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American Experience
Space Men
Season 28
Episode 6
In the 1950s and early '60s, a small band of high-altitude pioneers exposed themselves to the extreme forces of the space age long before NASA's acclaimed Mercury 7 would make headlines. Though largely forgotten today, balloonists were the first to venture into the frozen near-vacuum on the edge of our world, exploring the very limits of human physiology and human ingenuity in this lethal realm.
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51:35
In 1927, the Mississippi River flooded from New Orleans, leaving a million people homeless
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51:28
The Dust Bowl brought drought, dust, disease and death to the Midwest for nearly a decade.