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UFO and Space: 1999

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UFO

UFO was a British television series originally aired on the Associated Television (ATV) and on ITV from 16 September 1970 to 24 July 1971. The series, produced by Gerry Anderson and Reg Hill, was set in a futuristic view of the 1980s in Great Britain.

The series focused on United States Air Force (USAF) Colonel Edward "Ed" Straker (played by Ed Bishop, which participated in the Andersons's TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterions and film Doppelgänger/Journey to the Far Side to the Sun and Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey and was about to participate to the Andersons's The Day After Tomorrow/Into Infinity), Commander-in-chief of the Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation (SHADO), a military movement born in the 1970s from Project Angel, a secret joint American, Soviet, British, German and French (almost all the "great powers") project to create a military organization against a dying extraterrestrial species which needs Earth and the Terrestrials to survive from their hostile and sterile planet.

Episodes (in airing order)

The episodes, together with a brief synopsis and their writer or writers are listed below:

• "Identified" (by Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson and Tony Barwick)
  • After ten years of planning, SHADO is now operational and captures its first alien UFO, which's target is a (Concorde-like) Seagull X-ray supersonic airplane carrying essential space scanners designed by Colonel Virginia Lake. After the almost dead alien is recovered from the destroyed UFO, SHADO doctors see many trasplanted Terrestrial organs, including one from SHADO pilot Captain Peter Carlin's sister.
• "Exposed" (by Tony Barwick)
  • After a civilian test pilot, Paul J. Foster, accidentally attends at a dogfight between a UFO and SHADO's Sky One plane, Straker must decide if he must join SHADO or die.
• "The Cat With Ten Lives" (by David Tomblin)
  • As SHADO operative Dr. Douglas "Doug" Jackson discovers that the aliens are actually incorporean and they can control other individuals, an alien-controlled Siamese cat conditions SHADO pilot Jim Regan.
• "Conflict" (by Ruric Powell)
  • While Straker is protesting with the International Astrophysical Commission's President, General James L. Henderson about space junk, an alien device (the so-called "Limpet UFO") that hijacks SHADO Lunar modules is hidden on Apollo 8's abandoned S-IVB/SLA stage.
• "A Question of Priorities" (by Tony Barwick)
  • Straker's son, John "Johnny" Rutland, is critically injured and he needs a special medicine from New York, that will be delivered by a SHADAIR (the air transports division of SHADO) airplane, but, as a UFO with an alien defector on lands in Ireland, Colonel Alec E. Freeman (acting Commander-in-chief of SHADO as Straker is in the hospital) orders to the plane's pilot to go there before going to the hospital (as only Straker knows what the plane transports).
• "E.S.P." (by Alan Fennell)
  • John Croxley (a man with extrasensorial perception, or "ESP", that knows of SHADO because of his ability) is controlled by the aliens and attemps to kill Commander Straker and Freeman and destroy SHADO.
• "Kill Straker!" (by Donald James)
  • Foster, now a SHADO Moonbase operative, an his Lunar module copilot, Captain Frank Craig, are hypnotized by the aliens to kill Straker. Craig dies during his attempt and Foster tries to kill the Commander, but SHADO specialist Dr. Douglas "Doug" Jackson eliminates the wish to kill the Commander from his head.
• "Sub-Smash" (by Alan Fennell)
  • A strange alien watercraft destroys a ship from underwater and SHADO's Skydiver One submarine, with Straker and Foster in, is forced to investigate. The alien object damages Skydiver One, sinking it in the ocean, with the Sky One aircraft capable of carrying only one person and only one airlock working, requiring three hours after any use. The last one to leave the submarine (or so he thinks), Straker must face his claustrophobia.
• "Destruction" (by Dennis Spooner)
  • A Royal Navy destroyer ship with an unknown purpose is approached by an aircraft, which is destroyed with a missile shortly before contact. Rumors about an extraterrestrial attack to the ship begun circling and SHADO is forced to investigate in top secret affairs, extraterrestrial technology, family issues and love interests.
• "The Square Triangle" (by Alan Pattillo)
  • As two lovers accidentally kill an alien instead of Liz Newton (the female lover)'s husband, SHADO becomes involved in a love triangle, forced to investigate.
• "Close Up" (by Tony Barwick)
  • SHADO lieutenants Gary Myers and John Masters develop a special "electron telescope" camera, which is mounted by Foster and Masters on a NASA B142 space probe, which tracks an UFO to the aliens's homeworld, sending to Earth pictures of it. Unfortunately for SHADO, the altimeters go broken and the project becomes futile.
• "The Sound of Silence" (by David Lane and Bob Bell)
  • After a showjumper and a hippie are killed by an alien, SHADO must secretly solve the case, sending Colonel Foster at the showjumper's farm.

Order

• Prod: The studio production order.
• ATV: "Official" ITC sequence. This is the sequence in which the episodes were originally scheduled to be broadcast in the UK by ATV Midlands.
• UFO Series: Recommended order by Marc Martin of http:www.ufoseries.com.
• Fanderson: Recommended by Fanderson and used on British DVDs.
• ITC: Order used for VHS release in the UK.

Title	Original UK airdate	Prod	ATV	UFOS	Fanderson	ITC
"Identified"	700916 !16 September 1970	1	1	1	1	1
"chi !Computer Affair"	710515 !15 May 1971	2	21	2	2	16
"Flight Path"	710120 !20 January 1971	3	15	3	3	15
"Survival"	710106 !6 January 1971	4	13	6	5	3
"sch !Exposed"	700923 !23 September 1970	5	2	4	4	2
"gen !Conflict"	701007 !7 October 1970	6	4	5	6	4
"The Dalotek Affair"	710210 !10 February 1971	7	17	7	7	14
"A Question of Priorities"	701014 !14 October 1970	8	5	8	8	5
"Ordeal"	710424 !24 April 1971	9	19	9	9	7
"The Responsibility Seat"	730308 !8 March 1973	10	25	10	10	17
"The Square Triangle"	701209 !9 December 1970	11	10	11	11	6
"cha !Court Martial"	710501 !1 May 1971	12	20	12	12	10
"Close Up"	701216 !16 December 1970	13	11	13	13	9
"Confetti Check A-O.K."	710710 !10 July 1971	14	22	14	14	11
"girl !E.S.P."	701021 !21 October 1970	15	6	15	15	8
"Kill Straker!"	701104 !4 November 1970	16	7	16	16	12
"Sub-Smash"	701111 !11 November 1970	17	8	17	17	13
"The Sound of Silence"	710717 !17 July 1971	18	23	18	18	19
"The Cat with Ten Lives"	700930 !30 September 1970	19	3	19	19	18
"Destruction"	701202 !2 December 1970	20	9	20	20	20
"The Man Who Came Back"	710203 !3 February 1971	21	16	21	21	21
"The Psychobombs"	701230 !30 December 1970	22	12	22	22	22
"Reflections In The Water"	710724 !24 July 1971	23	24	23	23	24
"Timelash"	710217 !17 February 1971	24	18	24	24	26
"Mindbender"	710113 !13 January 1971	25	14	25	25	23
"The Long Sleep"	730315 !15 March 1973	26	26	26	26	25

Space: 1999

Space: 1999 ("Spazio 1999" in Italian) was a British television series originally aired on ITV (for the United Kingdom) and RAI (for Italy) from 4 September 1975 to 12 November 1977. The series, produced by executive producer Gerry Anderson, first season (commonly known as "Year One") producer Sylvia Anderson and second season (commonly known as "Year Two") producer Fred Freibeiger and inspired to the projects for a second season of UFO (eventually to be titled "UFO: 1999"), focused on Moonbase Alpha, a Terreatrial manned lunar scientific outpost, which's inhabitants, as a catastrophe hurls the Moon out of its orbit, must fight to survive, finding a new home in the stars.

Episodes (in airing order)

The episodes, together with their production number, their Italian-language title (for Year One only), a brief synopsis, the setting date and their writer or writers are listed below:

Year One

Year One, the joint ITC Entertainment-RAI first season, begins on 9 September 1999 and stars the characters of Alpha's Commander John Robert Koenig, Alpha's Medical Section's Chief Dr. Helena Russell, science officer Prof. Victor Bergman, data analyst Sandra Benes, Second-in-command Paul Morrow, Third-in-command and Eagle Transporter pilot Alan Carter and computer operations officer David Kano and the object of his work, the semi-sentient Computer, all mainly working in Moonbase Alpha's headquarters: Main Mission.

• 1. "Breakaway" ("Separazione", by George Bellak)
  • Date given at the beginning: 9 September 1999. Date given by Koenig after the breakaway: 13 September 1999.
  • As two astronauts, Steiner and Nordstrom, are executing operations at Moonbase Alpha's Nuclear Disposeal Area 2, where nuclear waste from Earth is stored without any apparent radioactive decay, Nordstrom becomes insane and accidentally kills himself while shouting that he "must exit". As he dies, the camera shows that his left eye is almost white. Later on that day, International Lunar Finance Committee member Commissioner Simmonds promotes John Koenig as the ninth Base Commander of Alpha, replacing Commander Anton Gorski in the World Space Commission's project to launch from Alpha the first manned probeship to land on planet Meta, from which strange, monotone radio pulses are coming. On Alpha, Koenig meets his some of his old friends: host Victor Bergman, computer expert Ben Ouma, Second-in-command Paul Morrow and analyst Sandra Benes. He is later introduced to Dr. Helena Russell, who explains of Nordstrom and that he was the ninth astronaut to demonstrate this strange sickness (seven Nuclear Disposeal Area 2 employees and two Meta Probe astronauts, who never landed on the planet), without any apparent explanation or common link in the astronauts's lives if not that they all followed the same training program. Koenig examinates on an Eagle Transporter spacecraft Nuclear Disposeal Areas 1 and 2, while his pilot, Collins, begins touching his left eye. Back on the base, Collins begins shouting the same as Nordstrom and begins cracking a window, killing himself and almost killing Koenig and Bergman and heat readings on NDA 1 begin to drastically increase, to the explosion of the whole installation, revealing, with the help of a magnetometer, the source of the sickness and of the heat: magnetic radiations. Koenig realises that the much bigger NDA 2 will soon explode and that the nuclear waste has to be spread on the Moon's surface, lowering the level of the radiation. Koenig invites Simmonds on the base and starts the operation. Some Eagles have to retire due to unknown problems, while the heat begins to rise, destroying the others but Alan Carter (the Meta Probe project chief)'s, as the waste explodes, hurling the Moon into outer space according to Newton's Third law of motion. Koenig has to decide if the crewmen (known as "the Alphans") should try a return to a devastated Earth (Operation Exodus) or find a new home on another planet. While he asks the base's artificial intelligence, Computer, to choose, Morrow intercepts Meta's signals, making the Commander realise.
• 9. "Force of Life" ("Forza vitale", by Johnny Byrne)
  • No date is given.
  • A strange alien force, represented as a blue ball of light, approaches Moonbase Alpha undetected by the radars and approaches Anton Zoref, a technician of Alpha's nuclear reactors. As the light "possesses" him, he faints. After he wakes up, he begins to suffer cold at hot temperatures and to absorb energy from electrical objects. Later, he goes to Nuclear Generating Area 3, his workplace, and, as his colleague Marc Dominix offers him a coffee cup, he accidentally freezes it and, later, Dominix himself. Commander Koenig and Doctor Russell realise all this and confine Zoref in his quarters, but he tries to make his way to the reactors to absorb energy, and they have to give the order to the guards of Alpha to follow Zoref but not to touch him. Zoref's energy level is low, and he is about to die, but Carter shoots him, trying to finish him, with his laser gun, reviving Zoref and turning him to a white-eyed burnt humanoid. The monster tries to absorb energy from the reactor, but, as he is about to destroy Alpha, Koenig orders Morrow to explode the reactor with an enormous amount of energy, killing Zoref and freeing the blue light.
• 13. "Collision Course" ("Rotta di collisione", by Anthony Terpiloff)
  • No date is given.
  • An asteroid is about to collide with the Moon, possibly damaging Alpha, and a squadron of Eagle is positioning twelve nuclear charges on the object to alterate its course. While the other shuttles have finished the work, the squadron's leader, Alan Carter, has problems with the spacecraft's engines, forcing Commander Koenig to delay the explosion of forty seconds to give Alan enough time to leave. Shortly after that, Alan loses radio contact with Main Mission due to radiation originating from the blast. A desperate Koenig equips another Transporter with a radio capable of using the interstellar frequency and flies with Morrow inside the radiation cloud. The camera shows an unconcious Carter on Eagle 1, who wakens as he hears a woman's voice, who suggests to respond to Koenig's calls, and he hardly manages to communicate that he is alive, but is unable to communicate his position, instead, the same voice speaks to Koenig, communicating it. Later, the modified Eagle tries to dock with Alan's, and the voice communicates Alan the docking sequence, and he finally sees the woman, who says only that she is "a friend" and that now his people will take care of him, but she has got a black veil on her face, so Alan is not able to recognize her. Koenig finds Alan unconcious as the woman is disappeared, but, instead, Koenig notices that a Jupiter-like planet is on the Moon's course. Inside Main Mission, Bergman has already started to plan the procedure to avoid collision, he suggests Operation Shockwave: the plan is to put some nuclear charges between the planet and the satellite, recreating the scenario of September, 13.

Spacecraft

Several spacecraft are featured in UFO and Space: 1999.

Spacecraft in UFO

Real-life spacecraft

Voskhod

Misidentified by an IAC spacecraft pilot as the "Vostock 2" spacecraft, a section of the Voshkod 2 spacecraft's equipment module appears and is destroyed by an IAC "limpet mine" in the episode "Conflict".

Saturn V and Apollo

The S-IVB stage and the SLA (which is, for some reason, still attached to the S-IVB) section of the Apollo 8 spacecraft are featured and are destroyed by SHADO missiles in the episode "Conflict".

UFOs

Standard UFO

The standard flying saucer-shaped unidentified flying object equipped with a directed-energy weapon is seen in all the episodes except "Court Martial" (as the episode is about an internal SHADO problem), "Confetti Check A-OK" (as almost the entire episode is a flashback about Straker's life) and "Sub-Smash" (as this episode features the submarine UFO).

Standard UFOs usually carry one or two aliens to Earth, traveling for months at an average speed of Sol 8 (8 times the speed of light) and, eventually (if SHADO does not interfere with their mission), return them to their planet (probably located in the Alpha Centauri star system) in a brief time, because if they stay for too much time in contact with Earth's atmosphere, they probably explode.

In the episode "A Question of Priorities" is featured a small escape pod, launched by the defector's UFO to safely land in Ireland.

Limpet UFO

This UFO appears in "Conflict", as it is hidden in the wreck of the Apollo 8 S-IVB (Saturn V third stage)/SLA (Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter, a section that usually detached from the S-IVB shortly after the detonation of four explosive charges, but in this episode it is still there) section.

The Limpet UFO is projected to hijack and destroy SHADO's Lunar modules, by changing their angle of attack, which makes them burn during the atmospheric re-entry.

Submarine UFO

In the episode "Sub-Smash", a special UFO capable of underwater sailing attacks a ship and SHADO's Skydiver One submarine-airplane hybrid.

IAC spacecraft

Unidentified spacecraft

An unidentified IAC spacecraft is featured in the episode "Conflict" as it launches a limpet mine on the wreck of what is identified by the onboard computer as the "Vostock 2" spacecraft and approaches the S-IVB and SLA spacecraft sections of the Apollo 8 mission.

SHADO spacecraft

SHADO Interceptor

Also known as "Moonbase Interceptors", they are the primary defence system used by SHADO if an UFO enters the Earth system.

They are small one-seater spacecraft that cannot enter Earth's atmosphere for unknown reasons (but they have got an airplane tail), equipped with a self destroying nuclear missile. Their average speed is unknown, but they can near UFOs traveling at Sol 8.

Lunar module

SHADO's Lunar modules are big VTVL (vertical takeoff, vertical landing; a term used in rocketry and astronautics) spacecraft launched from a VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing, a term used in aeronautics) Lunar Carrier aircraft to land on the launch pad of the SHADO Moonbase.

They can dock and dedock with the Lunar Carrier by attaching to its tail.

Moon Hopper/Moonmobile

The Moomobiles (initially known as "Moon Hoppers") are small hovercraft-like landers used for travels on the Moon, mainly for exploring UFO landing sites.

Modified Moon Hoppers (known as "Rocketmobiles") were rendered for the World of 2001 addon for the 2000 spaceflight simulator Orbiter, which represented spacecraft from the Space Odyssey films and novels (a Soviet Rocketmobile was mentioned in the first film as Elena says that the moonbase in the Clavius crater, that is almost identical to Moonbase Alpha from Space: 1999, denied landing permission to it during an emergency).

B-142 space probe

A NASA satellite/orbiter which is equipped by SHADO with an "electronic telescope" to discover and observe the aliens's homeworld in "Close-Up".

Funeral drone

A small rocket used during the funeral of Steve Maddox (who, in the original script "Zero Gravity", is the Commander of Moonbase Alpha) in "Conflict".

Space Dumper

The Space Sumper is a small two-stage lander that can used to launch objects into space rapidly and without a launch complex, such as the one used to destroy the alien bomb in "The Long Sleep".

Spacecraft in Space: 1999

Terrestrial, Alphan and Thulian spacecraft

Saturn V, Apollo and Skylab

Several images and models of the U.S. Saturn V launch vehicle, Apollo spacecraft and Skylab space station are featured in the Year One episode "End of Eternity" and in the compilation movie Alien Attack (1979).

Eagle Transporter

The Eagle Transporter (better known as "Eagle") is the primary transport, reconnaissance, exploration and defence spacecraft of Moonbase Alpha. According to The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook, the Eagle's predecessor was the Space Shuttle Falcon (represented in the fan-made Moonbase Alpha add-ons of the 2000 Orbiter spaceflight simulator as a sort of Eagle prototype named "Falcon Shuttle"), launched as the Space Dock's auxiliary craft, and, according to the Year One epidsode "Space Brain", Eagles with a standard passenger module have a combined mass of 328 tons.

The Eagle Transporters (desgned by Martin Bower), which were influenced by the Space Odyssey franchise and influenced the Star Wars one, were build in many models of four different scales: three approximately 44.094-inches-long (112 centimeters; usually identified as 45 inches) models (the one with the rescue pod was nicknamed "Eagle 1" by fans, the one with the passenger module was nicknamed "Eagle 2" and the one with the booster pod "Eagle 3"), two approximately 22.047-inches-long (56 centimeters; usually identified as 22 inches) models (the one with the transporter pod was nicknamed "Eagle 22" and the one with the cargo pod "Eagle 23"), two approximately 11,023-inches-long (28 cm; usually 11) models (nicknamed "Eagle 11" and "Eagle 12") and a 5,511-inches-long (14 cm; usually 5) model (nicnamed "Eagle 13" or "Small Eagle"). An unpainted Airfix Eagle model kit is also featured in the compilation movie Alien Attack (1979). A partially-built "Big Eagle" model was also used for long-shot shooting

During filming, inside the 44 inches Eagles's command modules, there were one or two repainted 1:24 astronauts from Revell's 1966 Gemini capsule prototype model kit, which is the most used source of model parts present in the series.

Eagles are made of at least seven parts:

• one detachable command module/lifeboat (we can see it detached by using a magnet from the rest of the Eagle in the Year One episode "Missing Link" and undocking in the other episode "Dragon's Domain")
• one service module formed by
  • a metallic skeleton with, on the front side, a short access corridor where the command module's and the pod's hatchs dock;
  • four landing pods with a landing panel and four auxiliary rockets;
  • an interchangeable pod consisting in an habitable zone and four VTOL rocket nozzles;
  • an eventual rocket engine with two horizontal nozzles that can be docked to the upper side of the service module to give it more speed (if the Eagle has a booster pod docked) or four VTOL rocket engines docked to the transporter pod, as seen in the Year Two episode "New Adam New Eve".

There are six types of pods:

Transporter pod/passenger module

Designed for its first appearance in the Year One episode "Breakaway"'s scene with Koenig arriving at Alpha (which is clearly inspired by the scenes with Heywood R. Floyd on an Orion III spaceplane in 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968), the transporter pod is the most seen in the series: it has got seats for the crew, a computer, equipment and, sometimes, a moon buggy.

Rescue pod

Usually docked to Eagle 4, the rescue pod is a red-striped transporter pod equipped with many scientific, medical and rescue devices which first appears in the Year One episode "Earthbound". It is usually manned by Dr. Helena Russell and Prof. Victor Bergman and usually rescues Commander John Koenig and Eagle pilot Alan Carter, who usually fly on Eagle 1.

V.I.P. pod

An orange pod, identified as the V.I.P. (Very Important Person) pod, is seen docked to Eagle 1 ("Simmonds' shuttle") in "Breakaway".

Pallet pod

The pallet pod is seen in the Year One episodes "Breakaway", "Black Sun" and "Guardian of Piri". It was designed to transport nuclear waste canisters in Nuclear Disposeal Area 2, on the Moon, before the ending events of "Breakaway", as the area exploded hurling the Moon into outer space. The cargo pod is a modified version of this pod.

Cargo pod

The cargo pod is a modified version of the pallet pod. It is usually equipped with a magnetic grab ("Breakaway", "Missing Link") or a mechanical grab ("Space Brain"). It has got four landing panels that can be used if the Eagle undocks with the pod.

Booster pod

The booster pod is essentially a standard transporter pod with two side boosters and, eventually, an upper booster that can be docked to the metallic skeleton. It appears in the end credits of every episode (on the background of the "music by Barry Gray", "associate Vic Elms", "special effects Brian Johnson" and "production designer Keith Wilson" card) and in many episodes. It first appeared in the Year One episodes during continuity errors (as transporter and booster pods alternate on Eagles). The booster pod is often misidentified as the so-called "laboratory pod" or as the pod of "combat Eagles", which's existances are not confirmed.

Space Dock

The Space Dock (known in The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook as "the Centauri Space Station" or "the Centuri Space Station" and in the Space: 1999 addons for Orbiter as "Centuri Space Dock") is the only Terrestrial spacecraft (excluding the Eagle Transporters and the many spacecraft in the spaceship graveyards) to appear in more than one episode, as it appears in two Year One episodes: "Breakaway" and "Dragon's Domain".

It is a wet workshop space station (an habitable artificial satellite made using old rocket and spacecraft parts) orbiting the Moon. The model used in the episodes is almost completely made of parts from the 1:144 Airfix "Apollo Saturn V" model kit, it can be noted by seeing its upper section, which is, ironically, the lower section of the S-IC (first stage) section of the rocket.

In "Breakaway"

The Space Dock (or "Meta Probe launch platform") is used as the site of the beginning of the Meta Probe mission, but it is destroyed by gravitatonal stress after the explosion of Nuclear Disposeal Area 2 (the scene of the explosion of the station was used during the title cards of the teaser trailers of the two English-language Space: 1999 compilation films).

"Breakaway"'s version of the Space Dock is one of the main spacecraft in the 1979 compilation film Alien Attack.

Here, it rotates in almost all of its scenes (not in the Meta Probe docking sequence, seen on a monitor on Koenig's Eagle Transporter) and Eagles must dock to it.

In "Dragon's Domain"

The Interplanetary Space Station (a name which predicts the real life ISS, or "International Space Station", which's construction began in 1998 and which briefly appears in the 2012 first issue of Space: 1999: Aftershock), is slightly different from "Breakaway"'s Space Dock, appears in the flashback scenes.

It is used as the launch platform for the Ultra Probe. This version of Centauri does not rotate and it has got a landing pad for Eagles (which probably uses a gravity field that provides a 1 G gravity, like the one above Moonbase Alpha). This landing pad is, ironically, a modified dish from AMT's 1:650 "U.S.S. Enterprise Space Ship Model Kit", which represents the NCC-1701 version of the USS Enterprise, the main starship of the concurrent series: Star Trek (now known as "Star Trek: The Original Series", 1966-1969).

Venus Space Station

A space station orbiting Venus is mentioned in the Year Two episodes "The Exiles" and "The Lambda Factor" as sent (or built) in orbit in the early 1990s. In "The Lambda Factor" Moonbase Alpha Commander John Koenig is obsessed by "ghost" nightmares of the crew of the station, which was killed by a venusian virus (which, someway, reached them), while Koenig was not there, and he, the Commander of the mission, was forced to let them die in order to mantain quarantine protocols.

Space: 1999: Aftershock's mission to Venus

The 2012 first issue of the Space: 1999: Aftershock comic series features a symbolic scene of three probes (two of which identical to the Ultra Probe and one with an Altares Pilot Section) departing from the Space Dock. The captions read: "New missions were launched to other worlds." and "Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Ultra--".

Voyager One and Voyager Two

The Voyager robotic space probes (which probably are not related to the real life NASA/JPL Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, launched in 1977, that ironically share some similarities with the fictional ones) are two interstellar probes launched by the terrestrials in 1985 (fourteen years before the breakaway). These probes are both orbiters (probes which orbit a celestial body, usually to study it) and landers (spacecraft designed to land on a celestial body or on another object), equipped with a normal takeoff and landing engine and a dangerous Queller Drive, designed by Ernst Queller.

As the 1975 Year One episode "Voyager's Return" states, the Voyager probes were probes designed to have a small crew, but they flown as robotic in search of signs of intelligent life in the universe. The Queller Drive engine used "fast neutrons" that can kill everything around the probe, such as the 200 people Voyager Two killed when the Queller Drive was erroneously activated during its launch and, then, Ernst Queller changed name to "Ernst Linden" and begun working as a scientist at Moonbase Alpha.

The Voyager One spacecraft later killed whe life on two inhabited planets of the Federated Worlds of Sidon, commanded by Chief Justifier Aarchon, by landing on them and, when it later reached the space-travelling Moon and the Alphans, including Linden, successfully tried to shut down the Queller Drive, but Aarchon reached them with three long-range spaceships and, as Koenig declared they represent Earth, he condemned the Alphans, and all the Terrestrials, to death.

Linden, trying to save his people and all his planet, entered the Voyager One and flew near to the alien spacecraft, destroying them using the Queller Drive and the self-destruction system.

The Voyager probes were designed and built by Martin Bower, who built a model in two halves: the cockpit and the engines. The model, including the Queller Drive, was made using some fuel tanks from Revell's 1:24 "Russia's First Spacecraft: Vostok" model kit, which represents a Vostok 3KA space capsule (like the one used by Yuri Gagarin in the Vostok 1 mission, 1961); some parts from Airfix's 1:42 "Apollo Lunar Module" (the reaction control pods are two main bodies of two different LM descent stages) and 1:144 "Apollo Saturn V" (the auxiliary chemical rockets are F-1 rocket nozzles from the S-IC stage) model kits; a plastic picnic set; and a system which sprayed nebulized water.

Uranus Probe/Phoenix

The Uranus Probe was a manned terrestrial probeship was sent to Uranus, in the outer Solar System, in 1986. The spacecraft was commanded by Jack Tanner, a man which, as the probe lost contact with Earth, travelled through spacetime and crashed on the icy world of Ultima Thule, becomed insane and the large crew of the probe (now dubbed "the Thulians"), now leaded by Dr. Cabot Rowland, discovered how to became immortal.

Rowland's experiments for immortality transformed in zombie-like creatures some Thulians, but guaranteed resistance to death on all the other members of the crew, (which for an unknown spacetime phenomenon, maybe spacetime diliation, lived for centuries) that begun rebuilding the 1986 Uranus Probe as the new Phoenix in a cave on the planet.

After the breakaway, in the Year One episode "Death's Other Dominion", the space-travelling Moon approached Ultima Thule, and Rowland tried to convince the Alphans to became immortal like the Thulians and, with some inhabitants of the Moon, traveled on an Eagle to the Moon, but, as the Eagle entered space, he transformed in a frozen corpse. According to the fan-made Wikia website Moonbase Alpha Wiki, the Uranus Probe mission is actually the Astro 1 mission.

Jim Stolfa's Uranus Probe

Space: 1999 fan Jim Stolfa rendered seven CGI images of the Uranus Probe before its crash landing, this version of the probeship is "made" of parts from the Meta and Ultra Probes and the Superswift and has got a big command module made of an Eagle one and of the bottom of an Ultra Probe one.

Space: 1999: Aftershock's Uranus Probe

The 2012 first issue of the Space: 1999: Aftershock comic series features a symbolic scene of three probes (two of which identical to the Ultra Probe and one with an Altares Pilot Section) departing from the Space Dock. The captions read: "New missions were launched to other worlds." and "Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Ultra--".

Astro-class spaceship

The Year One episode "Matter of Life and Death" featured the only known survivor of the 1994 (10 July 1995, according to The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook) Astro 7 mission Lee Russell. It is only known that, during the Astro 7 mission to Jupiter, the crew lost contact with Earth and a sort of antimatter energy transported Lee Russell to a planet that the Alphans later codenamed "Terra Nova" (meaning "New Land" or "New Earth", a name that can also be found in the Year Two episode "New Adam New Eve", in Latin).

The fan-made Wikia website Moonbase Alpha Wiki considers the Uranus, Ultra and Meta Probes as the Astro 1, Astro 8 and Astro 9 spacecraft, too.

Jim Stolfa's Astro 7 spacecraft

Space: 1999 fan Jim Stolfa rendered two CGI images of the Astro 7 spacecraft, which is a sort of heavily modified Eagle Transporter with a detachable command module, made of a repainted Eagle command module and a sort of airlock or docking adapter.

Space: 1999: Aftershock's Astro 7 spacecraft

The 2012 first issue of the Space: 1999: Aftershock comic series features a symbolic scene of three probes (two of which identical to the Ultra Probe and one with a Altares Pilot Section) departing from the Space Dock. The captions read: "New missions were launched to other worlds." and "Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Ultra--".

1996 Star Mission spacecraft

In the Year Two episode "Brian the Brain" is told the complete story of the 1996 Star Mission.

In 1996, the same year of the departure of the Ultra Probe, a probably more secret mission, the 1996 Star Mission, departed from Earth with some Swift spacecraft and a Mothership, which was used as a support ship.

One of the Swifts was commanded by Captain Micheal, which decided to build a wheeled AI (artificial intelligence) robot, which will be later nicknamed "Brian" due to the fact that the first word he said was this name as a misspelling of "brain". The space fleet landed on a planet codenamed "Planet D", where the vitiated child-like Brian discovered that, on the Mothership, his "father" was working on a new version of it and killed him by hacking the Mothership's systems.

About 1150 days after Monday, 13 September 1999 (Wednesday, 6 November 2002), Brian approached the space-travelling Moon, landed there and hacked its computers. It told to the Alphans that he was part of the Star Mission and that, as they landed on Planet D, the crew instantly died.

He later kidnapped Commander John Koenig and Chief Medician Dr. Helena Russell and, using the Swift, he transported them on Planet D, where he submitted them to a deadly "love test".

Later, as the child-like robot wanted to live forever by travelling in outer space with the Swift, he forced Koenig to board the Mothership and take its fuel. On the Mothership, Koenig discovered that Brian killed the crew.

On the Mothership, he met the Alphan pilot Tony Verdeschi and the Alphan Metamorph Maya, from Psychon, and decided with them a plan: Maya transformed into a mouse and boarded with Koenig the Swift, then she changed shape to Captain Micheal and shocked Brian, which accidentally exited from an airlock in outer space, where it remained with its wire-like "antenna" locked in the external hatch and surrendered, de-hacking Alpha.

The Swift is one of Space: 1999's most mysterious spacecraft, for many reasons: the model's command module (here called "Pilot Section"), which is almost identical to the command module of the Altares spacecraft from The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity (as the Swift was originally intended to be "the landing ship" in that film), is apparently designed to undock from the rest of the craft (it has got two separation rocket nozzles), but the interior 1:1 set has not got any airlocks between the modules and the 1:1 "love test" airlocks of the set correspond to the model's rocket nozzles.

We see only the interiors and a small exterior section of the Mothership, which appears to be a specially-equipped Swift.

A notable element from the episode is that the Alphans (except Maya) remember Swifts, but they do not remember the 1996 mission (maybe it was secret and the Swifts were normally used, as they appear to be sorts of bigger versions of the Eagle Transporters, as they are featured in the 2012 first issue of Space: 1999: Aftershock as the spacecraft used to build the Space Dock with Saturn V parts).

Ultra Probe

The Ultra Probe, featured in the Year One episode "Dragon's Domain", is one of the series's most important Terrestrial spacecraft. It was launched after Professor Victor Bergman discovered a new planet, Ultra (which was probably a rogue planet, a planet that travels through space), in 1994.

In 1996, the World Space Commission (which's name is first mentioned in that episode), launched a highly technologic spacecraft which reached Ultra about eight months later. The probe (almost entirely made of recycled props from UFO) was divided in two modules: the command module , which was designed to undock with the rest of the spacecraft in case of emergency, and the service module, which was a long corridor-like section.

When the spacecraft's crew, commanded by Captain Tony Cellini, who won this title at John Koenig, after approaching Ultra and detecting some metallic objects, lost contact with Earth and Moonbase Alpha and its black box temporarily disactived itself. They orbited the planet and found many and many apparently lifeless spacecraft (many of which were recycled models from other episodes). Cellini and Darwin King detected breathable atmosphere in a big spacecraft and docked with it (with the left airlock of the probeship), but when they opened the airlock, a deadly mind-controlling monster (known in the episode as "the dragon" and in the German Zack and Italian AMZ comic adaptations as "the octopus", due to its tentacles) appeared and killed everyone except Cellini, who escaped by entering the command module and undocking. He used Ultra's gravity assist to return to Earth and he, still alive, was found in his lifeboat after six months.

The medical responsible of his case was Dr. Helen Russell (wife of the Astro 7 astronaut Lee Russell) and World Space Commission Chairman Commissioner Dixon declared his story a fake, as he though that Cellini really unintentionally caused depressurization in the service module by undocking and he invented the monster. Everyone except Koenig though the dynamic of the events was like what Dixon though, and Cellini was considered insane.

On 13 September 1999 Cellini (as an Eagle Transporter pilot), Koenig (as the Commander), Bergman (as a host scientist) and Russell (as the Chief Medician) were all at Moonbase Alpha as the Moon begun travelling through outer space. After about 887 days (in 2002), Cellini had an hallucination of the lights the monster used to do appear before its own apparition and he tried to destroy it with an ax and, then, with an Eagle stole to Alphan pilot Alan Carter.

He had no success, but, after a short time, the Moon approached the spaceship graveyard and both Koenig and Cellini boarded an Eagle with Carter as its pilot. Cellini hit Carter again and he entered the command module, undocking with the pod and flying to the Ultra Probe's service module. There, he undocked with the Eagle's service module and docked with the probeship's one (at the frontal command module airlock). Then, the dragon appeared and Cellini tried, in vain, to kill it with his Alphan Stun/Kill Gun.

Meanwhile, Koenig and Carter's pod was intercepted and docked by a podless Eagle, escorted by three laser weapon-equipped Eagles and pursued Cellini. Then, the Eagle docked to the Ultra Probe's right airlock and Koenig tried to save Cellini, but he was too late and the monster killed the pilot, but it was later killed by Koenig.

Later, on Alpha, Russell wrote on her typewriter Cellini's story, Tony Cellini and the Monster, a story in the vein of George and the Dragon.

The probeship's command module is featured in the 2012 first issue of Space: 1999: Aftershock, as it is near the real life International Space Station with three astrunauts trying to capture it and the captions read: "But for each [mission there was] limited success--" and "--there were catastrophic failures.".

The fan-made Wikia website Moonbase Alpha Wiki identifies the Ultra Probe mission as Astro 9.

Two scale models of the probeship were built by Martin Bower for filming: a 2.7 foot (84 centimeters)-long one, used during the scenes of the departure and when the spacecraft is approaching or is docked to the alien spaceship (as it was in scale with the Space Dock and the dragon's ship) and a 5.3 foot (163)-long one, used during the scenes of the travel to Ultra.

There was also a model of the command module, which's undocking manouvers were inspired by the 1972 film Silent Running. For some reason, that model was striped of paintwork after filming and Martin Bower decided to repaint it similarly to how it appears in the episode, but he had no photographic footage, and he repainted it slightly differently from how it appeared. It is also known (from the notes on the blueprints) that, while designing the command module, Bower considered to modify an Eagle one, but he later did not.

Mark IX Hawk

The Global Defence Command's Mark IX Hawks are the space fighter alter-egos of the Eagles, descending from the fightercraft of World War III, and are apparently the successors of the SHADO Interceptors (it is also declared on the Hawk blueprints on Starlog #32, which also states that they are in use since 1997). They also are modular spacecraft, with a detachable command module and, in the series, are only featured as replicas created by aliens in the Year One episode "War Games", in which they approach Moonbase Alpha and, as Commander Koenig launches war Eagles, they attack them. Later, with Alpha left undefended, other Hawks escort a bomber spaceship (the extraterrestrial spacecraft seen in "Alpha Child") in its mission to completely destroy the Terrestrial base. In the 2012 second issue of Space: 1999: Aftershock, set in the Mojave Desert Military Recycling Annex (California, USA), when specifications about the spacecraft are asked, a Global Defence Command soldier answers: "Mark IX Hawk space fighter. Crew of 3-- pilot, weapons officer, and tactical commander-- though remote piloting capable as well. Speed 14.2 of light.", "Armaments: two belt fed automatic rail cannons: 500,000 rounds each. One chin mounted recessed gatling gun, 200,000 rounds ammunition. 2 micro missile launchers, full complement of 32 projectiles each, 2 retractable LBS laser cannons.", "Defenses: electrostatic ray defective hull plating, meteor screens." and "Total battalion strength: 8 flights plus the 3 ‘scrapped’ flights already hidden on the Moon makes 11-- for a total of 33 armed, loaded, and fueled fightercraft.". Dialogues also let understand that the Hawks are intended to be used for a coup d'état against "the World government", involving the destruction of Alpha (the plan is, however, canceled due to the explosion of Nuclear Disposal Area 2).