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On Sunday 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ended a landmark four-day trip on the Apollo 11 spacecraft and made history by becoming the first humans to step foot on the Moon. Forty years since those first "small steps" were taken, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four take a voyage "out of this world" with a month-long Moon Season of programming to celebrate this most momentous historical event, "launching" this summer.

As the season's centrepiece, Top Gear's James May makes his own very personal mission to travel to the ends of the Earth in two one-off documentaries.

On ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two, James May On The Moon takes the presenter on a personal voyage to fulfil his lifelong dream of flying to the edge of space. Along the way, he meets some astronauts who give their own personal accounts of what it is like to fly to the Moon.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four then travels 70,000 feet above the Earth to find out more about James May's intergalactic journey into the unknown, in James May At The Edge Of Space. Flying in a U-2 spy plane, James looks out of his plane to see Planet Earth far below him.

Throughout the rest of the month, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four will celebrate the auspicious events of 20 July 1969 with programmes featuring in-depth interviews and insight from the people who were there at the time, together with amazing restored archive footage.

In addition, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 2, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 3, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4 and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 5 Live will mark this landmark historical date through dedicated programming themed around the Moon landings.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Archive is also supporting the Moon Season by releasing a new online collection that tells the story of the Apollo moon missions, how they got off the ground and why they came to an abrupt end.

This is the latest collection being released by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Archive that enables the public to take advantage of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s access to unique historical content. The new collection will be found at bbc.co.uk/archive/moonlandings when the Moon Season begins.

GD/FB/LK