WEBVTT - THE LAST SOVIET - EP 7: Homecoming 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:16.720 Just before Christmas nineteen sixty eight, three men blasted off 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:21.320 from Cape Kernaville, Florida. Frank Bourman, James Lovell and Bill 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.800 Anders were on a very special mission to orbit the 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:29.360 Moon for the first time. They were leaving behind a 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:34.080 world in crisis. Martin Luther King was shot and was 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.159 killed tonight in the metals, two hundred and thirty two 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:40.159 gis killed and nine hundred wounded, makes one of the 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:46.559 heaviest weeks in the Vietnam War. Senator Robert Francis Kennedy 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:51.839 died at one forty four am today, June six, nineteen 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:55.720 sixty eight. Nineteen sixty eight was the year the world 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.920 tore itself apart. The unrest and violence had spread rappid 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.760 in Paris. It was a night of wild disorder. Russians 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:13.319 have occupied Czechoslovakia, and as the three astronauts soar into 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.080 lunar orbit, they pray for the people back home. In 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:21.720 the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.840 the earth was about form and void and darkness, with 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.280 upon the face of the deep, and the bearing of 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:33.680 God moved upon the face of the water, and God 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.600 let there be light. They go around the moon three times, 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.480 recording data, trying to pick landmarks out of the relentless gray. 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:43.600 But I couldn't get it quick enough look at it 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:48.440 to see it lany. But on their fourth orbit, Bill 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.360 Anders looks out of his left hand side window and 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.280 he sees something that makes him lose that trademark astronaut composure. 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.000 Oh my god, look at that picture of it in 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:03.800 the Earth coming up. Wow, just over the Moon's curved horizon, 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.600 A slither of bright blue is rising up from the blackness. 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:16.360 It's the Earth, this rich patchwork of green, white and 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:22.480 dazzling blue coming out of the darkness, A small, perfect 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:30.440 circle in our huge universe, so far away, so beautiful. 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:36.320 Film him color quick. Bill scampers to get a camera 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:38.840 and load a roll of film to get a once 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:46.440 in a lifetime shot the Earth rising in the distance. 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.840 Probably seen that shot. It's now become known as earth Rise, 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:59.280 one of the most powerful photos ever. It showed the 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:04.239 world as a singular, fragile oasis, and God it was 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:12.800 good and the girl a boy A good night. I married, 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.560 and God will have all of you, all of you 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:22.440 on the good Earth. When they landed, Bill, who took 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.560 the photo, said, we came all this way to explore 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:30.000 the Moon, and the most important thing is that we 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:41.960 discovered the Earth. That photo. It changed Bill. He'd grown 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:46.040 up your classic cold warrior, convinced the Soviet Union was 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.880 evil incarnate, that America's role in the world was to 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.560 defeat its enemies. But when he saw the Earth, he 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:58.080 had a profound realization. This is the only home we have, 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:02.160 and yet we're busy shooting each other, threatening nuclear war 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:10.240 and wearing suicide vests. It amazes me. You can't go 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.320 to space, see the Earth from a distance and come 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.520 back the same person. Bill was only in space for 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:21.440 a week, and it changed his whole life. It's an experience. 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:25.120 Many astronauts talk about the feeling of suddenly seeing our 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:30.240 planet from a distance, realizing that we're all connected, that 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:36.360 our humanity transcends national borders. In politics. The philosopher Frank 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.680 White even gave that feeling a name, the overview effect. 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.719 I wonder if Serage Krikalev experienced something like it decades 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:52.920 later in space for three and thirteen days, watching storms 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:57.760 brew and subside, city lights go on and off, seeing 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:03.360 no countries, no borders, just these huge, anonymous, yellow green 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:10.080 chunks of land. Suspended in a brilliant blue sea. How 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.560 did that change him and what would happen when he 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:20.120 came back. I'm Lance bass And from Kaleidoscope and iHeart 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:37.560 and Exile Media. This is the last Soviet It's early 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.400 nineteen ninety two. Sergei Krikolev has been in space for 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.160 nearly a year. After a long day of repair work, 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.719 he floats over to his ham radio station, looking forward 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.520 to a call with Maggie. They talk about normal stuff, 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.960 what he's been doing on the station, about Maggie's kids, 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:03.160 But then the tone changes. She says, Saragay, I actually 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.720 have a question for you. It's from a journalist. He 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.240 wants to know if the Russians are selling mer your 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:17.200 space station. Could it really be true they want to 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.279 sell the station that he sacrificed so much to keep alive. 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.719 Sarage doesn't know what to tell Maggie. In fact, the 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.279 Russians had put a price tag on the space station 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:33.719 six hundred million dollars. NASA was tempted, but in the 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:37.080 end the Americans decided it was a national security concern. 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:43.240 It went nowhere. Meanwhile, the Russians are desperately trying to 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.280 sell a seat to space. It's the only way they 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:50.560 can get enough cash to bring Saragey back, And so 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.680 month after month, the same directive crackles across the radio. 0:06:55.240 --> 0:07:00.240 Just stay put, But Sarah Gay is getting agitated eating. 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.600 He asked Mischi Control to send a supply craft with 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:08.760 some honey to cheer himself up. Sorry, they say none available. 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:16.160 Times are tough. They sent lemons and horseradish instead. But 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.880 finally Sarah Gay receives the call he's been waiting for him. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:25.160 We found a German cosmonaut. He's buying a seat for 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:37.760 twenty four million dollars. You're coming home. Sarahgee makes calls 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.600 to his family. The news spreads, he does a press conference. 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.920 One Russian journalist asked him, when you left Earth, it 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:55.160 was still the USSR. Your city was called Leningrad and 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:59.640 now it's Saint Petersburg. What is the biggest change for you? 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:12.000 Saragey pauses, then says, so much has changed, but what 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.440 surprises me most is that at first the Earth was dark, 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.600 and then it was light. It was winter, then summer. 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.720 Now everything is thawing again. That's the biggest change you 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:32.920 can see from here. His last days are filled with 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:37.480 handover tasks, checks, final repairs, writing up notes for the 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.640 next crew. And then it's time to call Maggie. You father, 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:51.640 my you father. Ready to go home? Okay, she sounds flat, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:59.800 not her usual self. I'm going to miss you, but blood, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.560 we're here to go home, he says. I'm glad too, 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:12.320 but I'm going to miss my friends. And then the 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:24.320 connection cuts and I'm Maggie. You have a few things 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.080 too that you would like to read to us that 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.199 they actually sent to you from space. Oh one is 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.160 a very poignant letter. That's Maggie on an Australian radio show. 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:40.920 Perhaps Margaret, you have read that that they considered say, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.360 a time traveler. In other words, he was in space 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:49.079 while his country changed its name, attract the political system. 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:56.240 Everything changed, everything changed, and their pay changed, their their 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.800 rank or status, everything changed, and he was in space 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.240 is going to return to a new world. It was 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:06.360 rather like he was a time traveler, time travel time traveler. 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.560 And I received a really lovely letter from Sudage. Would 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.120 you like to hear that letter? It's rather interesting and 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:25.560 this is what Sudhegey said, my head. It translated to 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.640 be precise. It is as yet difficult to say how 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:33.280 our life will change in these circumstances. Previously, the borders 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:38.760 between republics were by convention. If the republics are separated anymore, 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.960 there will be more problems from space. The Earth is 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.280 like a map, but in contrast to a map, there 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.800 are no borders seen. It is pleasant when there are 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:54.760 fewer borders. People can rub shoulders, be friends, travel freely 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.440 among each other, and get to know one another more. 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.600 Many of our friends in real to live in different republics. 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.480 If rigid borders between neighboring people appear, then that will 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:12.040 be bad. Sarage's vantage point on the collapse of the 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:17.079 USSR was to say the least unique. Like Bill Landers, 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:20.200 the guy who took the Earthrise photo serge experienced his 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.839 own version of the overview effect. He continues to say, 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:30.000 there are always changes going on, even when one returns 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.960 from a short journey. One must become accustomed to changes, 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:42.920 and his very last comment, it's a long flight now. 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.760 Rapid change is at home. We know a lot from 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:50.240 news on the radio, but for all that, in order 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:54.400 to understand everything and get used to it, it is 0:11:54.480 --> 0:12:11.800 necessary to return and plunge into this life on the 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:16.240 twenty fifth of March nineteen ninety two, Serge's capsule lands 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:21.960 in the desert steps of Bikanore, now Kazakhstan, a new country. 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:29.040 People run to the capsule, open the hatch Saraghe's lungs 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:33.920 fill with fresh air. He feels hands dragging him out. 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.720 He tries to move, but his limbs feel like heavy dough. 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.760 His skin's clammy. Someone is fanning his face with a handkerchief. 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:48.800 He feels a blanket being wrapped around his shoulders. Warm 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.880 broth is spooned into his mouth. The press cameras click 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:57.600 away in the background. After the doctor has checked his 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.240 blood pressure and heart rate, Surge, still pretty out of it, 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.439 is bundled off into a small plane that's going to 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:10.320 take him home. But it's not home as he knows it. 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:15.600 When he left, his city was called Leningrad. Now it's 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:20.440 Saint Petersburg. And in the new Saint Petersburg sarage, the 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.959 hero who saved mere earns less than a taxi driver. 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.520 He discovers he can barely afford his weekly shop, and 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.400 no one cares about cosmonauts. Now we live in a 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.920 different reality. That's Artemi Trotzky again, one of the founders 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.520 of the Gagaran raves. I think that the perception of 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:45.960 normal people here is just forget it all right, Yes, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.120 we're the first man in space. It was great, but 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:53.680 so what, so what the dream of the Soviets conquering space, 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:59.520 the dream that started with Uri Gagaron, It's died. Sarage 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:04.160 Hessaker fist everything for this dream, his own body, time 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.760 with his family. But now finally back home, he's a 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:13.000 nobody in this. In your reality, they're simply low space 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:17.839 for space. Everything is very much down to Earth now, 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.280 and Serage is maybe starting to wonder will he ever 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:27.680 go to space again. He's a real space here and 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:32.040 the second biggest space hereafter, but in Les Condri is 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.800 almost unknown. His colleagues are leaving the Space Agency in 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:41.320 droves to work in places making plastic toys, Coca Cola, 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:45.440 Western products, and if they can't get those jobs, they 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:50.280 sell their space metals in the metro. But then sometime 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.640 in the summer, just as the first long warm evenings 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:58.600 are creeping up, Sarage gets an opportunity from an unlikely source, 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:01.520 and I said, okay, what is it? He said, well, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.640 it's STS sixty and you're going to have two Russian 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:09.040 cosmonauts who are going to train with you, and one 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.320 of them will fly, And I said, forget it. I'm 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.360 a marine. I trained all my life to kill those guys, 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:14.800 and they trained all their life to kill me, and 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:32.200 I don't want to fly with any damn Russian. My 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.400 preconceptions about the USSR was that they were one of 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.680 the most powerful militaries in the world, and that everything 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.400 that they did was designed to take down the US, 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.120 and that they would stop at nothing to do that. 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:50.200 They were our ultimate enemy. That's Charles Bolden, retired astronaut 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:55.000 and the first black NASA administrator well a day. I 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.240 did not want to become an astronaut growing up. I 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:00.760 grew up in the segregated South during the time of 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.440 Jim Crow in schools, and because of the way things 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:06.840 were when I grew up, I knew what astronauts were, 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:11.200 but that was not anything that was remotely possible in 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.120 my mind. They were all white, they were all about 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.120 five ten. I was none of those and I never 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.240 did become five ten, so I was never going to 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.760 get tall enough to be an astronaut in my mind. Instead, 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.840 Charles joined the Army Major General Charles F. Bulden, Jr. 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:31.360 US Marine Corps retired. He fought against the Communists in 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.600 Vietnam when things were at their hottest. He risked his 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.440 life and he came back to the US a certified 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:41.720 Cold warrior, And in nineteen eighty one Charles applied to 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.560 become an astronaut. He went from fighting communism in the 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.640 skies of Asia to doing it on a much higher 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:53.400 plane space. We lived in a bipolar world at that time, 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.880 and the two powers had been the Soviet Union and 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.400 the United States, with their president's finger was on the 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.600 trigger that could destroy the planet. So we were by 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.639 no means friends were wanting to be friends at that time. 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:16.000 But then in December nineteen ninety one, the Soviet Union 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:20.800 fell apart. Just like that, the Cold War ended, America 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:26.439 emerged victorious, and they saw an opening well today, for 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:31.120 the first time an American president and the democratically elected 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:35.760 president of an independent Russia had met. In February nineteen 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.280 ninety two, Bush Senior and the new Russian President Yeltsin 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.760 met for the first time at Camp David, and we 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:49.679 did so not as adversaries but as friends standing side 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.360 by side, and their matching fur line parkers. In front 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.359 of the world's press, Bush presented the leader with a 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.800 cake and a pair of black leather cowboy boots, and 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:02.479 this his star meeting, was yet another confirmation of the 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.919 end of the Cold War and the dawn of a 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:11.040 new era. But behind the scenes, away from the cameras, 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.960 there were very serious talks in the back rooms where 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:18.240 politics actually happens, and it was not about friendship and 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:23.280 world peace. No. President Bush was worried about something else. 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.560 He became very concerned that with the disintegration of the 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.080 Soviet Union, everything that was a part of the Soviet 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:37.120 space program, as well as all their science and technology, 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:41.080 their nuclear arsenal, and everything might be subject to some 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:46.119 nefarious either nation state or somehow, and he did not 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.159 want to see all that go out across the world. 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:54.760 The Americans were basically afraid that newly unemployed Russian engineers, 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.399 guys like Seragei, would go work for other countries not 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:04.280 so friendly to America, say Iran, who knew where the bombs, 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.280 where the brain power, where all that stuff was gonna go. 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.040 It sounds a little James Bond, the Maverick Sovid engineer 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:16.360 going rogue building the most powerful nuclear weapon. But this 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:23.800 was a genuine worry, and so the Americans thought, we 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.320 need to try to get hold of this ourselves first, 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.040 which is how in nineteen ninety two, astronaut Charles Bolden 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.639 found himself in his boss's office being assigned to a 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.919 very special mission. And I said, Okay, what is it. 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.800 He said, well, it's STS sixty and you're going to 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.879 have two Russian cosmonauts who are going to train with you, 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:48.040 and one of them will fly. And I said, forget it. 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.000 I mean, I didn't even hesitate. I said, George, forget it. 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.280 I'm a marine. I trained all my life to kill 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.159 those guys, and they trained all their life to kill me. 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.040 And I don't want to fly with any damn Russian. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:07.480 But as boss says, look, we want to show the 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:09.879 world that we can be friends with the Russians or 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:14.040 former enemy, that we can work together, and this is 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.680 how we want to do it this mission. I understand 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.879 your concerns, but the Russian cosmonaut chosen. He's pretty impressive. 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.959 And it turned out that there was this cosmonaut, young 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:30.280 cosmonaut by the name of Sergey Konstantinovitch Krikoloff, who was 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.840 the commander of mir you know, the guy who agreed 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.800 to stay in space as his country collapsed for almost 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.800 a year. And so he said, you may as well 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.360 go to dinner with him and at least you see 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:43.959 what you think and then come back in and tell 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:49.160 me tomorrow morning. Yeah, tomorrow morning, because Sergey is actually 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:52.320 already in DC. And what we were trying to find 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.480 out was can we work together collaboratively or are we 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:57.359 going to be at each other's throats and we just 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:02.600 can't make this work. That evening there's a dinner at 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:08.240 a fellow astronaut's house, a seemingly relaxed affair. The dinner 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:11.960 turned out to be the critical event in this whole thing, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:16.800 and it was everything pivoted at the dinner. There's a 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:19.880 bunch of people there, but the two crucial players are 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:24.200 Sage and Charles. And so by way of introduction, we 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:27.320 each started talking about our families. I had a son 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.000 and daughter. Sarage said he had a daughter called Olga 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.399 and you know, just a little baby, so to speak. 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:39.640 So our conversation turned immediately to our kids and what 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.320 they were doing and everything, and eventually we started talking 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.360 about you know what kind of world did we want 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.800 our kids to grow up in. If we were king 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:50.960 for a day or whatever, what would we do to 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:52.959 make the world a better place for our kids? And 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.840 we talked a pretty long time. We were both the 0:21:56.920 --> 0:21:59.359 same way. We wanted a peaceful world. We wanted a 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:03.040 world in which people work together collaboratively for the good 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.840 of humankind. And you know, we just made things better. 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:12.159 Charles came home that evening in a daze. This was 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:16.480 his first time meeting a Russian in person, a former enemy. 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:22.119 He was impressed, and turns out they share the same worldview. 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.800 The next morning, Charles calls his boss and says, I've 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:31.840 changed my mind. I'll go on this mission. And so 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:34.800 a couple of days after that dinner with Charles, Sage 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:41.000 gets on another plane to the American star city, Houston, Texas. 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:53.480 That's after the break. For this whole thing to work, 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:57.240 Sarage first needs to integrate into the American way of life, 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.880 and so NASA assigned him a trual handler. My name 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:06.520 is officially Kenneth S. Rutler Junior. Ken was in a 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:10.560 way given the hardest job to introduce this Russian cosmonaut 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:14.400 to capitalism. He'd spent months thinking about what it might 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.199 be like to be in Saragey's shoes. He'd seen the 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.520 news on TV, the empty shelves and the collapsing country, 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:24.119 but now standing in Houston arrivals, it was time to 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:28.040 put the research to the test. We weren't sure about 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:32.399 how they were driving. We didn't know whether they understood 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.240 how rental cars work. I remember showing them how to 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.240 go to a self service gas station and pump gas 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:39.760 and pay for it, and how to go to an 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:42.520 ATM and get cash out of it, things like that. 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.439 So Ken's got Sarage a car, a bank account, a 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:50.800 new rental apartment, and now it's time to buy some groceries. 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:57.240 He takes Sarage to a giant supermarket nearby called Fiesta Marte. 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:00.200 A fun place. It was one of the bigger, more 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:04.760 interesting shopping centers. Everything you could possibly want there. Oh, Ken, 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:09.080 bad choice. I saw his eyes get bigger and bigger 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:12.479 as he saw so much stuff on the shelves, and 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:15.880 it was very clear that there was a decision process 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:19.359 going on. How am I going to decide how I 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:24.680 buy food for my family? Sage looks panicked. Ken's confused, 0:24:25.280 --> 0:24:27.879 What is it. That is the problem, and he explained 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:31.520 that they didn't have that money selections, and so he 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:34.560 was struggling with trying to make a decision of product 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:38.720 day versus product. Be Kins like, fine, we can take 0:24:38.720 --> 0:24:42.600 it easy. Let's meal plan. So we'll start with breakfast. 0:24:43.160 --> 0:24:45.720 All right, Sergey, what do you like to eat for breakfast? Well, 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:48.880 I like to eat cereal. Okay, great, let's go over here. 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:52.159 And he and I walked down to the cereal aisle. 0:24:52.680 --> 0:24:57.600 There's a whole aisle of cereal, frosties, Coco pops, rice, crispies, 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:01.000 and once again, you know, they eyes got big, and 0:25:01.000 --> 0:25:03.239 he said, well, you know, in the Soviet Union, we 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:05.760 have two kinds of Syria. We have white cereal and 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:08.879 we have brown cereal. That is a problem because we 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:11.720 have a lot of cereal to choose from here. It 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:15.280 takes some time to put it lightly. But finally Ken 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:18.959 and Serage worked through breakfast, lunch, and dinner and make 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:23.879 it to the checkout. And I realized at one point 0:25:23.920 --> 0:25:26.520 we had really achieved a major breakthrough. And that was 0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:30.040 when Sergey deferred to me to make a decision. And 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:33.080 so you got enough trust in my judgment and my 0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:36.040 tastes that I could make decisions for him. I knew 0:25:36.040 --> 0:25:38.680 that we were on a really good path. The next 0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:42.600 step on that path was the actual training, survival training, 0:25:42.680 --> 0:25:47.399 swimming training, ejection seat training, etc. But the Americans aren't 0:25:47.400 --> 0:25:51.199 exactly worried about Serge doing his homework. So I had 0:25:51.200 --> 0:25:54.199 been in space for five days, and Sergey at this 0:25:54.280 --> 0:25:57.800 point had had fifteen months in space. He was the 0:25:58.040 --> 0:26:03.000 veteran space layout. Serge had way more flight experience than 0:26:03.200 --> 0:26:07.320 almost than our whole crew put together. And so on 0:26:07.359 --> 0:26:10.680 the third of February nineteen ninety four, when Serge was 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:13.160 putting on a space suit ready to go into the capsule, 0:26:13.640 --> 0:26:17.199 Charles and Ken were one confident it was time to 0:26:17.200 --> 0:26:20.960 show the world that Americans and Russians could work together 0:26:21.400 --> 0:26:23.520 how systems are go for launch. At this time just 0:26:23.560 --> 0:26:26.200 a few minutes away from the eighteenth voyage of Discovery 0:26:26.320 --> 0:26:28.520 on an eight day history making mission, but the first 0:26:28.560 --> 0:26:31.520 flight of a Russian cosmonaut aboard the United States Space Shuttle. 0:26:32.840 --> 0:26:35.200 I don't think any of us ever lost track of 0:26:35.480 --> 0:26:39.080 the historical significance of what was about to happen. Lit Alone, 0:26:39.119 --> 0:26:46.480 Serge two one, hisstor ignission and liftoff of discovery on 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:49.080 a whole new era of space flight between the United 0:26:49.080 --> 0:26:52.800 States and Russia. I think most of us in NASA 0:26:52.960 --> 0:26:55.680 understood that the primary focus of the mission, no matter 0:26:55.720 --> 0:26:58.879 what it said in the public affairs guide, was to 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:02.440 be a demonstration and that ris Cosmos and NASA could 0:27:02.440 --> 0:27:06.520 come together, representing our two nations and demonstrate that we 0:27:06.560 --> 0:27:11.160 could effectively train to live and work together to carry 0:27:11.200 --> 0:27:18.400 off a successful mission that would benefit humanity. And one 0:27:18.440 --> 0:27:21.240 of the things that we did for the Russian people, 0:27:21.480 --> 0:27:24.040 we wanted to do a gesture that would that would 0:27:24.080 --> 0:27:27.520 mean something in them, and so we learned a Russian lullaby. 0:27:27.920 --> 0:27:30.720 I forget, I can't even remember the name of it, 0:27:30.760 --> 0:27:34.680 but every Russian child knows this lullaby because it's sung 0:27:34.760 --> 0:27:36.960 to them every night at about eight o'clock when their 0:27:37.000 --> 0:27:43.639 parents put them to bed. That was the gesture to 0:27:43.720 --> 0:27:46.320 the people of Russia, to the children of Russia, to 0:27:46.440 --> 0:27:49.040 let them know that here's your crew member representing you 0:27:49.200 --> 0:27:51.840 and your country up here with us. But we want 0:27:51.840 --> 0:27:54.080 to let you know how much we appreciate your culture, 0:27:54.160 --> 0:27:58.200 and this is our feeble effort to reach out to you. 0:28:04.160 --> 0:28:06.880 As soon as they landed, a week later, the mission 0:28:06.960 --> 0:28:17.800 was declared a resounding success. Welcome home Discovery, Prekrasna way 0:28:17.840 --> 0:28:20.200 for a new era of cooperation in human space flight. 0:28:20.359 --> 0:28:26.080 Great job. The teamwork that came about as a result 0:28:26.119 --> 0:28:29.920 of preparing for that mission and conducting it was priceless 0:28:31.640 --> 0:28:34.880 because when Sarage came back, the United States and Russia 0:28:34.920 --> 0:28:39.360 decided they could do something big together, something that would 0:28:39.440 --> 0:28:43.800 change space in politics forever. In a few years, the 0:28:43.840 --> 0:28:48.840 brightest star ever will appear in the sky. There will 0:28:48.880 --> 0:28:52.920 be a sign of hope because all these nations are 0:28:52.920 --> 0:28:57.480 coming together. The utilized technology not to blow up humanity, 0:28:57.960 --> 0:29:02.080 but to make this place a better world. They decided 0:29:02.080 --> 0:29:04.840 to build something the size of a football field in space, 0:29:05.440 --> 0:29:10.680 the most expensive man made object and perhaps humanity's greatest 0:29:10.680 --> 0:29:17.000 symbol of peace, an international space station. It is what 0:29:17.160 --> 0:29:22.200 has allowed Russia and the United States from breaking up 0:29:23.080 --> 0:29:26.080 in the one successful venture that we have today with 0:29:26.120 --> 0:29:36.080 all of our diplomatic fur balls and crazy acting. Next 0:29:36.120 --> 0:29:39.400 and final time on The Last Soviet, How Russia and 0:29:39.440 --> 0:29:43.240 America built something together in space and How I Almost 0:29:43.240 --> 0:29:55.680 got to Go. The Last Soviet is a Kaleidoscope production 0:29:55.760 --> 0:30:00.200 in partnership with iHeart Podcast and Exile Media produced by 0:30:00.240 --> 0:30:05.760 Sama's Dad Audio and hosted by me Lance Bass Executive 0:30:05.760 --> 0:30:10.080 produced by Kate Osbourne and mangesh Hada Kadoor, with Oz 0:30:10.120 --> 0:30:15.480