It Is Rocket Science is a BBC Radio 4 comedy about the history and development of human spaceflight, written and performed by Helen Keen.
[1] The premise of the show is that, lacking a big budget, "award winning comedian and part time local authority temporary administrative assistant" [2] Keen has built a ‘super computer’ named The Voice of Space to narrate her peculiar but factually accurate history of space travel, and recreate the voices of various of historical and illustrative characters.
Throughout the series The Voice of Space is referred to as possessing the attributes/spare parts of various types of vintage home computers (particularly ZX Spectrum, as heard in episode 1) and household kitchen equipment.
Keen has said that The Voice of Space's unique pronunciation of words such as universe (‘oooniverse’) which has drawn comment [1] is intended as an affectionate tribute to the vocal styling of the presenters of her favourite space themed TV programmes, particularly e.g. Carl Sagan's pronunciation of Cosmos (which sounded unusual to her as an English person).
[4] The show then embarked on a tour of science and arts festivals throughout the UK and Ireland before being commissioned as a radio series.