Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / THE LAST SOVIET - EP 8: A Common Goal
Transcript
- 0:15Speaker 1: As y'all already know, going from Orlando, Florida to Star
- 0:18Speaker 1: City in Russia in the early two thousands was a
- 0:20Speaker 1: bit of a shock. The gray buildings, the summer mosquitoes,
- 0:28Speaker 1: no air conditioning, the endless bowls of soup. Sometimes it
- 0:34Speaker 1: all became too much. I longed for just a few
- 0:40Speaker 1: hours with my family, my friends, my dogs. And then
- 0:51Speaker 1: one day I arrived at this house in the middle
- 0:54Speaker 1: of Star City. I walked down some steps and opened
- 0:58Speaker 1: the door, and I cannot believe my eyes. Right there
- 1:05Speaker 1: in the middle of Russia is an old time American
- 1:08Speaker 1: dive bar. There's a jukebox, whiskey, Chris Hadfield on the guitar,
- 1:15Speaker 1: the whole shebaine. I am in heaven. I'm doing shots,
- 1:25Speaker 1: shooting the shit, and I begin wondering, how on earth
- 1:31Speaker 1: did I end up in an American bar with NASA
- 1:34Speaker 1: astronauts and a walled off Russian military town in the
- 1:38Speaker 1: middle of a forest. May it just start and lived
- 1:48Speaker 1: on the launch of a rocket's carrying the first stage
- 1:54Speaker 1: of the International Space Station. In this final episode, we
- 2:00Speaker 1: tell the story of how the Americans and Russians overcame
- 2:03Speaker 1: seventy years of Cold War within six years. The station
- 2:07Speaker 1: will be a virtual village in the sky with people
- 2:10Speaker 1: living and working in space to build humanity's most expensive
- 2:15Speaker 1: and ambitious piece of real estate. All these nations are
- 2:18Speaker 1: coming together the utilized technology not to blow up humanity.
- 2:23Speaker 1: And how I nearly got to go. And this twenty
- 2:26Speaker 1: three year old Southern boy wants to be more than
- 2:29Speaker 1: a pop star. He wants to be among the stars.
- 2:32Speaker 1: And it's one step closer to achieving that drive. I'm
- 2:36Speaker 1: Lance bass And from Kaleidoscope and iHeart and Exile Media.
- 2:40Speaker 1: This is the last Soviet The collapse of the USSR
- 2:52Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one changed the world. One political scientist called
- 2:56Speaker 1: it the end of history. Is Francis Fukuyala argue that
- 3:00Speaker 1: the end of communism might presage what he called the
- 3:04Speaker 1: end of history, the end of history. The great ideological
- 3:07Speaker 1: battles between East and West, between communism and capitalism, were over,
- 3:13Speaker 1: or so the story goes in space. The end of
- 3:17Speaker 1: the Cold War was a massive opportunity for America to
- 3:21Speaker 1: finally catch up with their old enemy and to create
- 3:24Speaker 1: a symbol for a new era of peace and cooperation.
- 3:27Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, Russia joined the United States and
- 3:31Speaker 1: its international partners in the largest cooperative space exploration effort
- 3:36Speaker 1: in history. In September nineteen ninety three, American Russia announced
- 3:41Speaker 1: to the world that they were going to build a
- 3:42Speaker 1: space station together, an international space station. By joining our efforts,
- 3:49Speaker 1: we are able to create a whole that is greater
- 3:53Speaker 1: than the sum of its parts. I was in the room.
- 3:56Speaker 1: I think we all recognize we were seeing something of
- 3:59Speaker 1: history racle significance in the idea that the former Cold
- 4:04Speaker 1: War advert series were going to pledge to try to
- 4:08Speaker 1: work together. That's John Lockston, Professor of Space policy at
- 4:12Speaker 1: George Washington University. Wasn't a done deal yet. There are
- 4:16Speaker 1: a lot of obstacles that had to be negotiated out
- 4:19Speaker 1: of the way, and we got the brand trust of
- 4:23Speaker 1: everybody that had ever worked with the Russians to help
- 4:25Speaker 1: promote us. Ken Wrtler again, the guy from the last
- 4:29Speaker 1: episode who helped Sarage choose his breakfast cereal. Ken knew
- 4:33Speaker 1: that if this mad idea was going to work, he
- 4:35Speaker 1: need one thing, and the first request that I made
- 4:43Speaker 1: was to have Sergey work for me. Sarage had returned
- 4:47Speaker 1: from his flight with NASA and was now back home
- 4:50Speaker 1: in Russia. Welcome home Discovery, Prekrasnage. You've paved the way
- 4:56Speaker 1: for a new era of cooperation in human space flight
- 4:59Speaker 1: leading to our International space station. Great job. He had
- 5:02Speaker 1: a lot of sway on the Russian program. He understood
- 5:06Speaker 1: how to build space stations, which we didn't. He knew
- 5:09Speaker 1: more about space stations than maybe all of NASA put together.
- 5:13Speaker 1: He'd spent almost an entire year on one. He was
- 5:16Speaker 1: the guy you wanted for this job. We would work
- 5:20Speaker 1: together on every aspect. Ken in Houston and Sarageate and Moscow.
- 5:25Speaker 1: What kind of language where we were going to speak?
- 5:27Speaker 1: What kind of clock were we going to work on
- 5:29Speaker 1: Moscow time or we're going to work on Houston time?
- 5:32Speaker 1: Or what kind of food would we eat? Chicken with
- 5:35Speaker 1: prunes or burgers? But it wasn't just the dinner menu
- 5:39Speaker 1: that needed to be hashed out. They needed to talk
- 5:41Speaker 1: about how they were going to build the damn thing,
- 5:44Speaker 1: because this is not just another better space station. What
- 5:48Speaker 1: they had in mind would be four times the size
- 5:51Speaker 1: of mirror the Soviet space station. It would be the
- 5:54Speaker 1: size of an entire football pitch, and it would be
- 5:58Speaker 1: a group project made of thousands and thousands of parts,
- 6:02Speaker 1: some made by Russia, some by America, and they would
- 6:05Speaker 1: all have to fit perfectly and be assembled in space.
- 6:11Speaker 1: When the whistle blew orbiting hard hats, Jerry Ross and
- 6:14Speaker 1: Jim Newman got right to work, becoming the first car
- 6:17Speaker 1: carrying members of the Union of International Space Station Workers,
- 6:21Speaker 1: and over the next two years it grew peace by
- 6:24Speaker 1: peace into a six bedroom house weighing about three and
- 6:28Speaker 1: twenty cars. They passed over a brilliant lightning storm over Africa,
- 6:33Speaker 1: didn't even see it because they were so engrossed in
- 6:35Speaker 1: their work. With more than fifty computers and eight miles
- 6:39Speaker 1: of cable to make the thing run. A triumph of
- 6:41Speaker 1: diplomacy and engineering, the International Space Station is the largest
- 6:48Speaker 1: ever peaceful technological cooperation, and in two thousand, at the
- 6:57Speaker 1: turn of the New century, the International Space was ready
- 7:00Speaker 1: to receive its first ever crew. The first crew of
- 7:04Speaker 1: the International Space Station arrived at their new home for
- 7:07Speaker 1: the next four months. From the American side, Bill Shepherd,
- 7:10Speaker 1: and from the Russian side Urigzenko and Seragei Krecolatation Commander
- 7:15Speaker 1: NASA's Bill Shephard announced he would allow his Russian crewmatee
- 7:18Speaker 1: Ury Genzenko to float over the threshold. First, their task
- 7:22Speaker 1: was to bring the station to life. They have trained
- 7:24Speaker 1: for a long list of chores, activating computers, life support
- 7:28Speaker 1: systems and the toilet, and repairing some failed Russian batteries.
- 7:32Speaker 1: Now that they have arrived, the hard work of making
- 7:35Speaker 1: their place in space ship shape begins. Since then, it
- 7:40Speaker 1: has been constantly occupied by astronauts the world over. The
- 7:44Speaker 1: first Japanese astronaut to live aboard the International Space Station,
- 7:48Speaker 1: German astronaut will be responsible for conducting about forty experiments.
- 7:52Speaker 1: Fifty three year old Swedish physicist has already visited the
- 7:55Speaker 1: iss as for real and tim floated aboard the first
- 7:59Speaker 1: British astra on the space station. It is a remarkable
- 8:04Speaker 1: technical and political achievement to create this facility as a
- 8:09Speaker 1: partnership now among fifteen countries and have it operate now
- 8:15Speaker 1: for twenty three years, in the face of changing political relationships,
- 8:21Speaker 1: particularly between the United States and Russia. This magical place
- 8:26Speaker 1: is where I was training to go to learning Russian,
- 8:29Speaker 1: spending hours in flight simulators, until one day it all
- 8:35Speaker 1: went wrong. The insynct pop Star's dreams of going to
- 8:38Speaker 1: space have been crushed today as funding for his trip
- 8:41Speaker 1: has been thrown into question. When I went to Moscow
- 8:54Speaker 1: in two thousand and two, it was two years after
- 8:56Speaker 1: Sarage Cricleff had kick started the International Space Station into gears,
- 9:00Speaker 1: two years after Putin took power in Russia. Today, the
- 9:03Speaker 1: clear winner of the Russian presidential election of Vladimir Putin
- 9:06Speaker 1: began to establish the Putin Era, the street shootings, law
- 9:10Speaker 1: and disorder in the USSA, professors hawking pies in the metro.
- 9:14Speaker 1: I don't even know what I can do. I'm going
- 9:16Speaker 1: to have to go back to the train station and
- 9:18Speaker 1: spend the night there. The wild nineties they were over.
- 9:24Speaker 1: The Moscow I arrived in was shiny with optimism, riding
- 9:28Speaker 1: high on the oil price boom and its promise of
- 9:30Speaker 1: prosperity and stability. IKEA had opened its first store. Putin
- 9:36Speaker 1: was hugging Tony Blair and Bono and Davos. We have
- 9:39Speaker 1: co operation today that would have been really unthinkable just
- 9:44Speaker 1: a short time. Again, First, I'd like to congratulate President
- 9:47Speaker 1: Putin for being the only person that caught a fish.
- 9:49Speaker 1: Today there were in sync CDs in the shops, fancy
- 10:00Speaker 1: cocktail bars, Broadway type musicals of a sudden great wealth
- 10:04Speaker 1: was in reach of a happy few. Wealth became fashionable
- 10:10Speaker 1: bees with the new Russians, Russians with money, and just
- 10:15Speaker 1: a reminder about why I was there in the first place.
- 10:18Speaker 1: CBS wanted to do a reality TV show where contestants
- 10:21Speaker 1: train as cosmonauts in Star City and the winner gets
- 10:24Speaker 1: to actually go to space. Well, they wanted the host
- 10:27Speaker 1: of the show that was going to be me to
- 10:29Speaker 1: have gone to space as well. This is the pioneering stage,
- 10:32Speaker 1: you know, we don't know where it's going to go,
- 10:33Speaker 1: but eventually everyone should and we'll have the opportunity to
- 10:37Speaker 1: travel into space. So in two thousand and two, I
- 10:40Speaker 1: put my life on pause and started the six month training,
- 10:44Speaker 1: and I took it really seriously. I knew a lot
- 10:47Speaker 1: of the people there thought I was just some dumb
- 10:49Speaker 1: pop star, and I get that, but I was determined
- 10:53Speaker 1: to prove them wrong. So after training for the day,
- 10:58Speaker 1: I spend most evenings watching the Russian version of Sesame
- 11:01Speaker 1: Street to pick up some Russian words, pouring over space manuals,
- 11:07Speaker 1: doing pushups. Slowly, I was getting there, and then one
- 11:12Speaker 1: day I get called in for a meeting with a
- 11:15Speaker 1: Russian big dog from the Space Agency and he says, look, Lance,
- 11:19Speaker 1: you have to leave Star City. I'm like, what, what
- 11:24Speaker 1: the hell are you talking about? He told me to
- 11:27Speaker 1: pack up my gear and leave. That very day. I
- 11:33Speaker 1: left from Moscow confused, trying to find out what the
- 11:37Speaker 1: fuck happened. Lance believes very much that he will fly
- 11:41Speaker 1: and we hope to have discussions in the next couple
- 11:43Speaker 1: of days. It turned out the TV networks in Hollywood
- 11:46Speaker 1: hadn't reached a deal with the Russian Space Agency. There
- 11:50Speaker 1: were problems with a contract. This was a very strong
- 11:52Speaker 1: message from our Russian colleagues saying, hey, time is running out.
- 11:58Speaker 1: Bottom line is everyone had bailed on me, and I
- 12:02Speaker 1: was learning this only now there was going to be
- 12:06Speaker 1: no reality TV show, no going to space, nothing. It
- 12:12Speaker 1: was a dark moment in my life. I worked so
- 12:16Speaker 1: hard and suddenly it was all pulled away from me.
- 12:21Speaker 1: I was crushed, but I was also pissed at my
- 12:25Speaker 1: agents at the TV networks. I was here in good
- 12:30Speaker 1: faith training to be a cosmonaut, putting my ass on
- 12:33Speaker 1: the line every single day, doing my part, and they
- 12:37Speaker 1: didn't seem to care. So yeah, I was feeling pretty
- 12:47Speaker 1: desperate alone in a Moscow hotel room But then the
- 12:51Speaker 1: Russians reached out to me. They said, there is another
- 12:54Speaker 1: way for you to complete your training, but it'll cost
- 12:57Speaker 1: you one million dollars out of your own pocket. That's right,
- 13:02Speaker 1: one million. I know it sounds crazy, but I coughed
- 13:07Speaker 1: it up. Okay, I wasn't going to space, but I
- 13:10Speaker 1: would have that certificate. I would finish what I'd come
- 13:13Speaker 1: here to do. So I went back to Star City
- 13:16Speaker 1: for a few weeks and I finished the training on
- 13:18Speaker 1: my dime for my own satisfaction. So today I can
- 13:23Speaker 1: proudly say I am a certified cosmonaut, and I still
- 13:27Speaker 1: hope to go back to Russia one day and finally
- 13:29Speaker 1: fly to space, even though now that dream seems further
- 13:34Speaker 1: and further away. All Right, our top story today, Russia
- 13:37Speaker 1: has launched its invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has just
- 13:40Speaker 1: addressed the Russian people a moment ago, announcing what Putin
- 13:43Speaker 1: called the start of a military special operation. Vladimia Putin
- 13:47Speaker 1: is calling this a quote special military operation to protect
- 13:51Speaker 1: on Bass. This morning, the International Space Station in political
- 13:55Speaker 1: crosshairs as Russia retaliates against American sanctions. The head of
- 14:00Speaker 1: the Russian Space Agency Dmitry Vergosen posting this video on
- 14:04Speaker 1: social media threatening to abandon American astronaut Mark van de
- 14:08Speaker 1: High at the station. He's supposed to return home on
- 14:11Speaker 1: a Russian ship in just three weeks. In February twenty
- 14:15Speaker 1: twenty two, Putin upended the world order and space became
- 14:19Speaker 1: a battleground once again. When Russian invaded Ukraine in twenty
- 14:36Speaker 1: twenty two, it felt like the three decades of relative
- 14:38Speaker 1: cooperation between American Russia had been a blip, and the
- 14:43Speaker 1: International Space Station they operate together became a target. Russia's
- 14:47Speaker 1: war is putting years of collaboration at risk and the
- 14:50Speaker 1: astronauts in the situation they did not ask for. Soon
- 14:54Speaker 1: after the invasion and a series of wild tweets, the
- 14:57Speaker 1: then head of the Russian Space Agency, a man called Regosan,
- 15:00Speaker 1: actually threatened to crash the International Space Station into Earth.
- 15:05Speaker 1: Regosan also making an ominous threat that without Russian help
- 15:09Speaker 1: to move the ISS away from space junk, the ISS
- 15:12Speaker 1: would crash into America or other countries. Then he said
- 15:16Speaker 1: Russia would no longer sell rocket engines to the US.
- 15:19Speaker 1: On TV, he said, in a situation like this, we
- 15:24Speaker 1: can't supply the United States with our world's best rocket engine.
- 15:29Speaker 1: Let them fly on something else. They're broomsticks. I don't
- 15:33Speaker 1: know what he traded insults with NASA astronauts Scott Kelly
- 15:39Speaker 1: sparred with Elon Musk overnight SpaceX firing back as it
- 15:43Speaker 1: launched its Falcon rocket carrying satellites to orbit. Time to
- 15:47Speaker 1: let the American broomsticks fly. It was all a bit unhinged.
- 15:56Speaker 1: In autumn last year, an American and Russian crew arrived
- 15:59Speaker 1: at the International Space Station, and one day, as they
- 16:02Speaker 1: were preparing to go for a spacewalk, they discovered a
- 16:05Speaker 1: leak in their capsule. Russian flight controllers and the flight
- 16:08Speaker 1: controllers here Admission control in Houston had been noticing a
- 16:12Speaker 1: stream of particles coming out of the sous MS twenty
- 16:17Speaker 1: two vehicle. A small meteorite had probably hid it a
- 16:21Speaker 1: micro meteoroid, a tiny space rock, just one millimeter across,
- 16:26Speaker 1: but flying fifteen thousand miles per hour, And now there
- 16:30Speaker 1: was a big problem. Temperatures inside the cabin could climb
- 16:33Speaker 1: above one hundred degrees during a return flight, potentially overheating
- 16:38Speaker 1: flight computers, and meant that they couldn't get back to
- 16:40Speaker 1: Earth as planned. Russian space officials determined the damage craft
- 16:44Speaker 1: is unsafe to fly, essentially stranding its crew. They were stuck,
- 16:51Speaker 1: and as I record this, they're still up there doing repairs,
- 16:55Speaker 1: gazing down at the chaos below, wondering when they're going
- 16:58Speaker 1: to finally come home. Sounds familiar, right for the astronauts
- 17:06Speaker 1: stuck in space right now. Things might be hard. They're
- 17:10Speaker 1: losing muscles, their bones are getting weaker. They're probably sick
- 17:13Speaker 1: of peeing into a funnel, and of course they miss
- 17:16Speaker 1: their families and the comforts of home. But more than that,
- 17:20Speaker 1: the political situation is worrying. The station their own is
- 17:25Speaker 1: manned by Russia and America, who are not being friendly
- 17:28Speaker 1: with each other right now. There are growing tensions between
- 17:31Speaker 1: the US and Russia following the downing of an American
- 17:34Speaker 1: drone earlier. Russian President Vladimir Putin says this country will
- 17:37Speaker 1: now station tactical nuclear weapons right on NATO's doorstep. This
- 17:40Speaker 1: trip to Moscow also sends a strong message to Washington,
- 17:44Speaker 1: as tensions between both countries and the US remain high.
- 17:48Speaker 1: But these astronauts, they have a secret weapon, someone on
- 17:53Speaker 1: the ground who knows exactly what they're going through. Sarage
- 17:57Speaker 1: Cricklif is the guy planning their rescue, always there, always dependable,
- 18:04Speaker 1: totally dedicated to the dream of space. This man who
- 18:08Speaker 1: watched as his country collapsed two hundred and fifty miles
- 18:11Speaker 1: below him. I bade the chaos of street clashes. It
- 18:16Speaker 1: was obvious to reinforce that position, the hardliners would have
- 18:19Speaker 1: to resort to violence, And today is trying to keep
- 18:23Speaker 1: above the fray, above the chaos and the politics, to
- 18:27Speaker 1: bring both American and Russian astronauts back home. Good evening, everyone,
- 18:34Speaker 1: Welcome here to the launch pad and our live launch coverage.
- 18:38Speaker 1: Soyus MS twenty three launching from the Biken Or Cosmodrome
- 18:42Speaker 1: in Kazakhstan, launching up to the International Space Station for
- 18:46Speaker 1: a ross Cosmos rescue mission, replacing the leaky soy Use
- 18:50Speaker 1: spacecraft up at the International Space Station. When I think
- 18:55Speaker 1: about Saragei's story, it gives me hope, because I believe
- 19:01Speaker 1: that space can be a utopia, a place where the
- 19:04Speaker 1: impossible happens, where a chemist from the Mars bar factory
- 19:08Speaker 1: ends up going to Russia to be a cosmonaut for
- 19:10Speaker 1: the Russians. It was another small step, but from Miss
- 19:13Speaker 1: Shaman and her British backup team. It had been a
- 19:16Speaker 1: giant plea where a woman from suburban Australia becomes friends
- 19:20Speaker 1: with Soviets floating in space. So I am such a
- 19:24Speaker 1: happy person. I have been waiting two years to talk
- 19:28Speaker 1: to you where a Vietnam war vet flies with his
- 19:31Speaker 1: former communist enemy. We were both the same way. We
- 19:34Speaker 1: wanted a peaceful world. We wanted a world in which
- 19:37Speaker 1: people work together collaboratively for the good of humankind. A
- 19:42Speaker 1: place that brings people together, where you see things as
- 19:48Speaker 1: never before. Oh my God, look at that picture over
- 19:52Speaker 1: there on a truly cosmic mind expanding scale. A good night,
- 20:07Speaker 1: and God Boy, follow you, all of you on the garth.
- 20:14Speaker 1: This dream of space is something Serage experienced in his bones.
- 20:20Speaker 1: As he wrote to his friend Maggie from space, the
- 20:23Speaker 1: Earth is like a map, but in contrast to a map,
- 20:26Speaker 1: there are no borders seen. It is pleasant when there
- 20:29Speaker 1: are fewer borders. People can rub shoulders, be friends, travel
- 20:34Speaker 1: freely among each other, and get to know one another more.
- 20:38Speaker 1: If rigid borders between neighboring people appear, then that will
- 20:42Speaker 1: be bad. This is what space can do. It allows
- 20:50Speaker 1: us to see our planet for what it is and
- 20:53Speaker 1: all its complexity to see the Earth the human race
- 20:59Speaker 1: as one whole. But for all that, in order to
- 21:03Speaker 1: understand everything and get used to it, it is necessary
- 21:08Speaker 1: to return and plunge into this life, and then to
- 21:16Speaker 1: come back and build something new out of the ashes
- 21:21Speaker 1: of the old world and the colors unbelievably useful and
- 21:29Speaker 1: electric blue. Thanks Crunch Cards, Lord for the last time
- 21:37Speaker 1: comes to an end to our International Space Station. Great job.
- 21:43Speaker 1: Reality The Last Soviet is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership
- 22:24Speaker 1: with iHeart Podcast and Exile Media, produced by Sama's Dad
- 22:29Speaker 1: Audio and hosted by me Lance Bass Executive produced by
- 22:34Speaker 1: Kate Osbourne and Mangesh Hadakador with Oz Wallashan and Kostas
- 22:40Speaker 1: Linos from iHeart Executive Produced by Katrina Norvelle and Nikki
- 22:45Speaker 1: E Torre from Sama's Dad Audio. Our executive producers are
- 22:49Speaker 1: Joe Sykes and Dasha Lisiticina. Produced by Assia Fuchs, Dasha
- 22:54Speaker 1: Litzitzina and Joe Sykes. Writing by Lydia Marchant, Research by
- 22:59Speaker 1: Mika gola Boski and Molly Schwartz, Music by Will Epstein,
- 23:04Speaker 1: Themed by Martin Orstrich, Mixing and sound design by Richard Ward,
- 23:09Speaker 1: and special thanks to Nando Villa Well, Lissa Pollock, will Pearson,
- 23:13Speaker 1: Connel Byrne, Bob Pittman, and Isaac Lee. If you want
- 23:17Speaker 1: to hear more shows like this, nothing is more important
- 23:20Speaker 1: to the creators here at Kaleidoscope than subscribers, ratings, and reviews,
- 23:24Speaker 1: so please spread the love wherever you listen.