X-Minus One

On Saturday May 30th, 2020 SpaceX launched NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken from the Kennedy Space Centre, on an historic mission to the International Space Station. Historic because it is the first time in nine years since astronauts have launched from American soil.

It is over 50 years since Apollo 11 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon on July 20th, 1969. But long before that we have been fascinated with Space exploration and the prospect of life on Mars as can be evidenced by the fantastic array of Sci-Fi old-time-radio-shows most famously, X-Minus One.

I have been asked in the past what the connection is between Dimension X and X-Minus One.

Dimension X was the first notable science fiction broadcast on the radio and was broadcast by NBC from April 1950 to September 1951. It featured the stories of well-known writers such as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, which were expertly adapted for radio by Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts.

Unfortunately this great science fiction series lasted only seventeen months and for 19 weeks of that time it was missed from the NBC scheduling altogether. 

Then in April 1955 it was revived under the name of X-Minus One. The first 15 episodes of X-Minus One were repeats of the Dimension X series, but soon after, in association with Street and Smith – publisher’s of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine - new and original stories were adapted from the magazine stories, and also from the ever popular science fiction Galaxy magazine.

All of the available episodes of X-Minus One are on RUSC, as well as lots more science fiction shows, but to make it extra easy for you to discover more Sci-Fi shows, you can listen to the Sci-Fi RUSC radio station.

Although often low budget, many science-fiction shows were superbly written and produced by famous writers, so we've included a bit of everything on the Sci-Fi radio station, including 2000 Plus, Dimension X, The Mysterious Traveler, Bradbury Thirteen, X-Minus One and many more from this well-loved genre.

And that's not all! You can also test your old time radio Sci-Fi knowledge over on the It's Quiz Time page on RUSC too.

Good luck, and happy listening my friends,