I am in love with digital TV. The best part of digital TV is the guide. You can check the schedule of all stations and program the set-top box to start a certain show as soon as it begins, or you can record it. It was by checking that guide that I stumbled upon a documentary called ‘Space Hackers’. An appealing title and I was expecting a documentary about what would happen if some hackers took control over satellites or whatever. Not quite what it’s about, the summary in the guide explained me.

Space Hackers is about two young Italian radio enthusiasts during the 1950’s. In 1957 brothers Achille and Giovanbattista Judica-Cordiglia were able to eaves-drop on top secret space transmissions and in doing so they lifted the lid on the race to space.

Their passion was sparked by tuning into Sputnik 1 in 1957, the first ‘spacecraft’ launched by Russia. They were also keen on home movies and captured all their exploits on film. As if they knew they would make a movie about their story half a century later.

With home built equipment they monitored both the Soviets and the Americans as they explored space. One day in early 1961, weeks before Yuri Gagarin’s epic space flight, instead of the usual beeping tones which they had become accustomed to hear, they were startled by a sound which signaled a new chapter in the history of mankind: there, in the listening center of “Torre Bert”, these two young students heard, clearly and unequivocally, the beat of a failing heart and the last gasping breaths of a dying cosmonaut.

They figured out the fairly new medium ‘radio’ and really grasped the great possibilities. Governments, large organizations always run behind when it comes to these kind of evolutions. This fact of course creates an fantastic window for people like the two Italian brothers, who are offered an exclusive behind the scenes. In some way they even remind me of bloggers today. So of course they have a website, check it out.