Speaker 1: As y'all already know, going from Orlando, Florida to Star
Speaker 1: City in Russia in the early two thousands was a
Speaker 1: bit of a shock. The gray buildings, the summer mosquitoes,
Speaker 1: no air conditioning, the endless bowls of soup. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: all became too much. I longed for just a few
Speaker 1: hours with my family, my friends, my dogs. And then
Speaker 1: one day I arrived at this house in the middle
Speaker 1: of Star City. I walked down some steps and opened
Speaker 1: the door, and I cannot believe my eyes. Right there
Speaker 1: in the middle of Russia is an old time American
Speaker 1: dive bar. There's a jukebox, whiskey, Chris Hadfield on the guitar,
Speaker 1: the whole shebaine. I am in heaven. I'm doing shots,
Speaker 1: shooting the shit, and I begin wondering, how on earth
Speaker 1: did I end up in an American bar with NASA
Speaker 1: astronauts and a walled off Russian military town in the
Speaker 1: middle of a forest. May it just start and lived
Speaker 1: on the launch of a rocket's carrying the first stage
Speaker 1: of the International Space Station. In this final episode, we
Speaker 1: tell the story of how the Americans and Russians overcame
Speaker 1: seventy years of Cold War within six years. The station
Speaker 1: will be a virtual village in the sky with people
Speaker 1: living and working in space to build humanity's most expensive
Speaker 1: and ambitious piece of real estate. All these nations are
Speaker 1: coming together the utilized technology not to blow up humanity.
Speaker 1: And how I nearly got to go. And this twenty
Speaker 1: three year old Southern boy wants to be more than
Speaker 1: a pop star. He wants to be among the stars.
Speaker 1: And it's one step closer to achieving that drive. I'm
Speaker 1: Lance bass And from Kaleidoscope and iHeart and Exile Media.
Speaker 1: This is the last Soviet The collapse of the USSR
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one changed the world. One political scientist called
Speaker 1: it the end of history. Is Francis Fukuyala argue that
Speaker 1: the end of communism might presage what he called the
Speaker 1: end of history, the end of history. The great ideological
Speaker 1: battles between East and West, between communism and capitalism, were over,
Speaker 1: or so the story goes in space. The end of
Speaker 1: the Cold War was a massive opportunity for America to
Speaker 1: finally catch up with their old enemy and to create
Speaker 1: a symbol for a new era of peace and cooperation.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, Russia joined the United States and
Speaker 1: its international partners in the largest cooperative space exploration effort
Speaker 1: in history. In September nineteen ninety three, American Russia announced
Speaker 1: to the world that they were going to build a
Speaker 1: space station together, an international space station. By joining our efforts,
Speaker 1: we are able to create a whole that is greater
Speaker 1: than the sum of its parts. I was in the room.
Speaker 1: I think we all recognize we were seeing something of
Speaker 1: history racle significance in the idea that the former Cold
Speaker 1: War advert series were going to pledge to try to
Speaker 1: work together. That's John Lockston, Professor of Space policy at
Speaker 1: George Washington University. Wasn't a done deal yet. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of obstacles that had to be negotiated out
Speaker 1: of the way, and we got the brand trust of
Speaker 1: everybody that had ever worked with the Russians to help
Speaker 1: promote us. Ken Wrtler again, the guy from the last
Speaker 1: episode who helped Sarage choose his breakfast cereal. Ken knew
Speaker 1: that if this mad idea was going to work, he
Speaker 1: need one thing, and the first request that I made
Speaker 1: was to have Sergey work for me. Sarage had returned
Speaker 1: from his flight with NASA and was now back home
Speaker 1: in Russia. Welcome home Discovery, Prekrasnage. You've paved the way
Speaker 1: for a new era of cooperation in human space flight
Speaker 1: leading to our International space station. Great job. He had
Speaker 1: a lot of sway on the Russian program. He understood
Speaker 1: how to build space stations, which we didn't. He knew
Speaker 1: more about space stations than maybe all of NASA put together.
Speaker 1: He'd spent almost an entire year on one. He was
Speaker 1: the guy you wanted for this job. We would work
Speaker 1: together on every aspect. Ken in Houston and Sarageate and Moscow.
Speaker 1: What kind of language where we were going to speak?
Speaker 1: What kind of clock were we going to work on
Speaker 1: Moscow time or we're going to work on Houston time?
Speaker 1: Or what kind of food would we eat? Chicken with
Speaker 1: prunes or burgers? But it wasn't just the dinner menu
Speaker 1: that needed to be hashed out. They needed to talk
Speaker 1: about how they were going to build the damn thing,
Speaker 1: because this is not just another better space station. What
Speaker 1: they had in mind would be four times the size
Speaker 1: of mirror the Soviet space station. It would be the
Speaker 1: size of an entire football pitch, and it would be
Speaker 1: a group project made of thousands and thousands of parts,
Speaker 1: some made by Russia, some by America, and they would
Speaker 1: all have to fit perfectly and be assembled in space.
Speaker 1: When the whistle blew orbiting hard hats, Jerry Ross and
Speaker 1: Jim Newman got right to work, becoming the first car
Speaker 1: carrying members of the Union of International Space Station Workers,
Speaker 1: and over the next two years it grew peace by
Speaker 1: peace into a six bedroom house weighing about three and
Speaker 1: twenty cars. They passed over a brilliant lightning storm over Africa,
Speaker 1: didn't even see it because they were so engrossed in
Speaker 1: their work. With more than fifty computers and eight miles
Speaker 1: of cable to make the thing run. A triumph of
Speaker 1: diplomacy and engineering, the International Space Station is the largest
Speaker 1: ever peaceful technological cooperation, and in two thousand, at the
Speaker 1: turn of the New century, the International Space was ready
Speaker 1: to receive its first ever crew. The first crew of
Speaker 1: the International Space Station arrived at their new home for
Speaker 1: the next four months. From the American side, Bill Shepherd,
Speaker 1: and from the Russian side Urigzenko and Seragei Krecolatation Commander
Speaker 1: NASA's Bill Shephard announced he would allow his Russian crewmatee
Speaker 1: Ury Genzenko to float over the threshold. First, their task
Speaker 1: was to bring the station to life. They have trained
Speaker 1: for a long list of chores, activating computers, life support
Speaker 1: systems and the toilet, and repairing some failed Russian batteries.
Speaker 1: Now that they have arrived, the hard work of making
Speaker 1: their place in space ship shape begins. Since then, it
Speaker 1: has been constantly occupied by astronauts the world over. The
Speaker 1: first Japanese astronaut to live aboard the International Space Station,
Speaker 1: German astronaut will be responsible for conducting about forty experiments.
Speaker 1: Fifty three year old Swedish physicist has already visited the
Speaker 1: iss as for real and tim floated aboard the first
Speaker 1: British astra on the space station. It is a remarkable
Speaker 1: technical and political achievement to create this facility as a
Speaker 1: partnership now among fifteen countries and have it operate now
Speaker 1: for twenty three years, in the face of changing political relationships,
Speaker 1: particularly between the United States and Russia. This magical place
Speaker 1: is where I was training to go to learning Russian,
Speaker 1: spending hours in flight simulators, until one day it all
Speaker 1: went wrong. The insynct pop Star's dreams of going to
Speaker 1: space have been crushed today as funding for his trip
Speaker 1: has been thrown into question. When I went to Moscow
Speaker 1: in two thousand and two, it was two years after
Speaker 1: Sarage Cricleff had kick started the International Space Station into gears,
Speaker 1: two years after Putin took power in Russia. Today, the
Speaker 1: clear winner of the Russian presidential election of Vladimir Putin
Speaker 1: began to establish the Putin Era, the street shootings, law
Speaker 1: and disorder in the USSA, professors hawking pies in the metro.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what I can do. I'm going
Speaker 1: to have to go back to the train station and
Speaker 1: spend the night there. The wild nineties they were over.
Speaker 1: The Moscow I arrived in was shiny with optimism, riding
Speaker 1: high on the oil price boom and its promise of
Speaker 1: prosperity and stability. IKEA had opened its first store. Putin
Speaker 1: was hugging Tony Blair and Bono and Davos. We have
Speaker 1: co operation today that would have been really unthinkable just
Speaker 1: a short time. Again, First, I'd like to congratulate President
Speaker 1: Putin for being the only person that caught a fish.
Speaker 1: Today there were in sync CDs in the shops, fancy
Speaker 1: cocktail bars, Broadway type musicals of a sudden great wealth
Speaker 1: was in reach of a happy few. Wealth became fashionable
Speaker 1: bees with the new Russians, Russians with money, and just
Speaker 1: a reminder about why I was there in the first place.
Speaker 1: CBS wanted to do a reality TV show where contestants
Speaker 1: train as cosmonauts in Star City and the winner gets
Speaker 1: to actually go to space. Well, they wanted the host
Speaker 1: of the show that was going to be me to
Speaker 1: have gone to space as well. This is the pioneering stage,
Speaker 1: you know, we don't know where it's going to go,
Speaker 1: but eventually everyone should and we'll have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: travel into space. So in two thousand and two, I
Speaker 1: put my life on pause and started the six month training,
Speaker 1: and I took it really seriously. I knew a lot
Speaker 1: of the people there thought I was just some dumb
Speaker 1: pop star, and I get that, but I was determined
Speaker 1: to prove them wrong. So after training for the day,
Speaker 1: I spend most evenings watching the Russian version of Sesame
Speaker 1: Street to pick up some Russian words, pouring over space manuals,
Speaker 1: doing pushups. Slowly, I was getting there, and then one
Speaker 1: day I get called in for a meeting with a
Speaker 1: Russian big dog from the Space Agency and he says, look, Lance,
Speaker 1: you have to leave Star City. I'm like, what, what
Speaker 1: the hell are you talking about? He told me to
Speaker 1: pack up my gear and leave. That very day. I
Speaker 1: left from Moscow confused, trying to find out what the
Speaker 1: fuck happened. Lance believes very much that he will fly
Speaker 1: and we hope to have discussions in the next couple
Speaker 1: of days. It turned out the TV networks in Hollywood
Speaker 1: hadn't reached a deal with the Russian Space Agency. There
Speaker 1: were problems with a contract. This was a very strong
Speaker 1: message from our Russian colleagues saying, hey, time is running out.
Speaker 1: Bottom line is everyone had bailed on me, and I
Speaker 1: was learning this only now there was going to be
Speaker 1: no reality TV show, no going to space, nothing. It
Speaker 1: was a dark moment in my life. I worked so
Speaker 1: hard and suddenly it was all pulled away from me.
Speaker 1: I was crushed, but I was also pissed at my
Speaker 1: agents at the TV networks. I was here in good
Speaker 1: faith training to be a cosmonaut, putting my ass on
Speaker 1: the line every single day, doing my part, and they
Speaker 1: didn't seem to care. So yeah, I was feeling pretty
Speaker 1: desperate alone in a Moscow hotel room But then the
Speaker 1: Russians reached out to me. They said, there is another
Speaker 1: way for you to complete your training, but it'll cost
Speaker 1: you one million dollars out of your own pocket. That's right,
Speaker 1: one million. I know it sounds crazy, but I coughed
Speaker 1: it up. Okay, I wasn't going to space, but I
Speaker 1: would have that certificate. I would finish what I'd come
Speaker 1: here to do. So I went back to Star City
Speaker 1: for a few weeks and I finished the training on
Speaker 1: my dime for my own satisfaction. So today I can
Speaker 1: proudly say I am a certified cosmonaut, and I still
Speaker 1: hope to go back to Russia one day and finally
Speaker 1: fly to space, even though now that dream seems further
Speaker 1: and further away. All Right, our top story today, Russia
Speaker 1: has launched its invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has just
Speaker 1: addressed the Russian people a moment ago, announcing what Putin
Speaker 1: called the start of a military special operation. Vladimia Putin
Speaker 1: is calling this a quote special military operation to protect
Speaker 1: on Bass. This morning, the International Space Station in political
Speaker 1: crosshairs as Russia retaliates against American sanctions. The head of
Speaker 1: the Russian Space Agency Dmitry Vergosen posting this video on
Speaker 1: social media threatening to abandon American astronaut Mark van de
Speaker 1: High at the station. He's supposed to return home on
Speaker 1: a Russian ship in just three weeks. In February twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, Putin upended the world order and space became
Speaker 1: a battleground once again. When Russian invaded Ukraine in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, it felt like the three decades of relative
Speaker 1: cooperation between American Russia had been a blip, and the
Speaker 1: International Space Station they operate together became a target. Russia's
Speaker 1: war is putting years of collaboration at risk and the
Speaker 1: astronauts in the situation they did not ask for. Soon
Speaker 1: after the invasion and a series of wild tweets, the
Speaker 1: then head of the Russian Space Agency, a man called Regosan,
Speaker 1: actually threatened to crash the International Space Station into Earth.
Speaker 1: Regosan also making an ominous threat that without Russian help
Speaker 1: to move the ISS away from space junk, the ISS
Speaker 1: would crash into America or other countries. Then he said
Speaker 1: Russia would no longer sell rocket engines to the US.
Speaker 1: On TV, he said, in a situation like this, we
Speaker 1: can't supply the United States with our world's best rocket engine.
Speaker 1: Let them fly on something else. They're broomsticks. I don't
Speaker 1: know what he traded insults with NASA astronauts Scott Kelly
Speaker 1: sparred with Elon Musk overnight SpaceX firing back as it
Speaker 1: launched its Falcon rocket carrying satellites to orbit. Time to
Speaker 1: let the American broomsticks fly. It was all a bit unhinged.
Speaker 1: In autumn last year, an American and Russian crew arrived
Speaker 1: at the International Space Station, and one day, as they
Speaker 1: were preparing to go for a spacewalk, they discovered a
Speaker 1: leak in their capsule. Russian flight controllers and the flight
Speaker 1: controllers here Admission control in Houston had been noticing a
Speaker 1: stream of particles coming out of the sous MS twenty
Speaker 1: two vehicle. A small meteorite had probably hid it a
Speaker 1: micro meteoroid, a tiny space rock, just one millimeter across,
Speaker 1: but flying fifteen thousand miles per hour, And now there
Speaker 1: was a big problem. Temperatures inside the cabin could climb
Speaker 1: above one hundred degrees during a return flight, potentially overheating
Speaker 1: flight computers, and meant that they couldn't get back to
Speaker 1: Earth as planned. Russian space officials determined the damage craft
Speaker 1: is unsafe to fly, essentially stranding its crew. They were stuck,
Speaker 1: and as I record this, they're still up there doing repairs,
Speaker 1: gazing down at the chaos below, wondering when they're going
Speaker 1: to finally come home. Sounds familiar, right for the astronauts
Speaker 1: stuck in space right now. Things might be hard. They're
Speaker 1: losing muscles, their bones are getting weaker. They're probably sick
Speaker 1: of peeing into a funnel, and of course they miss
Speaker 1: their families and the comforts of home. But more than that,
Speaker 1: the political situation is worrying. The station their own is
Speaker 1: manned by Russia and America, who are not being friendly
Speaker 1: with each other right now. There are growing tensions between
Speaker 1: the US and Russia following the downing of an American
Speaker 1: drone earlier. Russian President Vladimir Putin says this country will
Speaker 1: now station tactical nuclear weapons right on NATO's doorstep. This
Speaker 1: trip to Moscow also sends a strong message to Washington,
Speaker 1: as tensions between both countries and the US remain high.
Speaker 1: But these astronauts, they have a secret weapon, someone on
Speaker 1: the ground who knows exactly what they're going through. Sarage
Speaker 1: Cricklif is the guy planning their rescue, always there, always dependable,
Speaker 1: totally dedicated to the dream of space. This man who
Speaker 1: watched as his country collapsed two hundred and fifty miles
Speaker 1: below him. I bade the chaos of street clashes. It
Speaker 1: was obvious to reinforce that position, the hardliners would have
Speaker 1: to resort to violence, And today is trying to keep
Speaker 1: above the fray, above the chaos and the politics, to
Speaker 1: bring both American and Russian astronauts back home. Good evening, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome here to the launch pad and our live launch coverage.
Speaker 1: Soyus MS twenty three launching from the Biken Or Cosmodrome
Speaker 1: in Kazakhstan, launching up to the International Space Station for
Speaker 1: a ross Cosmos rescue mission, replacing the leaky soy Use
Speaker 1: spacecraft up at the International Space Station. When I think
Speaker 1: about Saragei's story, it gives me hope, because I believe
Speaker 1: that space can be a utopia, a place where the
Speaker 1: impossible happens, where a chemist from the Mars bar factory
Speaker 1: ends up going to Russia to be a cosmonaut for
Speaker 1: the Russians. It was another small step, but from Miss
Speaker 1: Shaman and her British backup team. It had been a
Speaker 1: giant plea where a woman from suburban Australia becomes friends
Speaker 1: with Soviets floating in space. So I am such a
Speaker 1: happy person. I have been waiting two years to talk
Speaker 1: to you where a Vietnam war vet flies with his
Speaker 1: former communist enemy. We were both the same way. We
Speaker 1: wanted a peaceful world. We wanted a world in which
Speaker 1: people work together collaboratively for the good of humankind. A
Speaker 1: place that brings people together, where you see things as
Speaker 1: never before. Oh my God, look at that picture over
Speaker 1: there on a truly cosmic mind expanding scale. A good night,
Speaker 1: and God Boy, follow you, all of you on the garth.
Speaker 1: This dream of space is something Serage experienced in his bones.
Speaker 1: As he wrote to his friend Maggie from space, the
Speaker 1: Earth is like a map, but in contrast to a map,
Speaker 1: there are no borders seen. It is pleasant when there
Speaker 1: are fewer borders. People can rub shoulders, be friends, travel
Speaker 1: freely among each other, and get to know one another more.
Speaker 1: If rigid borders between neighboring people appear, then that will
Speaker 1: be bad. This is what space can do. It allows
Speaker 1: us to see our planet for what it is and
Speaker 1: all its complexity to see the Earth the human race
Speaker 1: as one whole. But for all that, in order to
Speaker 1: understand everything and get used to it, it is necessary
Speaker 1: to return and plunge into this life, and then to
Speaker 1: come back and build something new out of the ashes
Speaker 1: of the old world and the colors unbelievably useful and
Speaker 1: electric blue. Thanks Crunch Cards, Lord for the last time
Speaker 1: comes to an end to our International Space Station. Great job.
Speaker 1: Reality The Last Soviet is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeart Podcast and Exile Media, produced by Sama's Dad
Speaker 1: Audio and hosted by me Lance Bass Executive produced by
Speaker 1: Kate Osbourne and Mangesh Hadakador with Oz Wallashan and Kostas
Speaker 1: Linos from iHeart Executive Produced by Katrina Norvelle and Nikki
Speaker 1: E Torre from Sama's Dad Audio. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Joe Sykes and Dasha Lisiticina. Produced by Assia Fuchs, Dasha
Speaker 1: Litzitzina and Joe Sykes. Writing by Lydia Marchant, Research by
Speaker 1: Mika gola Boski and Molly Schwartz, Music by Will Epstein,
Speaker 1: Themed by Martin Orstrich, Mixing and sound design by Richard Ward,
Speaker 1: and special thanks to Nando Villa Well, Lissa Pollock, will Pearson,
Speaker 1: Connel Byrne, Bob Pittman, and Isaac Lee. If you want
Speaker 1: to hear more shows like this, nothing is more important
Speaker 1: to the creators here at Kaleidoscope than subscribers, ratings, and reviews,
Speaker 1: so please spread the love wherever you listen.