WEBVTT - THE LAST SOVIET- EP 1: Let’s Go 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.800 Two hundred and fifty miles above the Earth, Traveling at 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.880 five miles a second, a man completes a perfect circle 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:35.159 around the globe. His name is Serge Krakov. He's a 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.600 Soviet cosmonaut, and he's manning the world's only space station, 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:41.920 the Pride and Joy of the U. S. S R. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.520 The year Sarage has been up there for three months 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:53.040 by now on the space station. Every day starts the 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.160 same way, with a call at seven a m. Moscow 0:00:56.240 --> 0:01:00.760 time from michig Control. He reports his stats, blood pressure, 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:08.600 heart rate, and mood. Sometimes in the evening, when he 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.679 feels lonely, he will tune his hand radio equipment to 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:17.640 the right frequency and make contact with his friend in Australia, Maggie. 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:20.560 They chat about what he's done that day, and she 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.600 sends some clippings from the newspapers. That's a pleasure, pleasure. 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.440 As the days bleed into one another, he's starting to 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:37.560 feel a bit space sick. He's been counting down the 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.440 weeks till he's due to come back to Earth, back 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.920 to his home, his wife and their one year old daughter. 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.240 But then one day, his friend, this woman in Australia, Maggie, 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:05.040 tells him something troubling. She says, Sarage, something bad is 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:09.360 happening in your country. After months strikes, protests, and deepening 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:13.359 economic chaos. People are sleeping in train stations. There is 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.120 no food in the shops. I gave them my money 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:19.639 that they should old woman, we won't give you your bread. 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.680 Law and order seem to be breaking down, the banding 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.639 of the k President Gorbachev's grip on the country is slipping. 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.920 The republics that make up the Soviet Union are starting 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.360 to break away. There were wild scenes, gun fire, and 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.239 three deaths. Soviet forces tried to capture the main center 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:43.000 of opposition. Surage doesn't know what to think. He asked 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.720 mischion control, what's going on? But they don't tell him anything, 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.760 just parrot the party line. Nothing to be alarmed about. 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:57.080 Everything is fine, And so Sarage is floating around the 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.240 space station, struggling to believe that down there on Earth, 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:05.440 everything he knows, everything he believes in, is falling apart. 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.320 Wood rippled through the crowds that the army was about 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:13.880 to launch a major assault. Seventy four years of communism, 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.000 seventy four years of trying to create a different way 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:21.400 of life, a different society, a different vision of the 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:27.240 world is on the verge of collapse. It's quite time. 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:46.640 Uh Sarah still has to do his job. The station 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.320 has to have an engineer on board or it might 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:53.880 shut down, but he's doing it on autopilot, his minds 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:58.000 firmly on his loved ones, wondering if they're okay, if 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:03.240 they're safe. And then one day he wakes up to 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:08.560 a message from his handlers on the ground. They tell him, 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.520 we can't keep this from you anymore. It's true. Everything 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:18.400 is collapsing around us, including the Soviet Space Agency. We've 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.400 run out of money. We can't send anyone to replace you, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.680 So we're giving you a choice. You can come back 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.800 down to Earth is planned and abandon the station to 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:34.200 an unknown fate, or you stay as long as it 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:39.520 takes and protect the station the final outpost of a 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:45.800 falling empire. Sarage knows. The longer you spend in space, 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:52.600 the more your muscles start to disintegrate, your bones weaken, headaches, nausea, vomity, 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:58.120 And then there's what might happen to your mind, something 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:03.280 called space horror. We're being up in space so far 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:08.880 away from home, will literally drive you insane. So what 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.520 is Sarage going to do? Go back to Earth, be 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:17.480 with his family, his newborn daughter in these truly desperate times, 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:23.520 or stay in space, save the space station, serve his country. 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:37.599 The very last Soviet. This is the story of one 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.280 man who lived through the final days of Empire. But 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.000 evening the East Germans of the Knights tarted to tear 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.880 down parts of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of one 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.240 dream all Russia's just wild about urga In the first 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.040 man took conquer space and the birth of another future 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.280 for the Russian people. Storians may have trouble describing a 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.200 Davin Chile got resigned as the president of a Soviet 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:04.520 union from a unique and perhaps ultimate advantage point space 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:10.440 and the colors are unbelievably beautiful. This incredible bond, thin, 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:19.160 beautiful bond an electric blue. I'm Lance Bass and from Kaleidoscope, 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:24.160 I heard podcast and exile content. This is the last Soviet. 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.799 Now you may be wondering why am I Lance Bass 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.440 from in synct of all people telling this story about 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:45.680 a Soviet cosmonaut. Well, yeah, probably won't believe this, but 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.760 I am a trained Russian cosmonaut. Yeah, you heard that right. 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.200 In two thousand two, I was at the end of 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:55.600 an international in SYNCT tour that felt like it had 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.359 been going on forever. I was about to have my 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.200 first real break in years, six months off to do 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:07.520 what I wanted, like sleep and see my family. And 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:09.840 then I was sitting at home in Orlando, having a 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:13.520 little breakfast, probably a green smoothie and pancakes, and I 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:17.200 get this call on my phone. It's my manager, Lance. 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:19.960 What would you say if I told you I've got 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:24.119 you a ticket on a Russian space rocket. I almost 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:26.240 dropped my phone, to be honest, I thought it was 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:30.840 a prank, but pretty quickly it became clear this was real. 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.559 Thank you, John six fifty seven. Now, finally, this morning, 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.480 one in Sync band member is one step closer to 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:39.720 saying bye bye bye to planet Earth. I would be 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:41.880 going to Moscow to train for six months to go 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.080 on a mission to the International Space Station. The final 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.120 deal hasn't been signed yet, but the Russians have named 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.840 Lance Bass as a member of the third At just 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.080 twenty three years old, I was going to become the 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:58.480 youngest person in history to go to space the Space 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:04.400 Station in October, and he's too young for you. Now, 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.000 If that sounds crazy to you, crazy that I would 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.120 want to use my precious six months off to take 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.040 part in one of the most intense and grueling experiences 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.960 of my life, then I think there's something you need 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:22.680 to understand. I am absolutely madly obsessed with the space. 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:25.720 I have been ever since I was a little kid. 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.160 When my family drove from Mississippi to Cape Kernaville in 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:35.679 Florida to watch a rocket launch fourteen hours in a car, 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:41.959 hot and humid, like someone was breathing on you. We 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.240 arrived in my dad's blue station wagon, pulled up to 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:51.480 the launch side, and that's when I saw it in 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:56.679 front of me, a gigantic rocket and this big clock 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.680 in the distance, and it starts counting down from two minutes, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.280 and then as it gets closer to zero, there is 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:11.800 this rumbling that comes from beneath the ground, and then 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:17.240 this burst of fire and an unbelievable noise. As the 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:23.640 rumbling turns into a roar, and the rocket starts rising 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.959 up and up. As it keeps climbing, the crowd is 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:36.080 getting more and more excited, until finally it disappears into 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:46.880 the atmosphere, up and away into the great Via. It 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.320 was that day in Cape Carnavel when the dream of 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.840 going to space took hold of me. It was just 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.520 the coolest thing I've ever seen, and since then it's 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.640 all I've ever wanted to do. Even when I was 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.880 living this incredible life touring within sync, I still had 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:06.400 this desire, this dream to go to space. And that's 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.280 why when my manager called me that day, I jumped 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.880 at the chance, and just a few months later I 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:16.440 arrived at Sadoc Star City, the home of Russia's top 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.280 secret cosmonaut training program. When I got there in two 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.920 thousand two, I remember thinking this place, these people are 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:28.000 obsessed with space, even more than we are in America. 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.840 There are these statutes of cosmonauts everywhere, even the metro 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.120 stations are named after them. But back then I didn't 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.400 really get a chance to figure out why this was. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.079 I hardly even had time to think. I was so 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.960 busy training day and night. So when I first heard 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.439 the story of Saragei Krakolov, I was intrigued. We had 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:50.960 both trained in the same place, but we had come 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:55.520 from such different worlds. Me an American pop star, him 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.760 a Soviet cosmonaut, and I wanted to know what was 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.200 going through his head when he had to make this 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:06.640 choice to go back home and protect his family or 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:11.160 stay in space and protect the station, the crown jewel 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:17.120 of the Soviet space program. Was it just that he 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.480 loves space so much like me? Or was there something 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.400 bigger driving in Because space isn't just about nerdy kids 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.400 thinking it's cool and wanting to go space, it turns 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:34.480 out is always about politics. We go into space because 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.959 whatever mankind must undertake, three man must. Billionaire Elon Musk 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.079 has sent three batches of SpaceX Starlink satellites over Ukraine. 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.400 Russia's war is putting years of collaboration at risk, and 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:52.000 we will plant our beautiful American flag very soon on 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:57.440 the surface of Mars. Space is a battleground, a symbol 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.400 of power. And that's because of this thing that happened 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.120 before I was even born, when Sarage was three years old. 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.240 And to me, it's the thing that can maybe best 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.839 help us understand Sarage and how he could even consider 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:21.520 staying in the space station as his country collapsed below him. 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:24.600 It was the height of the Cold War, and my country, America, 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.840 and his country, the Soviet Union, were racing to answer 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.720 this one particular question, who would be the first to 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.479 put a man into space. The confrontation itself would determine 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:42.199 ultimately which ideology, which worldview, would take over the world. 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.679 Stephen Walker is a journalist who wrote a book about 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.720 the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:53.960 The battle began in nineteen At the time, Sarage Kraklov 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.600 was a toddler, and the Americans announced to the world, 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.520 We're going to put the first man in space, as 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.240 if it was a done deal. The Russians weren't even 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.840 on their mind. Here's a nation that, as far as 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.240 they were concerned, the USSR couldn't build refrigerators that work properly. 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.920 It's true Soviet test flights often went wrong. One of 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.920 their spacecraft blew up just seconds after taking off, killing 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.920 a hundred people, But these disasters didn't matter because the 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:25.439 Soviets were determined. They decided they were going to surprise 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:30.480 the Americans and do it in complete secrecy. They start 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:37.520 looking at the records of USSR Air Force pilots, most 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.000 of them in the early to mid twenties. All of 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:45.120 them are sound of limb and mind, incredibly healthy, incredibly 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:50.360 fit and ideologically committed to the Soviet cause. And these 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.360 are the guys that formed the nucleus of the top 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:59.760 secret Soviet space program. And one of them is this guy, 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:07.360 Yuri Gagarin. Yuri Gagarin, a man who would end up 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:11.280 being the most famous person in Russia and Sarage Gargolov's 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.880 hero at the time. He was one of twenty men 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.800 chosen by the Soviet authorities to compete to be the 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:22.160 first man in space. Twenty men chosen to be put 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.720 through intense physical and psychological training. And when I say intense, 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:32.880 I mean intense, So I mean they do these horrible 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.160 heat chamber tests, for example, where they kind of baked 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:39.880 them for hours on end. They put them into pressure 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.280 changlers where they depressurized to see when they pass out. 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.120 They put an into these unbelievable vibration tests where they 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.840 actually anny on these stretches, and then they started to 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.080 vibrate the stretcher to the point where you teeth nearly fuller. 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.960 But nothing can compare to the isolation chamber. One by one, 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:02.920 over a period of months and months, each of these 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:10.120 twenty men would be introduced into a sealed chamber in 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:14.040 which they were expected to function without being able to 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:18.800 see anybody or hear anybody for what could be days 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:30.360 and days and even weeks totally isolated cuts off. They 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:35.320 would occasionally put horrible sounds in that shrieks or very 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:37.200 loud music, or wake you up in the middle of 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.040 the night, you know, anything, so you couldn't sleep properly. 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.680 They would twist time upside down so you didn't know 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:50.680 whether it was day or night. The test on these 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.920 men were so intense because the Soviet space team had 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.800 this problem. They didn't really know what's going to happen 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.600 to human being up there. Up to that point, the 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.720 idea of human beings in space was only something that 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:07.200 existed in the realms of science fiction. Nothing in the 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:11.520 station has any weight. No, wait, what a wonderful idea 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:14.520 you mean? If I went there, I wouldn't wear anything, 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.640 nothing at all. They had this term called space horror. 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.800 If you're divorced from the world, traveling around the world 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:25.960 above it not part of it the first to do so, 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:32.080 is there a possibility that you go insane? Because of 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.000 these unknowns, the Soviets knew they needed to find the 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:39.920 perfect guy, the guy who could withstand anything, and in 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.680 the end it came down to two men. Both were 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.600 pretty much as good and tough as each other, but 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.960 it was Gagarin that one. For one reason, he has 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:55.440 a perfect communist biography. He's the son of a peasant 0:16:56.080 --> 0:17:00.680 from the country who was an iron foundry student who 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.879 then became a serving military pilot. He was the best 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.000 person to represent the Soviet Union against the United States 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.480 because the Soviets knew they needed to beat the Americans 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:18.040 to score the ultimate victory in the Cold War, and 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:22.240 so on April twelfth nine, they pressed the gold button 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.680 on Gagarin's flight is em bust out and what looks 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:30.240 like a school bus to the rocket launch site, and 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.639 then everybody says goodbye, and the goodbyes go on forever, 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:35.399 because as far as I concerned, this guy is going 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:41.840 to die. That's right. Odds are. Uri Gagarin is not 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.600 going to survive the first few minutes of the flight. 0:17:46.720 --> 0:18:17.520 So many gruesome deaths awaitsed Euri Gagarine. It's almost like 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:24.320 being on another planet. It just goes on forever and 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:32.399 ever and ever, and then you reach this sort of 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:37.520 walled city. It's in the middle of a desert, a 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:42.080 city with guards standing around the perimeter. You know, you 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.919 get these huge buildings with holes in them, and everything's 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:52.000 rusting and it's corroded, and then you see it littered 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.440 around the streets, bits of old rocket all over the place. 0:18:55.480 --> 0:19:01.639 It really looks like a disused enormous missile site, because 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.680 really that's what it is. It's in Kazakhstan and it's 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.280 called Biknor. It's the place that would have become the 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.560 launchpad for the Soviet space program, but originally it was 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:18.000 built a house their most advanced and deadly missiles. I mean, 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.639 it's quite extraordinary. They've built the biggest rocket site in 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:22.600 the world. I mean, the Americans didn't know about it, 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.600 had no idea that the site even existed. We're talking 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:28.800 about a site that is probably about the same size 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:34.840 as the state of Kentucky. The secret it's a place 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:40.199 where the conditions are extreme. It's incredibly hot in the 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.320 summer and in the winter it goes down to the 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:47.360 minus forties. I mean, it's really horrible. But every year 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:53.560 in April, something extraordinary happens there. Out of this dead 0:19:53.640 --> 0:20:02.119 ground springs something new. Every spring. The whole of the 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:10.640 step is covered with a compit of tulips, these incredible 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.120 pink and purple and yellow tulips springing up from the dirt. 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:24.960 And so it was in April, as the tulips started 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.600 to peek their heads out from under the earth, and 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.480 the desert was filled with a riot of color. Jory 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.919 Gagarin stood at the base of an enormous rocket, ready 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:42.679 to change the course of world history. And so he 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.480 walks up to the steel steps and enters the elevator. Up. 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.560 He goes so high up it feels like it takes 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:54.720 minutes rather than seconds. But eventually he gets there, walks 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.119 out of the elevator, and straps himself into his seat. 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:05.680 The hatch is closed, and then he's on his own garret. 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.280 Actually remains really cool through this process. In fact, he 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:10.600 starts asking for some music from what we would now 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.040 call mission control, and they start supplying him with songs 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.520 and music, and there's music that's piped through into his 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:22.840 headends and he starts singing. He starts singing Lilies of 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.000 the Valley, a popular song about the first flowers coming 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:32.520 out of the ground, a song about spring, about new horizons. 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:37.639 And he's quite cool action in there, given what was 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:42.680 about to happen, and then he's ready for launch. He 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.120 could die in the next few seconds. Now, he could 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.320 die in the next hour. God only knows the different 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.679 ways he could die. Eight making stranded in space. Seven 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.440 could blow up on launch pad six if he burnt 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:57.119 to a crisp coming back to Earth. Five, four, three, 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.840 So many systems not properly tested, Some wish he doesn't 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:03.920 even know about. Two Does he know everything about what 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:10.200 could go wrong in that rocket? One? And then he's 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:14.639 lashed the Garin. Here is a whistling noise, then a 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:18.760 deafening warl. The rocket and everything in it begins to tremble. 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:23.720 Garon's stomach flips and his head feels full of pressure, 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.280 like he's being slowly sucked up into the air. He 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.720 tries to move his arms and legs, but nothing, like 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:36.439 his body's not his anymore. He takes a long, deep breath, 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:44.000 and then from nowhere he shouts, which means let's go, 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:54.359 and off he went. Upputs and uppoints and uplots, And 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.600 as the rocket heads upwards, the booster rockets fall away. 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:04.000 The Garin keep gathering speed fifteen thousand miles an hour 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:12.040 sixteen thousand, seventeen thousand until he reaches eighteen thousand miles 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:14.560 an hour, the speed of rocket needs to get past 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:17.879 the pool of Earth's gravity and out of the atmosphere 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:25.960 and down below, the engineers are beside themselves, downing our 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:29.600 springs like nobody's business down in the bunker. Everybody I've 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:33.520 spoken to engineers that that talk about being drenched in sweat. 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.040 There was incredible feeling of fear as well as exhilaration. 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:42.639 This this, this excitement, fear, sense of danger, potentially disaster, 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:50.000 all happening. But Gagarin keeps going nine minutes, ten minutes, 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:58.159 faster and faster, higher and higher until he reaches for 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:13.000 a bit. Yeah, something completely incredible happens. He suddenly feels 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:16.480 himself lifting from his seat and he's just held in 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:22.040 by the straps. He's experiencing the effects of weightlessness in orbit. 0:24:25.560 --> 0:24:30.639 And then he looks to his right and he says, 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:35.880 I can see the Earth. I can see the Earth, 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:46.040 and the colors are unbelievably beautiful. This incredible band, thin 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:50.320 beautiful band, a sort of translucent and electric. I think 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:57.480 he describes it blue. It's the Earth's atmosphere. And he 0:24:57.600 --> 0:25:02.439 is the first man ever to see it the first 0:25:02.480 --> 0:25:06.440 man to break the shackles of Earth, and it was 0:25:06.480 --> 0:25:18.440 a Soviet who had done it. As you can imagine, 0:25:18.840 --> 0:25:22.080 it's not a secret the Soviets want to keep anymore. 0:25:23.640 --> 0:25:26.720 They had a very famous announcer called Levitan who would 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:29.159 announced all the very big moments, like the beginning of 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:32.320 World War two, the death of Stalin, all of that 0:25:32.560 --> 0:25:35.520 he had announced. He was brought in to announce this. 0:25:39.400 --> 0:25:46.960 His voice came on the radio and all over Russia 0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:50.679 people were listening to Garin's father, who had no idea 0:25:50.680 --> 0:25:53.480 his son was in space, his wife, who also was 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:56.880 never told about his flight, and little boys like Sarage 0:25:57.000 --> 0:26:01.040 Cracow crowded around the radio in their homes, their parents 0:26:01.160 --> 0:26:03.919 proudly telling them that the Soviet Union has put a 0:26:03.960 --> 0:26:13.120 man in space. And pretty soon the news starts to rock. 0:26:13.200 --> 0:26:16.720 It around the world and it reaches the United States, 0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:21.040 where President Kennedy is sleeping. He was working up by 0:26:21.080 --> 0:26:25.760 his butler in the White House to a battery of news. 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:29.320 All Russia's just wild about Uri Gagarin, the first man 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:33.399 took conquer space, modest, just a family man. It was 0:26:33.480 --> 0:26:37.199 on every television stage, it was called everywhere. It was 0:26:37.560 --> 0:26:41.800 the news, and later that afternoon he had to go 0:26:41.960 --> 0:26:45.560 before members of the press in a massive press conference 0:26:46.119 --> 0:26:53.560 where he was unable even to utter the name Uri Gagarin. Well, 0:26:53.600 --> 0:26:58.320 it is a most impressive scientific accomplishment. And also I 0:26:58.359 --> 0:27:03.080 think that we uh, all of us as members of 0:27:03.080 --> 0:27:08.000 the race, have the greatest admiration for the Russian who 0:27:08.000 --> 0:27:11.639 participated in this extraordinary feat. I have already sent to 0:27:11.840 --> 0:27:41.159 congratulations to Mr Crucial. In one hour and twenty nine minutes, 0:27:41.480 --> 0:27:46.040 Uriga Garran completes one full orbit of the planet. But 0:27:46.160 --> 0:27:49.639 now the engineers in the control room are biting their 0:27:49.720 --> 0:27:53.640 nails again because Uriga Garran has to make it home alive, 0:27:54.680 --> 0:27:57.160 and to do that he has to break back through 0:27:57.200 --> 0:28:03.439 the Earth's atmosphere. He starts his descent. Almost immediately, the 0:28:03.480 --> 0:28:07.760 porthole window fills with hot orange gas, and Gagarin suddenly 0:28:07.760 --> 0:28:10.840 feels like he's being pushed back into a seat. He 0:28:10.880 --> 0:28:13.680 tries to breathe, working hard to get the air into 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:23.720 his lungs, his heart rates sores. To calm himself, he sings, 0:28:23.920 --> 0:28:31.800 the Motherland, here's the Motherland knows. He sits back and 0:28:31.840 --> 0:28:36.879 grips the seat. A rushing noise feels his ears, and 0:28:36.960 --> 0:28:44.440 then he's through. At twenty three feet Gagaran is ejected 0:28:44.440 --> 0:28:47.680 from the capsule. He feels the cold air on his 0:28:47.760 --> 0:28:49.880 face and a rough tug on his shoulders as the 0:28:49.880 --> 0:28:54.560 parachute is deployed, and he drifts slowly down to a field. 0:28:57.160 --> 0:29:01.400 And there he nots a hundred and six minutes after 0:29:01.440 --> 0:29:04.480 he starts, having traveled all the way around the planet, 0:29:04.920 --> 0:29:08.080 in a plowed field, and there's absolutely nobody there to 0:29:08.120 --> 0:29:11.920 greet him except a very old woman and a little 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:15.520 five year old girl who are planting potatoes, and who 0:29:15.560 --> 0:29:18.560 both see him and start running away. But he shouts 0:29:18.560 --> 0:29:22.200 to the old lady, I'm Soviet, I'm Soviet, I'm Soviet. Comrades, 0:29:22.840 --> 0:29:26.760 and very very cautiously, the grandmother planting potatoes and her 0:29:27.120 --> 0:29:31.120 five year old daughter come back. So here's a guy 0:29:31.480 --> 0:29:33.720 has gone around the world in a hundred six minutes. 0:29:33.840 --> 0:29:37.000 He's been traveling at eighteen thousand miles an hour, you know, 0:29:37.200 --> 0:29:39.800 ten times, has been of a rifle bullet. He's seen 0:29:39.880 --> 0:29:42.560 things that no one has ever seen before. Now he's 0:29:42.640 --> 0:29:44.920 in a plowed field, and he has only a horse 0:29:44.960 --> 0:29:54.560 and cart in which to get to a telephone. Just 0:29:54.800 --> 0:29:58.000 days later, he's back in Moscow, being paraded through the 0:29:58.040 --> 0:30:02.600 streets in a convertible covered with hours. The scenes are unbelievable. 0:30:02.920 --> 0:30:05.840 People line the sidewalk, and I'm not just talking thousands 0:30:05.920 --> 0:30:09.320 or hundreds of thousands. There are millions of people out there. 0:30:10.200 --> 0:30:12.200 I've seen footage and it looks like there is not 0:30:12.240 --> 0:30:16.000 a single empty space along the whole parade route. People 0:30:16.040 --> 0:30:18.320 are clambering on top of lamp post and leaning out 0:30:18.320 --> 0:30:22.000 of balconies and screaming and waving the Soviet flags. White 0:30:22.040 --> 0:30:26.520 doves are set free, Confetti is thrown from helicopters, Women 0:30:26.560 --> 0:30:29.480 break the barriers, the hand in flowers. It's thought to 0:30:29.520 --> 0:30:33.840 have been the biggest party in Soviet history. When Gagarin's 0:30:33.880 --> 0:30:36.520 motorcade reaches the Kremlin, he's kissed on the cheek by 0:30:36.560 --> 0:30:40.440 the Premier Nikita Kushtev and awarded the title Hero of 0:30:40.480 --> 0:30:47.040 the Soviet Union. This was their moment. This was and 0:30:47.120 --> 0:30:49.880 it still is probably to this day. This is Russia's 0:30:50.080 --> 0:30:55.120 great moment in history, and they made the most of it. 0:30:55.680 --> 0:30:59.080 This was a real feeling of my God, We've beaten 0:30:59.360 --> 0:31:03.080 the most powerful and the most technologropy advance nation on us. 0:31:03.960 --> 0:31:11.240 We can do anything. The Soviet Union won the race 0:31:11.320 --> 0:31:14.440 to put the first man in space. It was a 0:31:14.520 --> 0:31:17.960 huge deal for everyday Russians, and it turned the cosmonaut 0:31:18.040 --> 0:31:22.000 at the center, Uriga Garon, into an icon. So I 0:31:22.000 --> 0:31:25.160 think it's important for us to understand the level which 0:31:25.200 --> 0:31:28.240 Yuriga Garden was a star, a superstar, at the level 0:31:28.280 --> 0:31:32.000 I don't think we can even imagine. This is Assif Sadiki. 0:31:32.520 --> 0:31:36.120 He's a professor of space history at Fordham University. There 0:31:36.120 --> 0:31:40.960