Nat Geo_Space Launch Along for the Ride
Transcript
00:00Greg Olson's dream is to fly, all the way to outer space.
00:22I see this big blue sphere receding, it was awe inspiring.
00:28He's paid $20 million to do it, to spend 10 extraordinary days in orbit.
00:45We're going with him, inside the Russian space program.
00:51From the busiest launch pad on earth, to a platform in space, and back to the life
01:00and death drama of re-entry.
01:05Come inside, to the ride of a lifetime.
01:11If you want to rocket into outer space, this is the place to go.
01:17More people leave for space from here, than any other place on earth.
01:2110 to 15 launches a year.
01:28It's a patch of desert in central Kazakhstan, called the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
01:33For 50 years, dogs, apes, satellites and cosmonauts have all rocketed to outer space from this
01:45spot.
01:50Now for only the third time in history, a paying customer will enter orbit.
02:00In just three days time, a spacecraft called Soyuz is due to lift off, bound for the International
02:07Space Station.
02:12On board, a Russian cosmonaut, a NASA astronaut, and Greg Olson.
02:20The first two ride for free, it's their job.
02:25Greg's along for the thrill, and he's paying $20 million for the privilege.
02:37On the timeline to launch, it's T-minus 72 hours, and counting.
02:44Attention comrades, here's the work plan for today, product number 017.
02:50Three kilometers from the launch pad, in a vast hangar, a giant Soyuz rocket is about
02:56to be bolted together.
02:59Sergei Obakov heads an assembly team that now has 12 hours to put the Soyuz together.
03:06Any longer, and the launch could be scrubbed.
03:12During the assembly, all my commands are very short, but the people here know what's expected
03:17of them, and they know what they have to do.
03:23The most critical job?
03:25They must attach an emergency escape rocket.
03:29No other space program uses one, but when things go wrong, this rescue missile is a
03:35lifeline, and things do go wrong.
03:46September 26, 1983, a Soyuz was about to lift off.
03:54Something went terribly wrong.
03:58There was an accident at the launch pad, a fire and explosion of the rocket.
04:07The fireball reached for the capsule and its two-man crew.
04:14Then, the escape rocket fired.
04:19It lifted the capsule and the two men inside to safety.
04:28So, one time in history, this escape rocket played its part, one time.
04:34And I hope to God that we never have to use it again.
04:40The rescue pod must be dead straight, fitted within half a hair's breadth.
04:45Otherwise, it could end up killing the people it's meant to save.
04:53Of course, it's difficult.
04:55With this size and weight, when you have to be precise to one-tenth of a millimeter.
05:02The technicians have been at it three hours.
05:05They can't get the rocket to line up.
05:10What measurement do you have?
05:15Thirty-nine and three.
05:22Thirty-eight and five.
05:26Sergei's numbers don't add up.
05:33You have a different measurement every time. How is that possible?
05:42There is absolutely no margin for error here.
05:46Sergei Abakov has lives in his hands.
05:54These men's lives.
05:57Bill MacArthur, U.S. NASA astronaut, Expedition 12's commander.
06:06Astronaut Valery Tokarev, the flight engineer.
06:13And the $20 million man, Greg Olson.
06:16I will feel most relaxed and most happy.
06:25Brooklyn-born, laser scientist, 60-year-old grandfather, entrepreneur.
06:35To him, anything but a tourist.
06:38The term space tourist implies, well, you write a check and you go for a joyride.
06:43And believe me, that was not the case at all.
06:48Greg's worked hard to get this far, training for two years with the Russian Space Agency.
06:55As part of his rehearsal for the role of rocket man, Greg had time and zero-gravity training.
07:03The Zero-G chamber is in a refitted Russian jumbo jet.
07:08Sudden dives and climbs reduce gravity for 25 seconds at a time.
07:16As you stand in the plane, all of a sudden you feel yourself lifted up.
07:22They want to see how you behave and so on.
07:27I think I discovered on the Zero-G flight that I really like this stuff.
07:32That I didn't think I was subject to motion sickness and that I was going to like space.
07:54But Greg's physical condition has cast a shadow over the mission.
08:00Respiratory problems have gotten him scrubbed from one mission and they could leave without him again.
08:05I feel dizzy, but I don't.
08:09I want to make sure that I am not a liability to the crew, if anything an asset.
08:17The main goal of training is to be fit for re-entry.
08:21Russian capsules land violently.
08:24To ease the blow, crews ride in custom-cast seats.
08:34Techniques like this have been used here for 50 years.
08:41Russia's cosmonauts have gone into space and returned alive with more success than any other nation.
08:53But right now, no one rides this rocket out of Baikonur Cosmodrome until Sergei Abakov says they can.
09:02They still try to fit the rescue rocket onto Soyuz.
09:08The clock ticks, but Sergei won't be rushed.
09:13I'm not watching the time. It's not about working fast. It's about working well.
09:20I have to be absolutely sure that everything is done right, so the crew is safe.
09:33Finally, the escape rocket attaches perfectly to Soyuz, and Sergei gives the OK.
09:46Those gaps won't move. Whether the rocket is horizontal or vertical, the way we set it up, that's the way it's going to go into space.
10:04Sergei's team moves to the next crucial task, connecting the rocket's upper and lower stages.
10:12It's an operation at once delicate and colossal.
10:18Just 62 hours to launch, Sergei's in the thick of it.
10:33Minute by minute, his crew makes up for lost time.
10:38Everything's worked out great. Our people really know what they are doing.
10:50Dawn, the day before launch.
10:55The hangar doors open to release more than 20 tons of rocket, 12 stories high.
11:05For those who'll ride this bullet, it's a sight that can weaken the knees.
11:10My concern in the past was that I might be nervous or fearful.
11:15It must be the same kind of feeling that men who actually go into battle have before the battle.
11:22Am I going to be scared when this rocket is actually taking off?
11:32The Russian Soyuz rocket starts its journey into space as railroad cargo.
11:38Baikonur, the launch site, sits in the middle of nowhere.
11:48Mission control lies over 2,000 kilometers east, in Moscow.
11:57It's the domain of the man who runs every Russian launch to the International Space Station.
12:03Lead flight director Vladimir Solovyov knows how it feels to fly in space.
12:09He was a cosmonaut from 1978 to 86. He'll be at the helm as Expedition 12 takes flight.
12:22This spacecraft is expected to travel around 33,000 kilometers per hour.
12:38Right now, it travels just over 2 kilometers per hour.
12:42This same journey has been made before by more than 1,500 rockets.
12:51Up until 1955, this was a military site. Then it changed.
13:00Baikonur launched Sputnik, a football-sized satellite that began the space race.
13:11Soon after, Yuri Gagarin left here to become the first man in space.
13:20He wrote a rocket so reliable the design scarcely differs from the vehicle trundling through the Kazakh desert today.
13:33The Russians have tried other designs.
13:36Across the way, a virtually unknown Russian space project, the space shuttle Buran.
13:45It looks remarkably like the American space shuttle, except Buran was unmanned and remotely controlled.
13:55It flew only once on November 15, 1988.
14:02Then the program ran out of cash and they switched back to Soyuz.
14:07Cheaper and time-tested.
14:15At 9 a.m., the rocket reaches the pad.
14:21Liftoff in just 24 hours.
14:36The men who will be aboard finish a few earthbound routines.
14:48Greg's training is over. The big game is here.
14:53I put in well over 900 hours of training. I had to pass a series of tests and gates.
15:00As the time is getting closer to the launch, thinking, this really might be happening now.
15:12At the pad, hydraulics hoist Soyuz into firing position.
15:21Right now, it's only around 23 tons. Soon it will take on some 300 tons of fuel.
15:38Let the cosmonauts fly. Let them be alive and well. And let them return to Earth alive and well.
15:46In 20 hours, I will feel very good.
15:50Our safety is the number one goal of all people in the Russian space program.
16:04Service towers grip Soyuz, fitting the rocket into a 500-ton clamp that aims it straight.
16:24Igor Barmin is Baikonur's launch pad director.
16:31From standing on the support ring, it moves around.
16:34We move the whole launch system around, including the rocket, to put it in the best position for firing.
16:41Igor orders fueling to begin.
16:47Right now, we're fueling the first stage of the rocket with liquid oxygen, kerosene, highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide, and nitrogen.
17:05It's a volatile mix.
17:09In 1980, as another rocket was fueling up, a booster rocket exploded.
17:15In just a few minutes, 48 people died.
17:28Launch is less than five hours away.
17:35Valery Tokarev, Bill MacArthur, and Greg Olson get their last medical checks.
17:44No more visitors allowed.
17:46Medical staff and cleared officials only.
17:49The slightest hint of illness, and they're off the flight.
17:54Every time I see a guy in a white coat, I feel these little trepidations,
17:59because I know there's something this might do to take my dream away from me.
18:18The rocket's fuel tanks are full.
18:22Soyuz is ready.
18:29At Mission Control, Moscow, Vladimir Solovyov and his team run pre-launch checks.
18:47Every flight, every mission to space is a very risky business.
18:51Space is a very aggressive environment, and there's the constant threat that something may go wrong.
18:55We've got to be ready for that moment if it happens.
19:01Expedition 12 is a go.
19:31Feeling really, yeah, getting more and more relaxed as we get closer.
19:47Greg Olson is about to learn whether he has the right stuff,
19:51the key to membership in one of the world's most exclusive clubs.
19:58I never felt and I never will feel I am a cosmonaut or an astronaut.
20:06You have far too much respect for the training these guys go through.
20:13It's a small club, and I'm thinking as I'm getting into the vehicle that, hey, I'm really going to do this.
20:25As I'm walking the stairs, I don't feel fearful. This is great.
20:39The checks are being done in Baikonur. They're checking the rocket, they're checking the spaceship.
20:44We're at two hours, and so far, everything looks good.
20:53Spacesuit check one last time.
20:57Should Soyuz spring a leak, these suits will be all that stands between the crew and the killing vacuum of deep space.
21:11Checking the cosmonauts' suits for air tightness is a very important check.
21:15If something's wrong with the spacesuits, the launch will have to be delayed.
21:33The suits are good to go.
21:40Now the action steps into high gear.
21:45Crews arm the emergency pod.
21:51The service towers retract.
22:04In Moscow, dawn breaks.
22:08Millions join the workday.
22:17Mission control has been abuzz for hours. Fifteen minutes to launch.
22:44The world tunes in to watch.
23:02We're going flying in two minutes.
23:06The wait is nearly over, but there's still time for trouble.
23:13That's why Sergei Abakov can't help but worry.
23:21There's tension. Until I hear the announcement on launch day that the spaceship has separated from the rocket, there's tension.
23:28Only when I hear that can I say, that's it, my job is done.
23:38Sixty seconds before launch. The system goes on automatic.
23:54At this point, the launch can't be stopped.
24:04Forty seconds. The last towers drop away. Soyuz is now under its own power.
24:15Twenty seconds.
24:20In the empty Kazakh desert, and in the heart of mission control, time stands as still as the rocket on the pad.
24:45T-minus 13 seconds. And that, the second umbilical tower moving away from the Soyuz.
24:50Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
25:00Booster ignition. Liftoff. Liftoff of the Soyuz rocket, transporting William McArthur, Larry Tokarev, and Murray Riggles into the microgravity space.
25:15At first, it almost seems like it's in slow motion.
25:25Fuel by the ton ignites in Soyuz's engines.
25:37After a minute, it's nearly at 2,000 kilometers an hour.
25:51Network parameters are nominal. Operating nominally. The crew is doing well.
26:06Some vibration. Copy.
26:15Two minutes into the flight, charges blow loose the four booster rockets.
26:26By now, the escape units have no use. It's jettisoned, too.
26:31And the lighter Soyuz reaches more than 33,000 kilometers an hour.
26:37I tried to lift my arm, and I felt like I had a 10-pound weight to push against this weight to lift it up.
26:43Then I knew. I said, yeah, we're really accelerating.
26:54Soon, the signal they're in space. A figurine left loose in the capsule begins to float.
27:04When you go into orbit, and that's a big moment, we have a little doll. This thing hangs and swings around in a cabinet.
27:11And when you see it start floating, then you know you're in orbit.
27:20Nine minutes after liftoff, Soyuz begins its circuit of the Earth, its electronics now boosted by solar panels.
27:31Greg Olson is more than 200 kilometers from his home planet. His dream is reality. But it's not all roses.
27:45They've been in their spacesuits for hours, and believe me, it's horrible.
27:49They'll be sweating like crazy and wanting to get out of the spacesuits and put on regular clothes.
27:57But one is an air check. The rigors of launch could have loosened seals in the capsule or the adjoining utility module.
28:11Pressure accepted. No changes.
28:16Are we given permission to unseal the helmets?
28:21You can open your helmets.
28:28We've checked for airtightness, and everything's airtight, thank God.
28:32Once we figured the capsule was airtight, I gave them permission to open the hatch into the utility compartment,
28:37where they can take off the spacesuits, clean up, and change, then have lunch and dinner at the same time.
28:44As we're in the habitat module, I'm feeling, wow, I'm one of the guys.
28:49I'm not an astronaut, I'm not a cosmonaut, but I'm a space guy.
28:53And here we are about to, you know, we're going to open some food and have a juice.
28:57Yeah.
28:58Yeah, it's just great.
29:05Once done snacking, the spacemen will set about their first assignment.
29:09They're to steer a course further out, around 350 kilometers from Earth.
29:15Their destination, the International Space Station, humanity's only permanent presence in space.
29:23It's staffed now by NASA's John Phillips and Russia's Sergei Krikalev.
29:31After six months on duty, they're ready to come home.
29:39To relieve them, the incoming crew must chase the station through space and gently dock to its hull.
29:49This task is like jeweler's work.
29:51They're 10,000 kilometers away from the space station, chasing it very, very fast.
29:58We're giving the ship boosts to speed up, pushing it into higher orbit.
30:08It's a celestial game of tag, played at 28,000 kilometers an hour, high above our blue planet.
30:17It was awe-inspiring.
30:19The fact that you see how finite the Earth is, the sky is dark, and this thin blue band, which is like an eggshell on an egg, is the atmosphere.
30:31Slowly narrowing the gap, Soyuz spends three days covering nearly a million and a half kilometers.
30:41Now the game gets interesting.
30:46Both vehicles are traveling near the same mind-boggling speed, so their encounter seems to occur in slow motion.
30:55When people talk about something being rocket science, this is what they mean.
31:02When docking to the space station, mathematical precision is life and death.
31:08Computers are in control, but they can't guarantee against mishaps.
31:16June 25, 1997.
31:20An unmanned Russian supply ship, the Progress, approached the Mir space station.
31:30Three cosmonauts were aboard Mir.
31:35Suddenly, Progress swerved.
31:38The bus-sized vehicle slammed into Mir, puncturing her hull.
31:47Progress's cabin pressure plummeted.
31:55The crew scrambled to seal off the damaged bulkhead, barely averting disaster.
32:10Hours later, Soyuz is trying to dock at another space station.
32:20Millimeter by millimeter.
32:23The crosshair is a little lower, but on the periscope it's aligned pretty good.
32:33Closer and closer.
32:36Excellent. Verify contact.
32:39We copy.
32:40Range four.
32:42Range rate .15.
32:45Range three, two.
32:49They've done it.
32:51A perfect docking.
32:54Greg's crewmates have arrived at what will be home for the next six months.
33:00If only they can open the hatch.
33:02I mean, we're here and we're pulling on this hatch and it won't come loose.
33:09Is this going to be it? We're going to have to turn around and come back because we can't open the hatch?
33:17Finally got it to open up.
33:20Krikalov and Phillips had opened their hatch.
33:33It's good to be here.
33:39Expedition 12 arriving.
33:42Good to see you, bro.
33:43Hey, man.
33:47It's a successful moment.
33:49We're all hugging each other.
34:00Maybe Greg's not a tourist, but he still travels with a video camera.
34:07For his 20 million, Greg gets to spend seven more days in the void.
34:11And he's going to record as much of it as he can before riding home with the outbound space station crew.
34:24Breakfast time on Tuesday.
34:28With him will be a celebrity.
34:30Any real space fan knows the name Sergey Krikalev.
34:35This legendary cosmonaut has logged more time up here than anyone.
34:44A total of more than two years.
34:53This is your commander, Sergey Krikalev on the treadmill.
34:57He's a great person.
34:59He has a great sense of humor.
35:01He's very modest.
35:04He's super skilled.
35:06I mean, he came in and he just tried to make me feel at home and as comfortable as could be.
35:16Even though they trained relentlessly for this, the new guys have to work to adjust to life in space.
35:23Here's the daily planning conference.
35:36Right now they're feeling weightless.
35:38Everything is light, everything is flying and tumbling, everything's mixed up.
35:42You have to react to everything and turn your head a lot.
35:45And as a result, you get motion sickness, like seasickness.
35:49And finally, you get so sick of it, you say, the hell with it, let it all fly around.
35:54I'm just going to look straight ahead.
35:59Just imagine yourself floating.
36:01It does feel like magic.
36:03How can you float in the air?
36:05It was a continual highlight.
36:12For the old and new crew members, the seven-day handoff involves countless details.
36:29It's Greg's chance to explore, experiment and enjoy.
36:39I would get out of my sleeping bag and I'd go right over to the window and I'd look out at the Earth
36:44and bring one of my cameras and just take some pictures and say, wow.
36:51And I never got tired of looking at the Earth and saying, wow.
36:55You see a nice picture of the world.
37:00Here's the Soyuz that I will return on.
37:05The transfer chamber.
37:07Not only solar cells, you can see the arm, the robot arm.
37:14On Earth, 10 days have passed since launch.
37:21But on the space station, the sun has risen and set nearly 200 times.
37:29For his 20 million, Greg Olson has circled the globe more than 100 times, a total of nearly 5 million kilometers.
37:39He and his companions share a special bond.
37:44Now it's time to say goodbye.
37:47I had trained with Tokarev and McArthur five months, but the last two months very closely.
37:54I'm leaving these guys behind.
38:01One by one, Greg and Sergei and John squeeze into the tiny return vehicle.
38:08It's like a movie with three parts.
38:11In the end of part two, when you close that hatch, now part three is descent.
38:17You better get in that thing and get going because it's all on schedule.
38:23Coming down, there was going to be some rough riding ahead.
38:26We had to prepare for it.
38:31Latching that hatch begins any space mission's most perilous chapter.
38:37Reentry.
38:43About 350 kilometers below, Russian Air Force helicopters fan out across central Kazakhstan.
38:51When the capsule touches down, they'll retrieve it.
39:00At Mission Control, Moscow, Vladimir Solovyov and team prepare to unhook Soyuz from the space station.
39:12But there's a snag.
39:19In translation, Moscow, we have a problem.
39:26About 350 kilometers up, about to cut loose from the International Space Station, the Soyuz reentry capsule has big trouble.
39:36Somewhere, somehow, the capsule is losing air.
39:42I saw the pressure was dropping. It was 750-ish, and it was going down, and it got up to the 600s.
39:48I saw a crickle off, watching it carefully.
39:53Vladimir Solovyov has run a hundred space flights, but this is a first.
40:06But hold on a minute. Don't do anything without my command.
40:13There's no good time for a space vehicle to leak air.
40:17But during reentry, the risk is even graver.
40:22As the men at either end of this fragile tether know.
40:32On May 29, 1971, Soyuz 11 departed the Salyut 1 space station, carrying three cosmonauts.
40:45The return flight seemed flawless, until the final plunge, when the capsule started to leak air.
41:05When the cosmonauts were retrieved, they were all dead. Their oxygen had leaked out.
41:19Now, this Soyuz has sprung a leak.
41:29On Earth and in space, they try to diagnose and solve the problem.
41:39All Greg Olson can do is sit and wait, as Sergei tries for a better seal.
41:45I knew they were working on it. I knew they were in contact with the ground.
41:49And I knew we probably had the best pilot you could ever have in Sergei Krikalov.
41:57Sergei radios Moscow. It seems he's stabilized cabin pressure.
42:06The leak appears to have stopped.
42:11It's Vladimir Solovyov's call.
42:18He decides, go for it.
42:25The re-entry capsule unlocks from the space station.
42:30The journey home begins.
42:55All is well for two and a half hours, as they circle closer to Earth.
43:08But as Soyuz hits the planet's atmosphere, the cabin pressure starts to drop again.
43:19Soon, 12 percent of their breathable cabin air is gone.
43:24The crew has two choices, both risky.
43:28Boost cabin pressure using pure oxygen, which is highly flammable,
43:33or, as a last hope, trust their spacesuits.
43:39Just then, the radio goes dead.
43:57All mission control can do is watch and wait and hope.
44:06The retrieval helicopters await word.
44:09Once they have the capsule's coordinates, they'll take off.
44:24The capsule re-enters like a meteor.
44:28A blaze of white across the morning sky.
44:31Good or bad, they're on their way down.
44:52And a series of parachutes slow the Soyuz from 900 to just 25 kilometers an hour.
45:07Recovery crews surround the scorched capsule and the gouge it made in the Kazakh desert.
45:31A tracking device automatically shoots off.
45:56The hatch is jammed.
46:25Finally, the recovery crew can reach for the men inside.
46:50One by one, the spacemen in their bulky spacesuits are plucked from the cramped capsule.
47:10Sergei Krikalev looks okay.
47:28So does Greg Olson.
47:37And NASA astronaut John Phillips is barely conscious, as white as a ghost.
48:02He's cramped up. He's a big guy.
48:14Smelling salts revive him.
48:24It'll be days before John's 100 percent.
48:35The episode triggers what, by historical standards, is a startling admission.
48:42A few days later, Sergei Krikalev publicly labels the loss of cabin pressure a serious situation.
48:50The margin may have been narrow, the risks enormous.
48:55But a vintage Russian craft made the circuit to and from space yet again.
49:14This was Soyuz launch number 814.
49:24But for Greg Olson, it was launch number one and only.
49:33And a ride that took him to his dream.
49:39It's the scariest thing in my lifetime.