he served as director of the famed hayden planetarium. he is out with a book on our fascination with space called "space chronicles: facing the ultimate frontier". we are glad your joining us. a conversation with neil degrasse tyson coming up right now. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: neil degrasse tyson is one of the most visible and respected astrophysicists of our time, serving as director of the hayden planetarium. he is repressing the series "cosmos." he has a book, "space chronicles: facing the ultimate frontier". good to have you on the program. let me start by asking the obvious question, what is the ultimate frontier? >> it is space. space, the ultimate frontier. when people thought of the frontier, it was where you were living and there was some edge beyond which no

we're here at the hayden planetarium at the american museum of natural history in new york city to welcomeg special hour of history detectives. our investigations tonight involve mysteries from three different chapters of american space exploration. it's all here: sputnik, space walks, and a truly astonishing claim that andy warhol artwork was smuggled onto the moon. and we'll need your help solving one of these mysteries, so stick around and see how you can pitch in. tukufu: our first story takes us to the dawn of the space race and a peaceful satellite project that may have secretly helped fight the cold war. october 1957: the soviet union makes history with the launch ofsputnik... radio announcer: a new moon is in the sky... the world's first man-made satellite. [ electronic beeping ] you are hearing the actual signals transmitted by the earth-circling satellite. for many scientists in the united states, the sound ofsputnik is the sound of their own failure in the space race. nasa vows to strike back with a first of its own. on august 12, 1960, the world's first communication satellite

the directer of the hayden planetarium, born and raised in new york city, he attended bronx high school of science and earned a ba in physics from harvard and a ph.d. in astrophysics from columbia. that's right. [laughter] he's been an adviser to nasa and three presidents on matters related to space exploration and has been awarded 16 honorary honorarydoctorates and has a asteroid named after him. he comes here to talk about space chronicles: the ultimate frontier. join me in giving him a warm welcome. [cheers and applause] [applause] >> thank you. that was a warm introduction. just so you know, this is the only public talk anywhere that i'm giving on this book, so you are here, here and now, for it. just so you know. i'm just saying. you're not missing it somewhere else. let me get ready up here. let me tell you how it all began. there was a big bang. [laughter] no. it was the 1990s. i was approached by columbia university press to write a chapter in an encyclopedia they were preparing to celebrate the end of the 20th century, and it was called quite simply, "the columbia history of th