WEBVTT - THE LAST SOVIET - The Lance Files 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.840 Hey, it's Lance here. For the last few episodes, we've 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.560 been hearing all about Sergei Krekilev, the Soviet space program, 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:24.040 the space race, Russia's messy transition to capitalism. You know, 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.080 heavy stuff. But now we're going to take a slight 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.480 detour from all of that and talk about me, Lance Vass. 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:37.120 Are you ready all right? Y'all already know how I 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.520 became obsessed with space as a kid after I saw 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.239 a rocket launch at Cape Carnaval, and how from that 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.159 moment I dreamt that one day I'd put on a 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.479 space suit, squeeze into a teeny tiny shuttle piano funnel, 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.760 and blast off into the unknown. But what you don't 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.120 know is some of the crazy things that happened on 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.000 my trip, like meeting buzz freaking Aldron and a bar 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:00.360 in Moscow. Yeah. So on this episode of The Last 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.680 Soviet I sit down with one of my producers, Asia Folks, 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.000 to talk about how my dream of going to space 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:12.080 came true. Well almost from Kaleidoscope, iHeart and Exile content. 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:19.639 This is the Last Soviet. We start in the spring 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.399 of two thousand and two. N SYNC was about to 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.480 go on a six month hiatus. I needed that break, 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.800 but also it was like six months, what the hell 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.440 am I going to do relax poolside with a Margarita. Well, 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:36.080 an American TV network had other plans for me. They 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:41.479 were putting together a reality TV show where contestants would 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.039 compete for a spot on a Russian Soyer's space rocket 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.880 to the International Space Station and they were looking for 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.000 a host, but they wanted that host to go to 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.640 Space two. And then one day, the producer was sitting 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:56.800 at home with a friend discussing where the hell they 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.160 could find a celebrity interested in space, when suddenly his 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.040 friends nine year old says, Lance Mass wants to go 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.120 to space. Turns out she was a huge InSync fan, 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.680 followed all the interviews we used to do on AOL 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:14.040 chat rooms. Remember those? Yeah, I'm that old. Anyway, it 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.440 was because of that nine year old that one sunny 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.600 day in Florida, I get that faithful phone call from 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:28.000 my manager. And then that's when the phone call happened. 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.200 And I remember I was in my house in Orlando. 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.040 Cindy calls and says, Hey, I have a question, would 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.240 you like to go to space? I'm like, what, okay? 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.320 And as I know, seriously we got a call and 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:43.360 they want you to be the youngest person to go 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.359 to space. And my first thought was, all right, Cindy, 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.440 this is a joke because Punked was such a huge 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.040 show at the time with Ashton Kutcher. Okay, here's what's 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.680 gonna happen. We're gonna do something. Celebrity's gonna get pissed, 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.600 and then we're gonna laugh at them. I'm like, Ashton 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.440 is punking me. This is a total punk, but I'm 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.560 not gonna I'm not gonna bite and so yeah, that 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:08.520 was the end of the conversation for a few days 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.560 until Cindy called back again and she's like, so this 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.600 is legit. This is definitely not an Ashton Kutcher. This 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.560 is definitely not a prank. And that's when it just 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.520 hit me that, Wow, am I really going to have 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.920 this opportunity, an opportunity that I dreamt of my whole 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.800 entire life, my first love, my first passion. And it 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.720 just took off from there. I mean, once you realize 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.560 this is the real deal, You're not being punked, Ashton 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.600 Kutcher is not involved, Like what's going through your head 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.400 when you realize you might actually get to live out 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.480 this thing that you'd been dreaming of since you were 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.080 a little kid. I mean, the thing that was going 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.240 through my head was, you know, it's just it didn't 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.240 seem real. It was definitely surreal. I called my parents first, 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.560 because I just had to tell them. They knew my passion, 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:55.080 and I also knew that my mom was going to 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.000 be so against it, because you know, sending your son 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.600 into space is not the best thing or a parent. 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.680 I think it's very dangerous and scary. So I think 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.640 her first reaction was like, no, you're not doing this, 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.000 but just kind of like when I joined in sync, 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.400 there was no stop in it. And the other thought 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:13.800 going through my head was, wow, am I really going 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.080 to be able to live out two of my dreams? 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.000 My two biggest dreams in the world, music and space? 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.920 And how am I lucky enough to be able to 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.520 do both of those weird, very opposite things. There was 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.160 no thought that I was going to turn this down 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.159 at all, and I was just so excited. And I remember, 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.800 you know, going back on tour just a couple of 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.800 days later and telling the guys, and I mean I was, like, 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.000 you know, a kid on Christmas morning, just so excited, 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.640 and they were so confused, like what, Like they couldn't 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:46.839 even be happy for me because they were just so 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:51.640 confused on what was going on. Everything starts slowly coming together. 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.360 The plans for your great space adventure. You've now told 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.240 your family, you've told in Sync boys, it's time to 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.960 get into gear. Yeah, and the plan is this, You're 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.000 going to spend six months of intensive cosmonaut training in 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.920 Russia and then shut off to space in October two 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.360 thousand and two. But before all that, you need to 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.520 pass these very stringent medical tests in Russia. Right, and 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.960 it turns out there's something wrong with your heart. Yeah. 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.000 Before you go into training, everyone has to go through 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.559 medical and it's where they study you for a good week. 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.800 So I had my dad with me and a bodyguard 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.279 with me the whole time I was there. But they 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.000 research everything about you. Every little inch of your body 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.640 is studied, I mean everything. So I mean you're sitting 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.040 there completely naked in front of like eight doctors standing 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.320 on a table as they're like poking you and putting 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.320 fingers where they shouldn't be putting fingers, and they just 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.440 wanted to make sure that you're as healthy as possible 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.240 because going to space is, you know, quite dangerous and 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.159 it's a different way of living. So one of the 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.120 criteria for a cosmonaut is you have to have a 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.839 regular heartbeat, and for some reason, I had an irregular heartbeat. 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.200 I knew I had an irregular heartbeat. I'd been diagnosed 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.880 without a few years earlier, but was completely benign. But 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.120 that was the one thing that I did not pass. 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.640 So I failed my first medical and it was because 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.039 of the irregular heartbeat. And I was disappointed because I'm like, really, 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:17.240 this is what's going to stop my dream of going 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.839 to space is an irregular, benign heartbeat. And so we 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.919 found this doctor in Boston that wanted it to do 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.040 an ablation surgery and said he thinks that he could 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.920 fix this and see where it's misfiring. And ablation surgery 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.479 what what is that? It's where they send basically these 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.400 rods up your arteries, about five of them through your 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.360 groin and it goes up to your heart. You're awake 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:40.680 during the whole thing, so there's all these television screens 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:43.840 around your head and you're seeing the little cameras inside 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.599 you and seeing where everything is, kind of trying to misfire. 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.480 They're studying in it for I felt like hours. I'm 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.480 listening to Harry Potter's book on tape, but I guess 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.279 it was on CD then because it was two. Yes, 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.080 it was the first time I had listened to a 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:00.800 book before and it was Harry Potter. So I was 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.320 listening to that for quite a few hours. And then 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.280 when they find the spot where it is misfiring, they 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.520 will burn it. It feels like a match, like being 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.920 put out on your heart. It hurt like hell, but 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.520 you know, in the end it worked, and now to 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.440 this day, I have a regular heartbeat. So going to 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.320 space or not, I'm kind of glad I did it. 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.400 You go through the surgery, it's you know, it's quite 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.800 an ordeal. In Sync finally goes on its six month 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.360 hiatus and you fly into Rush or you fly into 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.440 Moscow and you get to Star City. What are your 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.680 first impressions of the place. Well, when I fly on 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.240 to Moscow, it was just an overwhelming feeling because you 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.040 see all the things that you've studied in history books 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.520 and all these gorgeous pictures of Moscow. It was it 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:47.320 was beautiful, So you know, I was a good tourist 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.400 for good twelve hours when I first landed there. Of course, 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.480 the first thing I tried doing was going to McDonald's 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.560 because I heard that McDonald's was like the crazy thing 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.760 in Moscow, and of course it's stupid America. It's like, 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.360 I want to see this McDonald which I did. So 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.720 that was a fun sight seeing experience. I mean it 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.480 was exactly what they said, completely packed, huge. I mean, 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:11.040 people were fighting over McDonald's. It was a it's a 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.720 big thing. And then of course seeing the Kremlin and 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:15.800 all that. I mean, it's just, you know, just history 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:18.240 right in front of you. I did do Saint Petersburg 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.040 for a weekend and it's gorgeous. But the places that 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.640 I did see outside of those cities could not be 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.680 more opposite of what those main cities were. Like, it's 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:32.040 a completely different country. The wealth distribution is just insane. 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.559 And then you go to Star City and first time 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:41.040 I pulled up to is very intimidating. The gates, the walls, 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:43.560 in the middle of a forest. You've been driving for 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.280 it felt like hours to this just middle of nowhere 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.840 place that looks like it is literally from the sixties. 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.480 And the first thing I noticed is how many guns, 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.000 I mean so many military They always just you know, 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.520 have their guns out, feeling like they're going to just 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.120 pointing out you at any second. And then you get 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.160 into the first gates and you just see this amazing 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:10.280 city that you feel like, this is exactly what Gagarin saw, right, 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.240 I mean, this is exactly the buildings he saw, This 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.080 is exactly where he walked. If you just took pictures, 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.959 you would never know what decade it was. So just 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:23.400 stepping back in time was really interesting and I just 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:25.960 loved it. I thought it was just a beautiful feeling. 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:31.800 So this all sounds really impressive. But what about you? 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:34.920 Where did you fit into all of this? Tell me 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.080 about where you were living. Oh? So, yes, I was 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.760 living in one of the cosmonaut profies. This apartment complex 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.240 again had been there since the sixties, chipped pain everywhere, 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.559 definitely wasn't kept up that great. There was no air conditioning, 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:50.960 and when I got there, it was just the beginning 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.920 of summer. You know, I'd always thought, oh, Russia's very cold, 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.120 so I bet the summers are really nice. Oh no, 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.600 it is hot as hell and there was no air 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.720 condition and so you'd have to sleep with the windows open. 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.440 But if you slept with the windows open, the mosquitos 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.360 would eat you alive. I mean so many mosquitos. So 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:11.840 the first few nights I have to sleep with a 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.640 little sheet over me, sweating my butt off and just 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.240 hearing like little thumps and mosquitos trying to get to me. 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:19.160 And then I'd wake up in the morning and I 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.680 would just see my whole wall was covered in blood 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.760 because of all the little splats that I would you 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.080 try to kill all the mosquitos, And it was miserable, 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.520 absolutely miserable. It sounds like you weren't really given the 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:34.040 star celebrity treatment, you know, right, So you were training 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.200 with the Russians, you were living with the Russians, and 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.600 you were getting ready to fly on a Russian Soyuz capsule. Yeah, 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.200 but as an American, NASA actually also had to approve 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:46.720 your flight, and there were NASA reps you had to 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.959 meet and impress. How did that go well? I mean, 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.200 especially at the beginning, you know, NASA didn't want me there, 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.640 you know, it was it was ridiculous. Oh my gosh, 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:56.880 you're gonna get a pop star to come train and 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.600 go to space, you know, that's a slap in so 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.640 many astronaut's faces that have not flown or will never fly. 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:05.240 So you know, a lot of you know, NASA definitely 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.760 didn't want me there. They thought it was a bad look. 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:10.040 And I remember the first time that I met with 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.120 NASA officials right before I went into training. They wanted 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:14.360 to meet with me, need to make sure that I 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.880 had the goods right to do this, and so met 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:20.160 with them. I thought it was a great meeting, and 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:21.840 then I find out later that, you know, they thought 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.200 I was like Dama's Rocks, And they also thought that 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.840 I was an alcoholic and drug addict because I was 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:32.160 a quote unquote rock star, right, yeah, like have you 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.880 seen our group? We're pop stars? Ed? Yeah, far from it. 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.520 Because do you think there are any aspects of being 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:41.440 a pop star, being a part of in Sync that 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:45.520 prepared you in any way for being an astronaut? I do. 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.920 It's odd to say that being within Sync and what 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.080 I did and trained within Sync, it really did help 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:54.240 me with this space training, and I think that was 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.520 started off with work ethic. You know, within Sync, we 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.480 spent hours and hours learning how to dance and singing 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.000 at the same time, which took us months to figure 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:06.600 that out, running on treadmills and trying to sing. So 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.080 conditioning was a huge part of just being an end sync. 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:12.920 It was almost like a sport just because of the 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.720 way that we performed. So when I went to Russia, 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.080 I was already ready to work hard. You weren't going 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.920 to see me not paying attention and being exactly what 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.640 they thought. I was going to be, this stupid little 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.080 pop star that is an alcoholic. It's just too dumb 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.000 to learn anything, you know. I was there to work 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.719 and work hard, and then it wasn't until the very 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.680 first week of training and all your tests or verbal 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.080 tests and they rate you one to five and I 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.120 forget even what the first classes were. I know there 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.440 was a lot of math involved, and I think it 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:43.959 was the makeup of the soya is. I took it 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.280 very seriously. It's amazing what you can get yourself to 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.280 do when you're putting these situations, and especially if you're 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.600 passionate about it. Yeah, And I feel like, especially if 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.360 you have this sort of motivation of someone saying you 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.840 can't do it, you know, you want to prove them wrong. 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.960 Oh yeah, exactly. So I mean I was doing rocket sign. 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:01.960 It's my first week there, and I'm like, I'm going 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:16.240 to prove you. I want to get to the training 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.040 in just a minute. But before that, what was your 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.560 sort of what was your impression of the Russians that 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:23.800 you met at Star City? What did you make of them? 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.280 The Russians that I met in Star City? The first 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.240 thing that I thought of is they're just proud, very 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:33.520 proud people. They're so happy about what they have there 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:38.640 and what they've developed since the sixties and all their accomplishments. 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.120 I mean, they still talk about Gagarin in almost every sentence. 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.160 That is their man. And I had heard of Gagarin 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.160 obviously the first man in space, but as an American 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.680 you don't really get two in depth with a Russian 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.520 space agency and the whole Gagaran story because you know, 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.040 it's a little embarrassing that they bear our country, so 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.400 we have a little revised history sometimes when we study. 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.000 I got to learn so much about Gagarin those first 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.800 couple of weeks, and I was super impressed and became 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.880 a huge fan. And I felt that I felt just 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.559 as proud as they did. But I loved it because 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.520 they you know, I would say probably half the Russian 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.120 Space Agency didn't want me there either. I don't know 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:19.720 if they thought it might be a bad look. It 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:21.920 could be something you can make fun of and make 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.520 it the space program look a little less than that. 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:26.880 They're allowing me to do this, but they never really 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.400 showed that to me. They treated me like a cosmonaut. 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.160 You know, once you're in cosmaut training, you're a cosmaut, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:38.400 and they respect cosmonauts so much, and you felt special. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.880 You felt very very special. I mean, the guy who 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.280 made my space suit made gagarin space suit. I mean, 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.440 it was just amazing that the same exact people that 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.760 worked with Gagaron or working with me this many decades later. 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:54.040 What was a typical day in Star City? Like sort 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.000 of talk me through your day from the moment you 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.640 wake up. I mean every day in Star City, it 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.320 wasn't typical. The only thing typical was you knew you 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.240 were up at five in the morning and you would 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.000 get back to your apartment by ten pm. So the 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:09.720 days were super long, and you would have at the 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.080 beginning of the week you would get your schedule and 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:14.640 it always changed, and of course it was all in Russian, 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.400 so I'd have to like figure out what exactly this 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:22.280 it says because my Russian teacher only spoke French and Russian, 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.760 zero English, and they thought just immersing myself in that 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.200 would make me learn Russian a lot easier, But it's not. 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:32.480 With zero reference, I had no idea what was going on. 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.840 So I knew how to conjugate everything in Russian, but 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.760 I didn't even know what the word meant. So I 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:40.840 had to start learning Russian on my own by watching 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.320 you know, the local Sesame Street cartoons and that type 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:46.440 of stuff. So yeah, so you know, I could conjugate 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:48.200 and I could read it, but I didn't know what 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.360 I'm saying. But thanks to Sesame Street, I knew the 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:52.960 certain words, and mainly the things I needed to learn 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.720 were just emergency words like there's a fire, you know, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.440 things like that. I mean, it was tough. The language 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.520 was definitely tough. Did you eat a lot of Russian 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.280 food while you were over there? I was forced to 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:07.480 eat a Russian food. I have a very stupid palette, 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.480 I would say, especially twenty years ago. There's many things 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.520 I wouldn't eat, even cucumbers, like that's how bland my 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.400 taste buds were. That was the first time, I had cucumbers, 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.680 and they love cucumbers over in Russian they do, yeah, 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:22.280 and so there's the only thing I could eat and 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.120 actually enjoy and know what it was. They liked their 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.080 shishka babs for sure, so that was nice. But they 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.440 always made me eat this soup and it was horrible. 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.080 I don't know what kind of soup it was, but 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.560 that was the one thing at lunch they were always 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:38.040 like forcing me to finish, So that was always strange 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.360 to me. Yea, we get into this a bit in 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.080 some of the other episodes, but I would love to 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.040 hear more about some of the actual training that you 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:52.040 went through. So tell me about survival training. What is that. 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.880 I feel like most of my training was about emergency 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.800 and survival. So you know, when you come down on 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.080 the soyas, sometimes you miss your mark and you don't 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.000 know if you're going to land in the ocean or 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.399 you're in a land in the middle of Siberia. You 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.000 have no idea, one little mistake and you're halfway across 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:12.160 the world. So you have to learn how to survive 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.600 for at least a day in case they can't find you. 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:17.719 So one of those if you land in the forest 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.879 is learning how to build shelter, make a fire, find food, 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.000 what things are edible and not edible. That was a 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.399 good I would say two week training Right there. I 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.120 felt like I was back in the boy Scouts, which 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.199 was fun. And then the other survival training was they 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.800 drop you in your Soya's capsule into a huge Olympic 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.760 sized pool and you have to in a certain amount 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.680 of time as you're sinking, get out of your skafand 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.679 er your flight suit, which is very hard because you 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.560 have all these bundles and your clothes and everything just 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.240 kind of pressed up against you. Your whole body is 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.480 numb because you're kneesier in your chest. So then they 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:55.919 drop you in this water and you have to get 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:57.919 out in a certain amount of time, and it takes 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:00.720 a while to get out of that space suit. And 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:02.680 the first time they did it, I did it in 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:04.879 a good amount of time, so I was very happy. 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.399 They were happy I got out safe and I was 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:11.199 able to move on to the next emergency train. You 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:15.960 also flew a fighter plane. Yeah, that was flying the 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.720 Russian MiG was like that was one of the first 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.359 days in Russia, and this was kind of my first 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:23.600 I don't know, look at what it was like to 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.359 be a Russian cosmonaut. They took me to this field 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.359 where they had these fighter jets, and I didn't know 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.119 what we were doing, but every cosmonaut has kind of 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.920 a mentor cosmonaut, and so my mentor cosmonaut took me there. 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.000 And we first go to this airfield and we have 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.439 a nice little lunch with some sandwiches and lots of vodka. 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.119 And I did come to find out that the vodka 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:49.400 thing is real in Russia. They drink it all day long, 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.040 and they do it to celebrate. They do it too, 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.600 oh we finished a class, great? Oh yeah, and they 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.119 do it straight. So I'm having a couple of vodka 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.880 shots and I'm feeling really good and he's like, okay, 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:00.760 let's go fly. I'm like what You're like, I thought 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:02.840 we were having a picnic. Oh no, So you know, 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.360 we're pretty drunk, and a commander's drunk, and he's like 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.760 all right. So we take out a little flight plan 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.760 and we're kind of drawing what we're gonna do, and 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:13.879 I'm like, okay, this is great. Like I've never flown 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.240 in anything like this, and obviously I have an amazing pilot. 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.959 So let's do this. So we get in, we you know, 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.840 take off, and then I realized that, no, he wants 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.760 me to do the flight path. I've never I've never 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.240 flown a plane before. You know, he does it first, 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.640 and we're doing circles and flips. It's everything you see 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.200 in Top Gun. And now I realize, he's probably seeing 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.720 how I can handle this, to see how I would 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.120 freak out if I was calm enough to do this, 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.560 and I was. I was not worried at all. Never 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:44.479 dawned on me that this could be dangerous at all 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.600 because I thought I was in great hands, which I was. 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.679 But then when I took over, it was amazing. I mean, 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:52.879 I was doing all these flips and you know, you 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:54.359 see in the movie where they go all the way up, 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.720 then they cut the engine and then you fall down, 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:58.119 and then they cut it back on and then just 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.240 pull it up right above the tree line. We were 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.840 doing all of that and it was amazing, absolutely amazing. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.960 But then you realize, wait a minute, he's drunk. This 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.040 guy is drunk, So you know, I definitely you know, 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:13.840 I knew the lever that I needed to pull in 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:15.600 case I needed to eject out of that thing. Let's 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.359 just say that. So you're getting closer and closer to 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:20.800 that October launch date. It's going to be you and 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.240 two other cosmonauts packed into this tiny soy Use capsule 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.080