The First Person Trapped in Space | Sergei Krikalev

09-03-24

Episode Transcription

00:00 Okay, movie idea. You're trapped in space while your country back home is collapsing. So you're just orbiting in the space station or like on a ship and your country back home is just devolving into chaos. Yeah. And the government's falling apart. And so now- And you're watching with a telescope. Well yeah, because there's no government now you can't get home. Yeah, yeah, you're stuck up there. That sucks. Well it's based on a true story because there's a guy that we call the last Soviet and he was an astronaut. 00:29 in space while the Soviet Union was collapsing true story. This is things I learned last night. 00:39 every week we learn about an interesting topic and this week we learn about the last Soviet, so like, subscribe, follow our stuff and thanks for checking out this episode. 00:52 Hey man, what's up? Have you ever heard of Sergay Cricklev, Sergay, Sergay Cricklev, Cricklev, Cricklev, Sergay, Sergay, Constantinovich Cricklev. No, it's a Russian guy. 01:13 it'll off. Our show is just naming random Russian people and will eventually do our best, our highest listen to episode is when we finally got to your yakoff's, you know, I was like yes, yes, you know, Sergei Crick, you'll crick a lab. Yeah, you don't have to keep trying to say you can call us. We'll just come, Sergei, okay, 01:41 I don't know if you can tell what he does by this picture. He's a clown. He's a he's a Russian cosmonaut. They call him cosmonauts, not astronauts, which is honestly sick, cooler, pretty freaking sick and I you know I'm. I wonder if they're like astronaut oh oh gross cool. You know what though I found out from this the word cosmonaut 02:08 And I think astronauts the same thing. I never knew this. Do you know where that word comes from? From not? Yeah, the whole phrase. Where does the word astronaut cause? Yeah, nautical. Yeah. And but it's space nautical. Yeah. So you're astronomy space sailors. Yes. Yeah. That's so cool. You didn't like that I knew that. Yeah. I hate that you knew that. Yeah. But. 02:32 I never knew that until I was researching this and I actually named after not a cut the shoe brand they sponsored them because they were like I will call them astronauts. They're like we need twenty five million dollars to get to space and not because stepped up. Did someone say space like we've got just the shoe yeah 02:55 the space, exactly how space travel would happen now. If we did the moon landing now, it'd be like sponsored by night. We need to find a sponsor to run it yeah. 03:12 Yeah, I respect that. I'm sticking. I like that. I like that slogan for Nike. Just mood it. So Sergei Sergei is an astronaut for cosmonaut cost. Thank you. Cosmonaut space sailor for Soviet Russia. This is USSR peak space race when he's working for him. Yeah. Well, I shouldn't say peak space race, late space race, eighties. Yeah, eighties. 03:41 Russia now hat is operating the mirror satellite, which I probably should have got a picture of the mere saddle. I'm going to do that real quick while I talk about it. Okay, the mere satellite stands for peace and it was before the international space station, the largest satellite, largest yeah and do you know that while you're looking that up, do you know there's yeah those two people stranded on the international space station right now? Yes, and they were told this week that it could be up to a year. Yeah, because of Boeing crazy 04:09 That's wild. It's wild that Boeing is having all this stuff go on right now and they also got astronauts stuck in. We were we were talking about that this morning as we roll in the airport and space X has a plane that's just at the airport for some reason interesting space X logoed plane interesting, but it was over like on the private air field side yeah and there's a huge Boeing office. Oh yeah yeah yeah so I told ray I said they might be at Boeing 04:38 being like trying to figure out how to get those people off interesting international space station. Yeah, because they're just stuck because the Boeing thing doesn't work. Interesting. So mirror, this is the mirror space station. Honestly looks pretty close to the international space station, just a little smaller was the first coupled structure in space. So they flew up and they coupled them together like that scene in interstellar. 05:03 What was like super stressful and like actually didn't I don't remember so interstellar. I watched when I was at like a youth conference. Oh interesting. We went to go watch it but we were also exhausted. It was the three of us and we were exhausted from the conference. Oh yeah. So we watched it glazed over. Yes. Yeah. And like don't and the other guy with me straight up fell asleep in the middle and then woke up and was like who's this guy? 05:30 who's it was like. What are you listen? We can't we can't explain it. I just got the AMC movie pass. Do they still do that? I thought that no, it's continued. They brought it really and it's up to three movies a week, so it's a little limited, a little less as unlimited, but that's a good deal. It's pretty freaking worth it. How much is it? Twenty five bucks a month. That's so worth it. Yeah, absolutely. So we went and watched her person. Yeah, yeah, per person, but still we went and watched a go twice twice a week. You've got it yeah. 05:59 you go twice in a month. You've got it right and so yeah, we've been we're going to a lot of movies. Dope anyways, well, interso is worth watching again while we're on the topic. You should watch it. It's a great film, but the so the mere space station was a technological marvel right and this year to get put together. It was it was getting put together, so it's similar to the is now is it's continually expanding kind of like your your 06:28 nephews like a kind of like a like a upper middle class family's house in rural Missouri. They keep adding, adding yeah, but the none of it ever works. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, you're just like what is this? There used to be a one car garage. Now it's a two car garage with a bathroom in the garage. 06:48 Yeah, no, the back parts, the bathroom, yeah, the bag laundry room, yeah in the laundry room, yeah and there's a the master bedroom is can you got to walk through one of the other bedrooms now to get to it? Yes, and it's way bigger. Yeah, yeah, yeah, huge, huge huge master bedroom. Yeah, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. So this is very similar concept. They've been expanding it over time and this space race was a weird time where 07:12 it very much was like a game of one upmanship. Oh for sure between the US and Soviet Russia and Soviet Russia with the except and then we also beat them in hockey. That was a big deal. The hockey team one is a miracle on ice. The actually is there a bar that I can order can get a miracle on ice 07:43 that's kind of cool kind of fun. Yeah, that's pretty cool. You get open to sports, but the sports bar yeah. Let's do that. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I should open a sports bar just for this one. Just one. You know this one started at all. It was a play on words, a play on words, the drinks trash. It's not good. We're pretty bad to be honest. Awful. It's honestly you should probably get it not on. I yeah 08:12 nasty. It's just it sells her water, pumps of cement, those say and a sprig of men toothpaste, just a squirt of and crest to so you're going to get freaking cold source dude. Oh gosh, that hit like a mirror. I can't wait to finish brushing my teeth. It's a miracle. Anyone finishes it. You got out of your life. All right anyway, so they've been so it's like there's 08:40 It's a one up man of like you know we went to space. No, we went to space and we did this and and I think a lot of people, a lot of we took four people to space is the thing. A lot of people get it twisted that the US won the space race because we did, but all we really did better was the moon. Yeah for the majority of the space race, so we russia was in the lead. They were they got the first satellite up. They got this the mirror up 09:04 they had more people in space. They got the first people in space matter. We've talked about this before. Like if you don't win the presidency, no one remembers you as a vice president, you know, so they did a bunch of vice president stuff in the in space. Here's I think I think a better example is it's kind of like the NFL. If you want a bunch of championships before the Super Bowl era, it doesn't really matter. Who cares? The Super Bowl era is what matter. That's what but also name a single lineman 09:33 it's just in general yeah that's active now yeah it's harder active. Oh, hard I can I can name. I could name people. I know sports 09:51 My name is single lineman. Yeah, you don't get points for lineman and fantasy, so I don't know any of them. Yeah, and that's the yeah, yeah, that's funny. I was watching funny. No, I was watching. Have you watched? Do you watch hard knocks? No. Do you know what hard knocks is in hard knocks? They're doing the bears this year, which is more fun for me. They show there's this tradition that the team has. I've never heard of this, but it's an I don't know if it's new or if they've done it for a long time. 10:20 but in now I do it in training camp. They make all the rookies go up front and do karaoke, but before they do karaoke, they have to introduce themselves and they say their name, where they went to college, their draft position, the position they play and their sign on bonus and then they do the karaoke karaoke song of their choice and in hard knocks. They had Caleb Williams and Caleb Williams goes kill was their first round draft pick yeah the quarterback who's supposed to save the team 10:49 and so hopefully he goes on does this whole thing as they need it. His sign up there so trash he goes to a need him to pull them from the gutter, because they've been trying to get this new stadium built and Chicago's like we're not going to do it. If you keep losing games all right, and so they're like ah fine, we'll start winning. Here's to that Chicago accent was awful. Here's how much money we gave Caleb, so his sign on bonus was twenty point five right million, and so he does his 11:18 sign about it, then he does a song and then they bring on. I don't know what round they picked on like six round lineman. He comes up. He does his and I saw an almost was a gift card to chilis is inside. That was twenty thousand and so yeah, coming after twenty point five to twenty thousand is insane now to be fair as I bought a Honda a core with it about a two thousand seven on the thirty thousand miles. 11:48 excited to be here. The here's the thing. What once I'm from here, a lineman who gets to starting lineman will still make a million a year. Yeah, it's the lowest they can, but they got a they got to become a starter, right, but yeah, it's just I was explaining. I was explaining pre season the other day to my wife because she was like what I don't understand what we're doing. Yeah, and I was like well, not all these people are going to be on the team. They're not going to make it so you can be playing the pre season for an NFL 12:18 have got drafted and made it yeah and then still get cut yeah and I said yep yeah it's pretty devastating same thing with our kids. You can get born, you can make him in the family, but by year two is when I finalize the roster yeah yeah and if you're not sharp enough at year to yeah go find a new family loser. 12:41 women picnicking without you number. What 12:53 In the early days of this show, we did like affiliate ads where we were like a sign up for grammarly and use code till and and we got like fifteen cents and now we just do patreon. It's a much better way. It's better for us as creators. It's better for you as listeners and it's a much more fun way for us to interact. We do monthly hangouts like on zoom. We just hang out and play games online and and get to know each other. It's a really fun time. So 13:19 but still use our code till in at grammerly dot com because I think it's still. I might get like a couple cents from that, but join us on patreon because we're having a great time. If you don't, we're going to have to start doing mobile game ads. 13:36 Yeah, it's a pretty drastic difference between the this. Yeah, it's interesting. They're all wealthy. All of them are wealthy, but there is a well gap. Not all of them. Well, the minimum salary you can make on it on the active roster. I think it's two hundred and fifty thousand a year, so yeah, you're still wealthy. Sure there's a wealth gap, but that's like that's like league wide, right? Yeah, so you're wealthy. You play for the chiefs and make two fifty in Kansas City. Yeah, 14:01 but if you play for the Washington commanders and make two fifty in Washington DC, you're still upper middle class, yeah, upper me yeah sure upper middle class playing alongside. Yeah, there's a wealth gap. That's what I'm saying is there's a big wealth gap. Everyone is like when my homes signed his some people are doing better homes, his gigantic contract yeah and some of their teammates were like hey, we're to a movie. You want to go and he's I can't go to movies and they were like 14:27 Oh yeah, yeah, Patrick, my home, that's right. I didn't realize I got that everyone who doesn't even watch football knows who you are. Yeah, yeah, crazy. He can buy out the theater if he wants to go. I'm sure, but I'm sure he's got that in his house right. Got a C, that's why he built that whole thing. Yeah, he's got a C movie pass as in like I own fifty six percent of the stocks. Why pay twenty four dollars a month when I can buy all the stock by the company goes up? People are yeah. 14:55 you know people are excited homes is roaring kitty. Okay, so the mere satellite all this to say right the sovi was winning space is crazy so via russia was winning the space race up until the moon landing thing and then rice that's. I was saying the moon. We want the super bowl was they won the rest of history of the yeah and then we came in and won the super bowl at the last inning and everyone's like oh my gosh, standing yeah. 15:25 and everyone's like oh who cares about so we're a last goal and so mere satellite. Here's the thing. Here's the interesting thing about the mere satellite that I never knew about the soviet Russia towards the end of soviet Russia in like the eighties didn't really have enough operating cash to operate it. So what they would do is they would reach out to sponsors to sponsor trips to 15:53 Oh, we weren't joking yeah to the satellite and what they would be is they would go. They go to like state sponsors or like museums or academic institutions and say hey, if you could put a cola yeah. If you could put up like I don't know fifteen million, we could send one of your researchers up and they could be up there for like three months or two weeks or whatever and do some research or maybe say you've got like 16:16 a tourist you want to set up, but the problem is they would say that space tourists at the launch pads pretty full, so you can write a right or by there. We've got like a bike, we've got a bike rack and everything, and so what typically would happen is there would be an engineer who was the person who actually knew how to run the space station and dock and right and fly the the space shot and all that stuff. So the engineer knew how to do a new out of all the stuff 16:44 then there was a flight captain who was the boss man and then there would be the sponsored person. So it was either a scientist from somewhere, a researcher or a space tourist and they were basically the people behind them paid or for that trip and so they got to go just kind of for fun space tours and everyone else basically just front the money for something actually happening not now but back then. Yes, we didn't the United States never did space tourism because we just dumped 17:11 every penny we had in it for a while, because we're like, this would be cool if we're better than Soviet Russia. And then, Soviet Russia went away, and so there was no one to be better than, so we just stopped caring. That's why we don't go back to the moon. It's not because we never went there, it's because there's no one to beat. If one of these other countries started looking like they were going to go, then you better believe we're back. We're so back. The problem with the last... The problem! 17:38 the last fifty years, no, people to assert our dominance over problem with the last thirty years is there's no one for us to beat. We're better than everybody by so much. We haven't had anyone to beat and so yeah, we haven't done anything. Why are the countries hate? We haven't done anything super cool except for the Olympics. What's the olympics? Did you see what China did 18:00 What they do, do you see so after the Olympics? Yeah, they put out a report, their own gold medalist, their own medalist. Okay, and so what they did is they said, hey, so technically speaking, like the list that the Olympics put out is the US won the most medals in this olymp, this year's Olympics. They said China was like, actually their list is a little wrong because we also Taiwan is us and so we have all of Taiwan's medals also and then they're like also if you look at the United States and you take out 18:29 This is rough. If you take out everyone born from everyone descended from the African slave trade, then the United States actually significantly less. They didn't say a hundred percent said that. And they were like, and also if you take, if you take out everyone who is of Jewish descent, then look at their way lower than us. And we are actually in first place because of that. That's what they said. 18:55 if you're racist, the numbers add up like if you're if you're racist and you give us a lot more medals from another country that we just think is ours. That is ours. Then we're better than you. So honestly look, China's trying and so that tells me that maybe in a few years they could be trying to go to the moon and that gives me hope that we have someone to crush. That could mean that we we need someone to be better than we're too better than everyone. 19:23 that's we got so good. I could mean that neck and neck with soviet russia sleeves. We're not putting on the ritz. We got thunder in our feet and lightning in our fists. This either sounds like for the people who don't know the call back. This either sounds like a we're just coming up with a poem yeah or it sounds like like a 19:51 the children's cartoon Halloween chant where we're around a cold a cauldron. Oh yeah, I under and his footsteps lightning in his fists. The ghost comes out kill China, like just kids. I can't believe we watch the fifties. All right, Halloween movies were different back then. That's what I'm saying. So anyways, that's that 20:20 I have no idea. Oh, it's a space tourism. So there that's how they would get to space right. Sergey was an astronaut and Sergey went on a lot of these trips as the engineer. He was the engineer on the trips. He's had a lot of space flights and then there was an important flight. He went on on May 19th, 1991. He leaves on the Soyuz TM 12 launches as the engineer with Commander Anatonaly. I love this name a lot by the way. 20:50 anatolny artsy barsky artsy barsky artsy barsky anatolny artsy bars no way that's right artsy barsky artsy barsky artsy barsky artsy barsky hello. I'm Mr. Artsy barsky artsy barsky. I am Mr. Arti Bartsky so artsy barsky and artsy barsky 21:19 they go up with British astronaut Helen Charmin. So Charmin was the sponsored person to go on this trip to do some research of the toilet paper. What kind of toilet paper? What does toilet paper do in space? Turns out it's paper, it's still paper in space. No, she was like she was like a biologist or something like that. I don't know she was supposed to be up there for two weeks. She did some 21:47 experiments and stuff up there while she was there. So sargays up in space. Okay, she's there for like two weeks. He's supposed to be there for a few months, two months. That's yeah. So what they would do, what they would do on these trips is we get the people off the international space station. You know I'm saying like you take another. So what happens and they did go there and you doc they did it the same way here. So you would have a ship that would go up, it would dock and then you would switch crews. So the crew would go back with the other ship and then 22:16 everyone else would get on bus drivers yeah and then the bus the bus leave and go back to earth okay, and yeah that's allegedly we've never broken the number yeah, so who knows I had thrown some keywords flat earth yeah try to get their keywords get the for the you to them and Spotify so yeah so and apple podcasts okay, thanks all places you could subscribe and patreon dot com so they would 22:45 So they're going to be up there for a few months, her and she's going to run her experience, spare, spare minutes, spear beds. He's up there for a little bit. He, while he's up there, notices somewhere in the ship. He finds a note are you messing there's that serious finds a note, a note and the note has like a numeric code on it and for a little bit, he's like, what is this? 23:15 and after a few weeks, you just bait me. I didn't say you thing. I didn't bet you this is not a bait. There's no aliens involved here, allegedly as far as we know. I mean that aliens were probably present. They were probably watching. They probably knew about all this. They don't enter the story at all. They're not part of the story, but they're there. They're always there, so they're all around us. He finds this note and it's got like a numerical code on it right, and he spent some days looking at it trying to figure out what it was, and then he realizes a way. 23:43 this is a ham radio frequency. That's what this is ham radio, ham radio. Yeah, you know what ham radio is yeah. You used to be able to put the you know the antennas that are on top of your tv yeah with the foil and stuff. You used to just stick a ham on there honey baked in a ham and it like it increased it. It's like cb radio, but earlier and like cooler. It was like a hobby thing. People yeah people would get on ham radio and talk to each other kind of like this. This is a example of ham radio. Here's another example. Here's another example. 24:14 Here I got one more example. Hold on, here's another example of ham radio. Hold on, you can't look away. I got more examples of ham radio. Keep looking. Hold on, I wanna show you more ham radio. Hold on, here's another ham radio. Hold on, here's another example of ham radio. Hey, I got another one. Here's another ham radio. Oh, here's one more. Oh, you might be saying, Tiff, that's a different guy. But wait, zoom in. There he is. 24:42 why did you do this? I don't know. It's really funny. I was wondering why you were kind of lighting up talking about ham radio. You're like a ham radio. You're a ham radio is why you so excited about that about a radio. Why you spent fifteen minutes collecting the images for this episode? I could have started way earlier. I did I to get all these pictures smoky yeah 25:10 and banned it? Yeah, he's talking on his ham radio. 25:18 Thanks for checking out this episode. In that mailing list, we give updates on past episodes. and every week things are changing. So if you want to keep learning stuff, that's happening in the Tillon verse. 25:45 I like that. I've never said Till and Verse before, but I'm Till and Verse, that's the best place to do it. You can go to text tilland to 66866. There's a lot of ways to sign up for that we've talked about and everything that's going on in 26:10 Sergei Sergei gets his ham radio out. Is this whole episode just for that bit? Yeah, nothing else is interesting. No, Serga gets ham radio. I was like hey guys, we're coming back. They went back. They landed mission successful. Russia's didn't win, so Serga gets on his radio. Serga gets on his radio goes and he goes on that frequency. Nothing is just static, so he starts making call signs on it and everything, trying to see if he can catch someone. Yeah doesn't catch anyone. 26:39 and every night this becomes like his hobby. They've got tasks. They've got jobs to do all day. They have to also because they're long enough doing like what they do on lost where he's just punching the numbers kind of yeah. He wakes up every day. He does his workout because they have to do workouts or else they atrophy. Have you seen he does his workouts? He does a job chronological. I saw that that's like a thing that someone's doing that sounds like that would probably be awful. Yeah, 27:02 Because like what they're doing is they've taken the flashbacks that they had during loss and they just made it all in order of the events that took place. So you see the flashbacks and stuff before you see them on the island. So there's no suspense. By the time they get to the island, you know all the stuff that they're doing. Yeah, which sounds awful. Does sound awful, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. I feel like that's the wrong way to watch that show. I agree. Anyways. The right way is to just not watch it. So he. 27:32 is getting on that frequency, doing his little call signs every night and then one night he's floating over Australia and he does his call signs and he gets a response you crikey and there's a lady there who's a ham radio enthusiast. She's a high school science teacher. Oh and she likes teacher. She just thought he was about to be talking to a high schooler high school science teacher. She likes ham radio and it's like our her hobby. She also knows rudimentary 28:01 Russian. And so they start talking and she's like, Oh hey, you're one of the Russians up on the mirror space station. Right. And he's like, yeah, how'd you know? And he said, I can, she's like, I feel like I can tell by the voice, I speak a little bit of Russian and I picked up from what, you know, whatever. And she's like, she's like, well, how's it going or whatever, you know, they're chit chat and they kind of are building like a pin pal relationship ish and then something, you walk in 28:27 and this in one of the people in the space station is talking to a woman in Australia on the phone and you're walking on. I was like what he's like nothing just just I'll call you back. I'm just on my ham radio. Yeah, it's a little strange, but they're they're developing a little bit of a so how often they talking pretty much every night and this is ham radio. This is kind of like it's it's it's similar to like I am 28:56 in like the 2000s. It's weird. Oh my gosh. 29:13 What do you do in Australia? It wasn't anything like that. Maybe when I get back, we can go to an opera. An opera? At the opera house, Sydney Opera House. Oh, okay, okay. I thought you thought that was a Russian thing. We cultured for a second. 29:25 me when I get back. We can go to an opera or I have the AMC movie pass, so they're talking Australian movie company. He starts getting like it starts becoming harder for him to get contact with mission control, and so he starts thinking maybe something's up with his relationship with control, and I should be clear. Hey, are you guys ignoring? Are you guys? Are you guys just passive aggressive and like now we're good 29:55 is something wrong. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine. I we know you've been talking to Australia Houston. We have a problem. No, we don't. No, we don't. First of all, don't call me Houston. Second of all, yeah, Moscow, Moscow, so he knows the political situation in Soviet Russia is not great right now right, right, right, right, about a year before he left. This happened, which was 30:21 yeah, the biggest concert so we at Russia had ever seen a chapel rone. There was a parliament election that was like the most democratic election that they've ever ever seen right and it like changed the face of the government and things were shaking up in the Soviet Union. Yeah and there was some of the some of the like outer states were being like hey, we kind of want to be our own thing right and there was like a lot of tension rising when he left. 30:49 And he started to kind of gather that something was up while he was in orbit because his contact with the command center was becoming more and more limited. They weren't sharing everything with him, but he felt like something was happening that they weren't telling him. So he gets on his ham radio and his ham radio friend starts becoming his like unbiased news source to be like, here's what's happening on the ground while you're in space. And so 31:18 long story short, he is he leaves in May of 1913. He's supposed to be there till March of 19 when oh sorry 1991. He leaves in May of 1991. He's supposed to be there or May of 1989, May of 1991, May of 1991. Yes, sorry, when he leaves is when he leaves. Yes, so just before he left in January, there was a group in 31:49 Lithuania, Lithuania. It was like an actual Lithuania. Yeah, an actual like armed combat with tanks and they played caps. Yeah. And so the situation is like hot at this point. Yeah, while he's in space, things continue to get more and more intense. 32:13 There is in June 1991, there's an election and Boris Yeltsin is elected president of the Russian Federation, which is interesting because now there's the Soviet Union and then there's like this Russian Federation needs it. And then in August of 91, there is a coup against Gorbachev that takes place in Moscow. And then there's this famous moment where Boris Yeltsin gets up on top of a tank and like delivers this speech. 32:41 So Boris is the guy with the paper he's reading from his paper right and it gives a speech basically being like hey, we shouldn't do this. This isn't cool guys and then all of a sudden the soviet government sends in tanks, yeah brings tanks down to red square, which is essentially their equivalent of the capital building and the white house and stuff like that. Right. This is developing very quickly, so he's hearing all this through this 33:10 this ham radio from this person from this Australian and slowly but surely his contact starts to diminish with mission control mission control. Finally, in December of ninety one Gorbachev announces that he is stepping down and he's no longer going to be head of the Soviet Union and pretty quickly the Soviet Union just collapses right. 33:39 He's getting all this, finding out all of this while he's in space. Okay. And so he gets a call from mission command after all this happens and they straight up tell him, Hey, we don't know when we can get you back because now the command center is not part of the Russian Federation after the Soviet union, right? It's in a different nation and that nation and Russia are not on good terms. Right. And so they don't have a facility they can bring you back to. Also, they don't have any money. 34:08 Yeah, because the whole thing collapsed. So he expected to come home in March, but they were of 92 of 92, but they were like, there's no way that's going to happen. Somehow through a stroke of luck, there was a someone passing by. There was just a was a ham head. It was like, hey, I'm actually going there. He just stuck his thumb out the space station and put 34:37 earth or bust yeah yeah yeah. There was a German sponsorship. I was like hey, we want to go. We're going to pay twenty five million dollars to go up to space. He's a cute. He with you. Yeah, they show up thinking the space station is empty. He's still there. Yeah, right. He's a big beard. He's it's and he's just saying the ham radio numbers. We'll say, you know 35:06 There was no one on ham radio. Oh yeah, he's talking to himself. That's what yeah, and he's like he's like is the soviet russia still alive and they're like yes, is my host ral is my australian girl hot or no way she's hot. He's tell me so they send out this trip. He's actually able to finally come back. Okay, he ends up. He was expected to be up there for I don't know what it was gonna be like sixty days. He comes back after three hundred and eleven 35:34 his body is completely as a feed. They have to like yank him from the ship. He can't move and he comes back and he is described by he looks pale. Hey, he's described by like witnesses and reporters on the scene when he returns okay as being pale as flower yeah and they rehabilitate him. He ends up 36:04 deciding I still want to do stuff like this despite being trapped in space for three hundred and eleven days. Well, yeah, because I mean like what else are you going to do? You can't take that resume somewhere and they go. What's the can you explain this gap in your resume? Oh, I was stuck in the base. Yeah, I believe all of my country. I believe that yeah, so he was lost in space essentially for three hundred eleven days that everyone calls him the last Soviet. He has in provisions up there. I guess I mean, he's a people who went with them 36:34 they I don't know. Actually, I think in October, so in October of that previous year, there was an opportunity for him to come back, but the issue was well, the issue was on that trip. They didn't have another engineer, and so there would be no one. Is he by there? Though he was, he wasn't by himself the whole time, but in October they didn't have another engineer to take his place, and so basically he would be going back and leaving it without an engineer to man base, and so because of that he he weighed his options and was like hey, 37:04 even though it looks like Soviet Russia is in a really bad spot. It is in October. It hasn't collapsed yet right. He's like it looks like it's in a really bad spot. He's like I want to keep this space station alive. I want to be able to man it and then if another ship comes back, there's no one to go back with it. This causes a lot of problems. If I go back on this next ship sure, she's like I want to, but he's gonna stay yeah, and so he ends up staying. I believe he was the only one up there and then Soviet Union collapses and he stays up there for four months after the collapse of the Soviet Union by himself in space. 37:33 with very limited contact to the ground except for this Australian person who's talking to on ham radio. Yeah, that's a romcom in the making. And so yeah, he gets called the last Soviet because he was the last so he comes out with his Soviet passion. She literally couldn't find any love on earth. So she went to space. 38:01 Yeah, and she found she found her dream man floating. She it would be called speaking to the stars. 38:12 The fault in our stars. I'm trying to think if we can make a rom out of this, you could easily. Yeah, this easily is a rom cop. You're right. You're right. Every night her being like, all right, you still up there and he doesn't answer one day and it's like super surgaire on board the shit. The Oh gosh. Yeah. So much drama fire. She has to come save him. So she shows a rock outside, try to jump 38:39 because she's dumb. She's like she's kind of dumb. It's a drapily like I can get there. She's just like ah she's never seen how far away spaces. You know she's got a dumb and I was thinking like in the outback building her own makeshift rock. She opens it. So if it's a cartoon she can open her roof right if it's a cart, you know if it's anything's possible in animation. You know 39:05 that seeds a card to the rest of its live action, but that one scene becomes a cartoon, or to any card to just so a different movie that looked like a beat the Robinsons kind of cartoon. You're like what the heck just happened here. What was that part in the middle was weird? They changed quite a bit, but yeah here she goes up. She saves the day that she goes back without home. Yeah, like the movie on M radio. I saved 39:34 and he's like yeah. I mean to I wish you brought me back with you yeah. I didn't think that when I built my return ship with one he was only one seat yeah. I did have a trunk that I didn't bring any care. I could she puts him in the seat, sends it back to earth. Now she's out there stuck and he has and he's like but he's a better engineer yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah not as good a movie the way around yeah yeah yeah yeah right please don't 40:01 but he doesn't get enough rocket fuel. So it's a frac is like uses a trampoline just vault. Yeah, yeah, there's it's a serious flappy bird just series of trampolines. Yeah, you Babylon Tower is insane, so that's sargay the last soviet. Oh, that was it. Yeah, that's the last soviet. Oh wow, he made it back, but the soviet soviet russia didn't so we russia did not make it back, but honestly lately 40:30 It kind of seems like they did. Is that what you want to end it on? I don't know you want to end it on seems like they're back baby. I'm not saying it's like they're back baby. We're so bad saying it like I'm saying it like the villain is back in the second movie where it's like oh, I thought he died. Well, you know that Putin is in the song. What yeah, you know the Putin's referenced in our God is an awesome God. Oh, he wasn't putting on the Ritz. 41:00 God is an awesome guy. He's got thunder in his footsteps and lightning. That makes a lot of sense. It was time to fiddle off. Putin on the Ritz. 41:22 Hey, thanks for checking out this episode. If you liked it and you want more till and make sure you subscribe and also there's an episode called Dear Moon, which is about a project that a billionaire was trying to take a bunch of artists to the dark side of the moon because he thought that would inspire some new art among the amazing artists that he was like. Okay, these are the most creative visionary people in our society was none other than Steve Aoki. So it's a great episode. 41:45 Thank you for checking out our show. I think you'd enjoy that's linked somewhere or whatever But we'll see you next week for another episode of things I learned last night


Imagine being stuck in space while your country falls apart. This happened to Sergei Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut, during one of the most dramatic times in history. This blog will take you through his incredible journey and how he became known as “the last Soviet.” We’ll also look at how this compares to the current situation with the Boeing space shuttle.

The Start of an Unexpected Adventure

Sergei Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut, was part of the Soviet space program in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was stationed on the Mir space station, which was then the largest man-made object in space. His mission started like any other space expedition. Sergei was supposed to stay in space for a few months, but things quickly took a turn.

In 1991, while Sergei was orbiting Earth, the Soviet Union collapsed. Political changes and conflicts arose back home, leading to a major shift in power. Sergei was stuck in space during these chaotic times, cut off from regular communication with his homeland.

Stuck in Space as a Nation Collapses

As the Soviet Union was dissolving, Sergei faced an unexpected challenge: he had no way to return home. The Soviet space agency, which was responsible for his return, was no longer functioning properly. Sergei was effectively stuck in space. The Soviet Union was splitting into different countries, and the space agency had lost its funding and resources. Mission control told him they didn’t know when they could bring him back.

During this time, Sergei relied on a ham radio to communicate with a woman in Australia, who became his only news source about what was happening on Earth. For 311 days, he stayed aboard the Mir space station, watching from above as his country fell apart. He was supposed to return in March 1992 but had to wait much longer.

The Unexpected Rescue

Finally, in early 1992, after months of uncertainty, a German team decided to sponsor a mission to the Mir space station, which included Sergei’s return. When they arrived at the space station, they found Sergei still there, looking pale and weak. His body had become frail due to the long stay in zero gravity. He had spent much longer in space than planned but was finally coming home.

Comparing to the Current Situation: Boeing’s Space Shuttle

Sergei Krikalev’s story of being stuck in space is surprisingly similar to the situation that is happening now. Currently, astronauts are stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) due to issues with the Boeing space shuttle. They were told they might need to wait up to a year to return to Earth because of technical problems. Like Sergei, these astronauts find themselves in a challenging situation far from home. Both stories show how space travel can become unexpectedly difficult and how astronauts must stay calm and patient while waiting for rescue.

A True Space Hero

Sergei Krikalev became known as “the last Soviet” because he was the last person to represent the Soviet Union in space. When he returned to Earth, the Soviet Union no longer existed. Despite his challenges, Sergei decided to continue his career as a cosmonaut. He showed great bravery and determination, staying in space much longer than expected, waiting for his chance to come home. His story is one of courage and survival in the most unusual circumstances.

Conclusion: Lessons from the Past and Present

Sergei Krikalev’s experience of being stuck in space while the Soviet Union collapsed teaches us many lessons about resilience and patience. Today, as we see a new group of astronauts stuck in space due to the Boeing shuttle problems, we are reminded that space travel is still unpredictable and requires a lot of courage. Whether it was Sergei’s time at the Mir space station or the time of the current astronauts on the ISS, being “stuck in space” is a challenge that requires strength, adaptability, and hope.

Looking at past and present stories, we see that space exploration is always full of surprises. Like Sergei Krikalev, today’s astronauts must stay strong and believe they will eventually find their way back home.

Things I Learned Last Night

Things I Learned Last Night is an educational comedy podcast where best friends Jaron Myers and Tim Stone talk about random topics and have fun all along the way. If you like learning and laughing a lot while you do, you’ll love TILLN. Watch or listen to this episode right now!

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Sources

Sergei Krikalev – Wikipedia


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