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

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