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[Mike Massimino] Hi I’m Mike Massimino and
this is Inside the International Space Station.

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Intro clip: “100 camels running around.

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Cosmodrome.

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It’s a Dream liner, a 787”

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[Massimino] We’re going to talk to Joe Acaba
and Sunny Williams about their upcoming space

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flight.

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[Williams] It’s a nice thing for people
to learn a little bit more about a different

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culture and a different part
of the planet.

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Even Kazakhstan, even Baikonur itself was
a secret to the Russians for a long time,

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for
most of the Russian public.

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In the last couple of decades, it’s sort
of, of course now everybody knows

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where Baikonur is.

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It’s an amazing history.

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It’s out in the middle of nowhere.

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We launch in Florida of
course so all of the pieces can fall into

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the ocean.

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They launch in Kazakhstan because East of
that is

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just a steppe.

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But still the big pieces still fall in the
steppe.

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[Massimino] The steppe is?

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I’m sorry.

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[Williams] The steppe is this big desert type
brush area running East of where Baikonur

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is so the big
Rocket pieces, the first stage all falls back

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onto the land, the second stage just all falls
back onto the

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land.

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And they did all of this so nobody would actually
really know, of course the Soviet Union, so

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nobody would know where the launch pad was
or what that were doing from the very beginning.

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So
it’s cool now that the T.V.

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cameras are coming to this place and they’re
seeing it.

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When I was there
last we saw a herd of camels like 100 camels

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running around, wild horses.

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It is in the middle of freakin
nowhere.

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They made it that way on purpose.

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Actually the name Baikonur was spelled a little
bit

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wrong so people didn’t know exactly where
it was on the map when they just settled it.

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The history is
pretty cool and it’s neat for other folks

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in the U.S. and I hope there’s more news
people who come to

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Kazakhstan so they can understand the whole
history of the space program.

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It wasn’t just ours.

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Ours
was awesome; of course, going to the moon

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and everything leading up to it but theirs
is too.

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The
effort that the Soviet Union and the Russians

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made is pretty historic.

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It’s nice to be able to share that.

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It’s another appreciation for different
cultures, it’s cool.

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[Massimino] So Baikonur was that, is that
where Sputnik was launched from?

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[Williams] Oh, now you’re going to ask me
stuff I don’t know.

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[Acaba] Yuri was.

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[Williams] Yuri was for sure, but I don’t
know about Sputnik.

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[Massimino] How do you get in there, on a
C130 or something?

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How do you get into this place?

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[Williams] It’s a Dream liner, a 787.

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It’s all luxury.

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Far from it, my friend.

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[Massimino] So when you go to Russia, you
fly into Moscow, when you guys go there?

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Then you train in Star
city, then you go out to Baikonur?

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Now you fly to this place?

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[Williams] Yeah.

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[Massimino] Can you tell me, you can’t tell
me where it is?

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[Williams] It’s a secret.

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I don’t know where it is.

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[Massimino] So you fly in there?

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There’s obviously a runway there in a small
town?

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[Williams] Yeah, actually Baikonur is a closed
city.

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It’s a little interesting place cause we
have to have, of

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course your passport, when leaving to go through
Kazakhstan, Baikonur, actually the airport

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may be in
Kazakhstan.

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The airports in Kazakhstan so you need your
passport and your papers to get into

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Kazakhstan by landing at the airport.

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….. I think it’s called.

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And then they drive you in to Baikonur, the
town, which is a closed town.

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It’s sort of like an Embassy.

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[Massimino] Kind of like the Vatican or something?

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[Williams] Yeah, exactly.

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It’s its own little thing, which is Russian,
and then we stay and live in this little

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town called Biakunor.

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But actually I think I read it was home to
like 100 thousand people at one point,

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at the height of the Space Program.

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So it’s not tiny.

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It’s a town.

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[Massimino] It’s a Space town?

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[Williams] It’s a Space town.

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[Massimino] Rocket City?

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[Williams] Rocket City, exactly.

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[Massimino] Space ships and rockets are built
other places and then shipped there/

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[Williams] Yeah.

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[Massimino] and assembled and shot off?

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[Williams] from the Cosmodrome.

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It sounds so cool doesn’t it?

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The Cosmodrome.

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[Massimino] The Cosmodrome, sounds like an
Olympic Venue.

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[Williams] Exactly.

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[Massimino] and that’s where the, the Progress
launches from the same place, and all their

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stuff.

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[Williams] They have a couple of different
places but that’s the main place from what

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I’ve heard.

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They
have a pretty big train station right in the

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center of town.

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I think it was built and again, don’t quote
me

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on all the historic points here, because I
don’t wanna screw it up too bad.

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[Acaba] Please.

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[Williams] I saw this movie, Belka and Strelka?

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[Acaba] Suni said it.

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[Williams] The cartoon about these dogs and
I believe everything that it said, but there’s

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a pretty big
railway system, that went, that goes to that

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town and that’s how these people originally
got there.

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They actually lived in tents remember from
the, we do this really cool, as a back- up

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crew member you
get to go to the museum there and you get

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to see a little bit about the history of this
town.

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That’s
where I’m grabbin some of this stuff from.

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But the folks who lived there originally,
when they built

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this town, they lived in tents and again,
like I’m saying, this is out in the middle

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of nowhere and they
created this whole Kosmodrone Space Port and

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the town while they were out there so it’s
pretty

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neat.

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But most of the pieces are made in different
places.

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Our Soyuz is made outside of Moscow at a
company called Energia, and the rocket parts

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are from a company in Samara which I think
is close to

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Moscow.