Orbital By Samantha Harvey

Episodes

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01Episode One20240108Across 24 hours on an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes'.

an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it' - Max Porter

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.

Abridged by Sara Davies

Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison

Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

Six astronauts orbit the earth on an international space station.

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station contemplate the world below.

From an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. Ep 1/5: The crew wake to a new 'day'. A day of 16 mornings.

02Episode Two20240109Across 24 hours on an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes'.

an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it' - Max Porter

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.

Abridged by Sara Davies

Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison

Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

Six astronauts orbit the earth on an international space station.

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station contemplate the world below.

From an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth, as it passes below. Ep 2/5: The typhoon builds, and Roman makes contact with a stranger on the ground.

03Episode Three20240110Across 24 hours on an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes'.

an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it' - Max Porter

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.

Abridged by Sara Davies

Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison

Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

Six astronauts orbit the earth on an international space station.

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station contemplate the world below.

On an international space station, six astronauts orbit the earth. Ep 3/5: Chie remembers her mother - a survivor of the atomic bomb - and Nell processes her first space walk

04Episode Four20240111Across 24 hours on an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes'.

an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it' - Max Porter

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.

Abridged by Sara Davies

Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison

Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

Six astronauts orbit the earth on an international space station.

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station contemplate the world below.

From an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth, as continents and oceans pass below. Ep 4/5: The crew think of missed loved ones on the surface below.

05Episode Five20240112Across 24 hours on an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes'.

an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it' - Max Porter

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.

Abridged by Sara Davies

Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison

Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

Six astronauts orbit the earth on an international space station.

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station contemplate the world below.

From an international space station, six astronauts contemplate the earth as it passes below. Ep 5/5: It's movie night on the space station, and the typhoon hits land.