

This was a blood sport.
There were many fatalities.

NARRATOR: Racing with no
seatbelts on surfaces made

slick by oil
and shreds of rubber,

these so-called
murder domes claimed

the lives of numerous racers
and spectators.

Yet when it opens
on May 1st, 1926,

60,000 members of the public

still flocked to Schwab's
new racetrack.

Because of the speed
for which it was designed,

top drivers from around
the country

and even around the world
came to race there.

These woods were kind of
like a Roman coliseum,

with people cheering and going
wild over racing automobiles.

NARRATOR: On the first day
alone, drivers smashed six

speed records,

netting the equivalent of
half a million dollars

in prize money.

This speedway track

represents the Roaring Twenties
of America,

the Hedonism,

the sheer energy that money
would provide.

NARRATOR: Over the next two
years, the oval spotted

from space rivals

the Indy 500 as the nation's
top speedway.

These races were really
pushing the whole idea

of what could be done
with motor cars.

NARRATOR:
But the glory days of

this automotive amphitheater
are short-lived.

In 1929,
the stock market crashes.

The paying crowds melt away,

and the Atlantic City
Speedway closes.

HUNT:
The flames of the Depression

quickly destroyed
everything in its path.

There was nobody left standing
to perform,

to finance, or to watch
the races

NARRATOR:
During the Great Depression,

much of the site is destroyed.

The rest, cannibalized,
but its

ghostly imprint remains,
visible from space.

This site narrates the history
of the First World War,

the Roaring Twenties, and then
also the history of the era of

the Great Depression.

It's just layer upon layer
of history.

NARRATOR:
Coming up, hell cruise.

Things went very,
very badly wrong.

NARRATOR:
And the sands of time.

We're looking
at a barren landscape,

and there is this giant clock.

NARRATOR:
November 2018,

eyes in the sky
scan the Solomon islands,

1,000 miles northeast
of Australia.

HORTON: I'm looking
at a tropical paradise,

but there in the middle of
the image is a ship,

lying on its side.

This is a giant cruise ship,

flipped against
this tiny little island.

WALTERS: This is a pretty
alarming image.

Clearly things went very,
very badly wrong.

NARRATOR:
Maritime records reveal

the ship is called
the MS World Discoverer .

Tracking data provides
a haunting possible clue to

her fate.

This ship was designed
to be able to

navigate one of the most
challenging routes on Earth,

the Northwest Passage between

the Atlantic
and the Pacific Oceans.

NARRATOR: The Northwest Passage
is 900 deadly miles

of frozen seas
and 300-foot-high icebergs.

Even today, more people have

conquered Everest than
have navigated

this perilous polar shortcut.

The Northwest Passage
was actually

unpassable for hundreds
of years.

The Northwest Passage was
one of the Holy Grails of

exploration, and a series of
expeditions were mounted,

most notably in the 19th century
by the Royal Navy, using two

ships called the Terror
and the Erebus .

NARRATOR:
The Terror and the Erebus,

two steam ships
carrying 133 officers and men,

set sail for the Northwest
Passage in May 1845.

Two months later,
they disappear.

For a long time,
the fate of both vessels

was not known,
but through recent

archaeological surveys that

encountered the remains of
the crew,

we can piece together
the truly horrific ordeal

that the crew went through.

NARRATOR: After being trapped
for 18 months,

the crew abandon their ships
and head south on foot.

One by one, the ice claims them,

with some resorting
to cannibalism.

The ultimate outcome was that
there were no survivors.

Both boats suffered a horrible
fate in these frozen waters.

NARRATOR: 150 years after
the two vessels disappear,

the MS World Discoverer
becomes the first cruise ship

to successfully navigate
the route from west to east,

but as she then moves
southwards, past the equator,

she, too,
appears to fall victim

to the curse of
the Northwest Passage.

In April of 2000, the captain
sent a distress signal,

saying that they had been

navigating a narrow channel
off the Solomon Islands

and struck
an uncharted coral reef.

The crew and passengers
were rescued,

but the captain decided that
the best thing to do was

to beach this vessel as close
to shore as possible

to enable it to be salvaged.

So why, by now,

has nobody towed this thing
back to a port to repair it?

NARRATOR:
The Solomon Islands' complex

and bloody history
could shed some light.

The Solomon Islands have
actually had a lot of political

strife, going all the way back
to when the Spanish

first arrived.

It was them who named
the islands the Solomon Islands,

because they thought
they were going to be the source

of the fabled
King Solomon's gold.

NARRATOR:
Instead of gold,

the Spanish discover
a tropical archipelago of

900 islands ruled by dozens
of different tribes.

JANULIS: In the 19th century,

the British take over
and smashed all of these

different cultures and islands
and turned it into one country.

And what it did was
sow the seeds for violence

and warfare later on.

NARRATOR: During World War II,
the Japanese sees several of

the islands, establishing naval
bases to support their campaign

against the U.S.

When American forces
retake the islands,

30,000 die, and the seabed
around the wreck in the image

claims another 100 ships.

The islands are actually
pretty notable, because they're

the first land mass recaptured
by the Americans from

the Japanese.

HORTON: The arrival
of the Americans also affected

the culture of
the Solomon Islands,

suddenly gave them the seeds
of their own independence,

um, and their own ability to
look after their own destiny.

NARRATOR:
It's not until 1978 that

the Solomon Islands
gain independence.

In 1998, centuries of brewing
ethnic divisions boil over.

A man is
kidnapped and beheaded in

the central square
of one of the towns.

From there,
everything erupted.

WALTERS: Different ethnic groups
are fighting each other.

So it's a really messy,
really nasty situation.

NARRATOR: The ensuing
civil war leaves hundreds

dead and thousands
in dire poverty.

And then the islanders
discover a multimillion

dollar ship laden
with valuable goods

has crashed into the reefs.

This cruise ship arrives off

the islands, and it's
completely stripped bare.

Even the windows have
been removed.

It's absolutely worthless.

SZULGIT: At that point, it was
decided that it would be far

more expensive
to try and salvage

this ship than it would be
just to leave it.

NARRATOR: Two decades later,
the ransacked wreck is

a disturbing reminder

of the violence that
plagued these islands

for centuries.

And it represents,
in a sense, a tombstone to

the colonial era that can be
seen from space.

NARRATOR: Coming up, countdown
to Armageddon.

I can't look at this and see
anything but a troubling future.

NARRATOR: And lair of
the blood-sucking billionaire.

He was literally bleeding
his countrymen for profits.

NARRATOR:
January 5, 2017.

An orbiting camera scouring
a mountainous region

in central Saudi Arabia
captures this image.

We're looking at a barren
landscape, and then all

of a sudden, right there is
this giant clock.

You can see
one arm pointing to

12, and then one morning
to three o'clock.

I've never seen
anything like it.

NARRATOR: The Arabian
peninsula has a long

history of pioneering
discoveries in timekeeping.

Medieval astronomers here
developed the first time zones

as a way of determining
accurate calls to prayer.

But Adam Ruben thinks
the clock-like feature

is a more
recent innovation.

This doesn't look
like it's ancient.

It looks like a center pivot
irrigation system.

Is what we're seeing here

the first attempt to turn this
area into workable farmland?

NARRATOR: Center pivot
irrigation systems have

transformed deserts
across the world.

All of them trace their origin
back to the 1930s,

when over-farming turns
the Great Plains

into a 300,000-square-mile
dust bowl.

RUBEN: Farmers tried a number of
different methods to water

the American plain,

but everything was just too
expensive to make it worthwhile

to grow crops there.

NARRATOR: In 1948,

a Nebraska farmer invents
a way of spreading well water

over his land,

breathing life back into
the Midwest,

transforming it
into America's breadbasket.

It was cheap.
It was simple.

It was portable.

It could cover
the entire field.

It's what enabled
the United States

to grow enough food
for its citizens

Today, around 40 percent of
crops around the world

are grown this way,

creating clock-like patterns
visible from space.

This is in Saudi Arabia.

So it makes sense that
they'd be using this kind

of irrigation.

NARRATOR: But intelligence
experts reveal

the mystery structure is
evidence of something

much more sinister.

We see these kinds of setups
in missile launch sites.

The angles of the clock hands
here could actually be

guide rails that are used

to set up the guidance system
for the missile.

NARRATOR: Analysis of
the wider area reveals

this is no ordinary
missile site.

MORGAN: Looking at all of
the other structures

that are near this
launch platform,

this facility has all of

the hallmarks of a rocket
engine production factory.

NARRATOR: The compound
in the image appears to be

Saudi Arabia's first attempt
to manufacture

weapons of mass death.

Now, what's really disturbing
is that just outside

the perimeter, we see
a -- an engine test stand.

Is this the foundation of

ballistic missile capabilities
for Saudi Arabia?

Is it the foundation of
nuclear ballistic

missile capabilities?

NARRATOR: What worries
intelligence experts

isn't just the site's
potentially devastating

arsenal but who's
in charge of it --

Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman.

Mohammed bin Salman has

demonstrated some rather
erratic behaviors.

He is unpredictable.

Mohammed bin Salman,
known as MBS, is heir

to the Saudi throne.

U.S. agents have implicated him
in the disappearance of

numerous dissidents, including
the murder and dismemberment of

journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

MBS is willing to
take action against those

he sees as contrary to
his interests in the world,

no matter where they are.

NARRATOR: The satellite image
provides clues to

the Crown Prince's next
potential target.

When the angles of
these rails are analyzed,

they point directly at Iran.

That arm pointing at Iran is
not good.

NARRATOR: The Iranians
and Saudis have been locked

in a battle for regional
dominance for decades,

waging proxy wars
in Syria and Yemen,

which have killed over half
a million civilians.

The site discovered
from space suggests things

are about to get a lot worse.

When Mohammed bin Salman
came to power,

he made no secret about
the fact that he was going to

use the Saudi military more

aggressively than
his predecessor.

CAVELL: This is deeply
concerning for the stability of

the region and for
the stability of the world.

NARRATOR: Despite
international sanctions,

some intelligence experts fear
Iran could be just months away

from developing
a nuclear weapon.

Mohammed bin Salman openly has
threatened that, if Iran becomes

a nuclear power,
then Saudi will respond in kind.

NARRATOR:
Satellites continue to monitor

the situation as it unfolds.

But the clock is ticking.

This really is a wake-up call
to the west to

keep a closer eye on what is
going on in this region.

I can't look at this

and see anything but
a troubling future.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
Dracula's pyramid.

Once you recognize exactly
what happened inside,

it's something you just
can never forget.

NARRATOR:
And the terror factory.

This facility was one of
the most secret

places during the whole of
the Cold War.

NARRATOR:
January 21st, 2021.

A satellite passing
above Western Nicaragua

scans an arid
hillside below.

It's desolate,
and right in the center,

you see this kind of strange,
geometrical shape.

KOUROUNIS:
This is very mysterious.

It looks like an aerial view

straight down
on top of a pyramid.

NARRATOR:
Across Central America are
found hundreds of pyramids,

temples to pagan deities
and places of

ritual bloodshed
in their honor.

But further analysis reveals

the giant triangle has
a different origin.

It actually looks very similar
to artillery fortifications

we see in the late 19th century,

but this doesn't show
the signs of decay we'd expect

if this was
a 100-plus-year-old fort.

NARRATOR: Historical records
confirm that this is

an old fortification,

one whose blood-soaked walls
chart some

of the darkest events in
Central American history.

The hillside becomes known as
the cabbage patch

for the bleached skulls

that are constantly turning up
in the dirt.

It's absolutely
beyond imagination.

The fort's horror story
begins in 1967,

when Anastasio Somoza Debayle
becomes president of Nicaragua.

Samoza is not a nice man.

This is someone
who rules with an iron fist.

JANULIS: Somoza followed
the dictator handbook.

He stages a coup, takes over
the military, and basically

uses the entire country as his
own personal piggy bank.

NARRATOR: During his rule,
Samoza seizes control

of a quarter of
Nicaragua's land

and amasses
a billion-dollar fortune.

Political opponents are jailed
and tortured, descent crushed.

Nicaragua becomes
Samoza's private fiefdom.

He is truly one of
the most horrendous

dictators probably ever to
appear in Latin America.

NARRATOR:
Such is the dictator's greed

that he harvests blood plasma
from the poor,

selling it for vast profit
in the U.S.

He was literally bleeding
his countrymen for profit.

Samoza is
a fervent anti-communist.

This means the U.S. chooses
to support his vicious rule.

The way the U.S. government
views the Samoza regime is,

they are some
bad sons of bitches,

but they're
our sons of bitches.

NARRATOR:
Soon after taking power,

Samoza turns his murderous
attention to Leon,

the town to the northeast of
the fort in the image.

Samoza Debayle
is obsessed with

the assassination of
his father by an artist from

the area of Leon.

President Somoza was
gravely wounded,

taken to hospital
in the canal zone.

He was attended by doctors
rushed from the United States.

JANULIS: He wants to get
revenge on the people

and the town that he feels
contributed

to his father's death.

NARRATOR:
To avenge his father's killing,

the dictator converts
the 19th-century fort

into a torture center.

He then uses it for

a campaign of bloody
retribution on

Leon's inhabitants.

It doesn't really take long
for the disappearances

to start.

People are literally snatched
from their beds, with friends

and family never
seeing them again.

JANULIS: Eventually,
they find the answer to

where the disappearing people
are going.

They find out that the strange
white objects littering

the hillside around the fort
are actually human skulls.

The secret police
are kidnapping people,

killing them, and then just
putting the bodies

out to rot in the fields.

NARRATOR: By 1978, the U.S.
can no longer turn

a blind eye to the horrors
being committed in Nicaragua...

[chanting indistinctly]

...and President Jimmy Carter
halts financial

and military aid.

Now, this is a big deal.

The Somoza regime had
basically lost the support of

the United States government,
leaving the leadership

completely exposed.

NARRATOR: Left wing rebels
called the Sandinistas

soon rise up against
the dictator.

Over the next 12 months,

they gain control
of most of the country

and close in on Samoza
and his family.

The Samozas eventually retreat
back into Leon as a final

hideout, because it's already
filled with national guard

and secret police.

He actually finds himself
holed up in the fort

that he's been using to
oppress his own people.

NARRATOR:
Faced with certain defeat,

Samoza and his cronies escape
the fort by helicopter,

eventually fleeing to Paraguay.

In 1980, a Sandinista
commando team tracks

the dictator down
and assassinates him.

Today, it remains a crumbling
monument to those who perished

under his hated rule,
visible from space.

Once you recognize exactly
what happened inside this fort,

it's something
you just can never forget.

NARRATOR: Coming up, a code
rises from the earth.

I can't really for the life
of me work out what it is.

NARRATOR: In recent years,
increasing numbers

of heat waves have hit Europe.

Under the scorching sun,

long-hidden relics from
the past emerge

from the ground.

Drought has been

the opportunity of a lifetime
for archaeologists.

And that's because it brings
to light features that have

been in plain
sight essentially,

but just not visible.

NARRATOR: As a satellite scans
arid moorlands in the county of

Cumbria, England,
it captures this image.

WALTERS: What that dryness has
revealed is this rectangle.

But I can't really, for the life
of me, work out what it is.

You can see this very specific
and deliberately made

path that sort of ends in
a circular pattern.

This suggests there's some
sort of a platform, almost

like an altar, in the middle
of this rectangular area.

NARRATOR: What puzzles
analysts isn't just

the structure's shape,
but where it's located.

It sits within
the boundaries of

RAF Spadeadam,

a highly clandestine
military base with

a history stretching back
60 years.

This facility was one of
the most secret places

in Britain during the whole of
the Cold War.

Why? Because it was
absolutely crucial to

any potential fight against
the Soviet Bloc.

NARRATOR:
Declassified records confirm

that the mystery shape is
indeed a ghost from the past,

one that played a key role in
a project that threatened

millions of lives.

And that is why
this area is so vital

and so secret to both
Britain's defense

and potential offense.

NARRATOR: The clandestine
program has its origins

in the late 1940s.

Britain is in ruins,

its industries reduced to
rubble by the Nazis,

its empire crumbling after
350 years of global dominance.

And when, in 1949, the Soviet
Union becomes a nuclear power,

terror takes hold in
the beleaguered nation.

The British had spent
centuries as one of

the greatest, if not the
greatest, power in the world.

And now, they were threatened
with irrelevance next to

the superpowers of the Soviet
Union and the United States.

This provokes a great deal of
anxiety in the U.K.,

because unlike America,

Great Britain does not possess
the technology to be able to

counter the Soviet Union.

In October 1952,

Britain joins
the global nuclear club.

But their new weapons need to
be dropped from planes,

putting them in the firing
line of Soviet air defenses.

The British now become
concerned that their bombers

can get shot down very easily

on their way in
to Soviet airspace.

So what you need to develop
are ballistic missiles that can

outwit any form
of air defense

and do the damage
you really want to do.

NARRATOR: In April 1954,
London draws up plans to

develop a new nuclear missile,
code-named Blue Streak.

The government requisitions
9,500 acres of remote moorland

for secret tests
and constructs

the Spadeadam Rocket
Establishment at its center.

Missile testing is dangerous --
missiles have a tendency to

explode, and it would be
a very good

idea not to do that in a place
where anybody was around.

Spadeadam fit that perfectly.

NARRATOR: Engineers use
the test stand in the image

to test the rocket's
Rolls-Royce engines,

engines that can fire
a one megaton warhead

into the heart of Russia.

WALTERS: You've got to remember
that missiles like

the Blue Streak are designed
to kill millions of people.

But you've got this concept of
mutually assured destruction.

You're not gonna fight
if the other

guy can hit back just as hard.

NARRATOR: By 1956,
Britain finally has a working

nuclear missile ready to
counter a Soviet attack.

But when costs spiral,

the government
cancels the program.

The British realize
that this is

not worth the return
on investment.

And so they close
this facility.

MORGAN: Developing
a ballistic missile

is one of
the most expensive things

there is, almost as expensive
as space travel.

NARRATOR:
In a twist of fate,

scientists repurpose
the nuke's engines as

part of the pioneering Europa
Satellite Project.

Six decades later, the site
that helped put some of

Europe's first hardware into
orbit is revealed

once more from space.

MORGAN: It's a little bit of
an example of swords into

plowshares, because it was
first meant to

be a nuclear weapon, and then
it ultimately helps broaden

our scientific understanding of
the world around us.