1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Revealed in upcoming episodes of this program are the contents of a recently unearthed, 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:37,000 repository classified by the secret government, the Phenomenon Archives. 3 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:27,600 We all want to believe that what we read in the papers is true, yet each of us has had 4 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:33,240 to come to terms with the fact that things aren't always as they seem. Today we're going 5 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:38,200 to visit the site of the US partnership with Russia in the International Space Station, 6 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:47,200 Freedom. A worthy endeavor, of course, but at what cost? Stay with us. 7 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:27,560 Space is the inescapable challenge to all the advanced nations of the Earth. It was 8 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:31,680 the first space-faring nation to establish the United States as the preeminent space-faring 9 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:38,640 nation. First for the coming decade for the 1990s space station freedom, and next for 10 00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:50,640 the new century, back to the moon, back to the future, and this time back to stay. 11 00:02:50,640 --> 00:02:55,960 The Soviet space program single-handedly changed the course of history, propelling civilization 12 00:02:55,960 --> 00:03:01,880 to the greatest era of achievement ever known. With a workforce of over one million people 13 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:07,240 and a virtually unlimited budget, this organization set the standard for space exploration during 14 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:21,240 the height of the Cold War, leaving the Western world in its dust. In today's Russia, the 15 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:26,000 once mighty Soviet space program is in a complete shambles, a toppling Goliath whose 16 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,800 atomic science and rocket technology are being put under the hammer, a vatable ad auction 17 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:40,800 to the highest bidder. Teetering on the edge of a mass exodus are the many underemployed 18 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:47,560 and unpaid rocket and nuclear scientists capable of building weapons of mass destruction. 19 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:52,000 Out of necessity, these very able men and women are forced to consider propositions 20 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:59,520 from unfriendly nations like Libya, Iraq and Iran, each offering millions to secure their 21 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:11,520 services. 22 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:16,240 You've heard about the delays, you've read about the cost overruns, but what is the actual 23 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,440 extent of the problems encountered during the construction of the International Space 24 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:27,160 Station? Where does the official story end and the truth begin? Billions upon billions 25 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:32,280 of dollars lost, pilfered or squandered on faulty workmanship and parts. If there ever 26 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:37,520 was a story that was intended to be buried, it's this one. Luckily, because of the recent 27 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:42,120 unearthing of the phenomenon in archives, government had no place to hide its guilty 28 00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:43,120 secret. 29 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:51,440 When we are talking about the current situation in the Russian space research and space industry, 30 00:04:51,440 --> 00:05:03,040 it's the same as the old Russian economy. It's declining. And I can use the word dying. 31 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:08,880 And if it will be not special intensive care, it will die. 32 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:14,240 With the best political intentions, the American executive branch has initiated a high-tech 33 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:20,680 drama, drawing an unwitting NASA and the American taxpayer into a convoluted welfare program 34 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:27,400 designed to keep Russia's nuclear scientists and engineers working on peaceful projects. 35 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:37,800 95% of the Russian space industry, of all the institutions, design, bureau infrastructure, 36 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:45,480 is doing nothing, is idling. Whatever they get from the government, because most of this 37 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:52,520 activity is not in private sector, is like very modest welfare. 38 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:57,040 Inadvertently, at the center of this very secret American effort, is one of the greatest 39 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:02,840 creative enterprises ever attempted by a consortium of international governments, the construction 40 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:11,640 of the International Space Station. Originally designed to be the most illustrious man-made 41 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:17,640 project since the pyramids, the space station has undergone redesign after redesign to compensate 42 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:25,240 for the ongoing hemorrhage of money to the Russians. Tragically, the once great dream 43 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:30,560 of a glorious space outpost has turned into little more than an ineffectual orbiting laughing 44 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:37,560 stock. The state of the Russian space program, from 45 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:46,160 our standards, is a shambles. And in some ways, you can look at it as a testimony to 46 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:54,600 the incredible talent of the Russian engineers, scientists and cosmonauts to even have a space 47 00:06:54,600 --> 00:07:00,240 program. While at the forefront of rocket technology, 48 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:05,640 the Soviets are first to put a satellite into Earth orbit, first to send probes to the moon, 49 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:13,440 Mars and Venus, first to send a man into space, first to conduct a space walk, first to put 50 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:19,320 a three-man crew into space, and the first to put a manned space station into orbit. 51 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:24,440 Though they lose the race to the moon, the Russians continue to pioneer space station 52 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:32,560 technology through the 1970s and 80s. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the 53 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:39,920 other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will 54 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:46,480 serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge 55 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:53,000 is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend 56 00:07:53,000 --> 00:08:01,760 to win. When we beat them to the moon, they took a different 57 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:10,200 direction, and they began to think in terms of long-term missions, they began their exceptional 58 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:18,560 work with space stations, but their program wasn't ending itself. There was never any 59 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:27,200 pragmatic use for it other than defense. In 1986, the Soviets complete construction 60 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:32,640 of the mirror, large and complex with its many separate modules, designed for extended 61 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:37,880 space exposure and experimentation, it represents the ultimate accomplishment in space station 62 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:44,880 technology. Soviet space officials designed the mirror station to last only five years, 63 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:49,280 confident they will build their next-generation space station by the end of Mir's life in 64 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:59,080 1991. In 1991, it was still the Soviet Union, I can recall going to Star City for the 30th 65 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:04,040 anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, how things had changed. I'm sitting in an amphitheater 66 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:08,240 with cosmonauts and astronauts, we have a society called the Association of Space Explorers, 67 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:15,680 and I'm sitting next to Alexei Leonov, who was the first man to walk in space. I sneezed. 68 00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:20,200 She said, God bless you. Can you say God bless you? I thought all the cosmonauts couldn't 69 00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:29,720 believe in God, soon we can. That August, it came apart, it became Russia. With the 70 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:34,480 collapse of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, economic hardships begin 71 00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:39,920 to seriously undermine the entirety of Russia, bringing the already struggling space program 72 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:48,880 to its knees. Though Soviet scientists continue to work through untold hardship, their support 73 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:56,680 in government wanes, and the political scene in Russia becomes dangerously unstable. One 74 00:09:56,680 --> 00:10:02,600 of the driving factors in the space program was the western block, competing with the 75 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:08,480 eastern block to prove technical superiority. We showed our national will and our macho 76 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:14,440 by having the strongest space program. We beat the Russians to the moon. We wanted to 77 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:21,240 beat the Russians everywhere across the cosmos. When the Berlin Wall came down, everything 78 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:33,000 changed. At that time, scientists on both sides had a rather naïve idea that if there 79 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:38,880 would be no Cold War, we could come together and we would get all the money which we had 80 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:48,880 wasted for military budgets of boss superpowers. So now Cold War is over and we do not see 81 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:57,760 such phenomena. We do not see peace dividends for new, really outstanding space projects. 82 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:02,960 Gone are the days of the million man staff. Gone are the days of the billion dollar budget. 83 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:08,480 But worse, the Russian space program must endure a split in public support. Russian 84 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:13,560 efforts in outer space become a symbol for many of the old Soviet Empire. This memory 85 00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:21,760 is weighted with anguish, suffering, and cultural deprivation. With less than nothing to fall 86 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:27,120 back on, associated scientists and physicists seek desperately to supplement their sagging 87 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:32,520 wages through whatever means available as the space program spirals down into a state 88 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:42,600 of utter bankruptcy. With the Russian economy in ruins, what consequences 89 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:47,880 are being felt by other members of the space station partnership? Boeing, the largest private 90 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:52,880 aerospace company in the U.S., recently canceled its development of the commercial supersonic 91 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:58,760 airplane because they lost NASA as a financial partner. Hundreds of space and technology 92 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:04,640 jobs have been sacrificed at NASA alone. But why? Why have a space program at all if 93 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:11,800 your resources are so limited? Well, we are talking about how people survive 94 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:19,200 there. Of course, it's impossible to survive if you will think only about your salary because 95 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:24,880 in many cases they are not paying salaries for months and years. It's not only in this 96 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:31,000 space. It isn't all research. I know my one, my friend, he's in the computer science 97 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:41,000 and he has six jobs. Some scientists are using their private cars to look for passengers, 98 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:48,160 accidental customers during night times, and that's a big issue. How scientists or engineers 99 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:55,680 can survive in this economic climate? I know of one story of a Russian scientist 100 00:12:55,680 --> 00:13:07,400 and he was a leading life scientist expert and he always has a very good tan. And when 101 00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:11,600 you think of a very good tan in the United States, you think, well, this guy is living 102 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:17,920 it up. He's out on the Riviera or he's going down to Odessa and he's getting his tan because 103 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:24,280 he's in such a prestigious position that he has the money to do such a thing. In reality, 104 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:30,080 he gets his tan because he has to grow his own vegetables because he does not get paid 105 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:40,080 from his government. And so instead of spending all of his time working in life sciences, 106 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:48,480 he is growing turnips, holding turnips and taking care of his garden so that he can feed 107 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:57,720 himself and his family. The recent joke from Russia, it's Mr. Chubais, who was a chief government 108 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:03,080 operator, was briefing Yeltsin about the state of Russian science. He said, you know, Mr. 109 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:12,760 President, I'm surprised. We do not pay them salaries on time, do not support their research, 110 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:21,520 but these guys are coming to their laboratories every day. So after a pause, President said, 111 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:32,200 maybe you should charge money for that. The Russians launched a supply ship, Tumir, and 112 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:39,920 the cosmonauts were on board. And when the ship actually docked with the Mir and the cosmonauts 113 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:45,600 opened up the packages, they realized that a significant portion of the food was missing. 114 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:53,040 Apparently what happened was that underpaid or unpaid workers at the space complex had 115 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:59,160 actually pilfered the rations because they had not received pay for the work that they 116 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:06,800 had been doing over the past six months to a year. Russia maintains the Mir for nearly 117 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:12,240 ten years beyond its intended lifespan, harvesting hundreds of millions of dollars in rent from 118 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:18,440 foreign space programs with their own scientific interests. When the aging space laboratory 119 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:23,680 begins to falter, NASA and other tenants of the Mir, fearful of potential space disasters, 120 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:28,760 discontinue their missions to the orbiter. Rental payments for use of Mir come to an 121 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:36,280 abrupt end, compounding the space program's financial woes. Without this financial support 122 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:43,440 to continue its upkeep, the Mir's fate seems sealed. The Russians, forever attempting to 123 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:49,200 generate new money around their expired resources, argue that the ailing space station is invaluable 124 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:53,680 to the process of constructing the new international space station. 125 00:15:54,600 --> 00:16:07,440 There was a moment when Russian authorities on informal level in testing the waters desperately 126 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:15,120 tried to suggest to use the current Mir station as an early outpost for future international 127 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:21,640 space station. It was rejected. I don't think it was a good idea. It's not good to start 128 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:30,360 a new car implanting the old ancient engine. One story indicative of the extent of despair 129 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:36,160 unfolds when two cosmonauts landing to refuel at an air force base are held at gunpoint 130 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:42,160 by military police and prevented from taking off until the pilots can pay in cash for their 131 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:48,480 aviation fuel. Accounts of looting by space program workers are also reported at the International 132 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:57,560 Space Station launch site in Baconore. Certain factions of the workers get paid a little bit 133 00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:01,680 and other factions don't and unfortunately this tends to be along racial lines and there 134 00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:06,920 have been riots that have occurred. Buildings have been burned down, people have been killed. 135 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:17,360 The selling off of rocket parts has become commonplace amongst employees of Baconore. 136 00:17:17,360 --> 00:17:22,880 As Cap can ever, this is the chosen launch site of the International Space Station. 137 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:27,360 Not wanting to miss out on any opportunity for financial gain, the Russian government 138 00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:32,040 itself participates in this mass sell off of space program inventories. 139 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:37,080 We're not only seeing this happen with the space program, we're actually seeing this 140 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:47,120 happen in the military where one of the generals recently was indicted for trying to sell a 141 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:53,360 troop carrier to Spain. As a last resort, the Russians enter into partnerships with 142 00:17:53,360 --> 00:17:58,000 foreign corporations hoping that a quick influx of cash will deliver them from their most 143 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:05,880 immediate needs. One of the great economic opportunities that some of the American aerospace 144 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:10,720 companies have taken advantage of is funding the Russian rocket companies, the Russian 145 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:16,320 aerospace companies making these boosters, providing them with a steady supply of capital 146 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:21,760 so that they can actually have a budget, that they can actually get parts, that they 147 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:27,120 can actually pay their workers. Partnerships with foreign investors provide a bandaid for 148 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:31,760 some of the short term issues faced by the Russians. Damaged infrastructure and out of 149 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:37,320 date inventories require much larger cash infusions. The monies provided by foreign interests 150 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:43,000 may simply be establishing a false sense of security in an industry where mistakes invariably 151 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,240 cost lives. The Russian boosters have a lot of potential 152 00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:54,760 had a long tradition of being remarkably robust and remarkably dependable. Unfortunately, 153 00:18:54,760 --> 00:19:01,320 these Russian boosters have had an unfortunate string of accidents and primarily these accidents 154 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:08,040 are related to a lack of money, scrounging for parts, scavenging parts to put together 155 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:10,600 a booster that is going to be complete. 156 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:21,920 The secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program is historically infamous. As a branch of the 157 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:27,160 military, mistakes were covered up to preserve political image. In our review of the Kremlin 158 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:31,720 Archives, we discovered an extensive list of deaths related to accidents occurring over 159 00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:38,320 the space of the program's 40 years and this when budgets were high. All of these red flags 160 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:43,240 flapping in the breeze and yet we move forward with the Russians. Why? 161 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:50,040 During the planning stages of the International Space Station, many accomplished representatives 162 00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:54,240 from the American space program speak out against including the Russians as a primary 163 00:19:54,240 --> 00:20:05,440 partner. It is believed that their involvement will hopelessly inflate the budget while delaying 164 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:12,040 construction for months, if not years. If at any time in the mission, however, the limb had 165 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:17,680 been separated and we would gotten it. Despite the urgings of officials like Dr. Chris Kraft, 166 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:22,320 former director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, the American government pressures NASA into 167 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:27,440 bringing the Russians on board. NASA officials plainly object. 168 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:38,560 There have been several administrations that asked the Johnson Space Center, I'm talking 169 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:45,760 about political administrations, that asked us what benefit is there for us to gain from 170 00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:52,240 working and flying with the Russians. And we always sent back a great big zero. 171 00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:59,760 Finally, after the urgings of the executive branch proved insufficient motivation to align NASA 172 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:04,600 with the American government's agenda, the United States leadership orders its space 173 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:12,200 agency to form the partnership regardless of the expense. Several other countries join the 174 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:17,000 uneasy partnership with Russia, steadfastly committing to complete the new International 175 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:23,600 Space Station by the early 21st century. The spectrum of political problems surrounding 176 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:29,600 the project confound many members of the partnership. The Russians suffer new waves of 177 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:37,600 economic turmoil. Their budgetary commitments fall well short of contractual obligations. 178 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:46,400 Without the influx of Russian funding, many on the American side question what benefits, 179 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:54,400 if any, the United States will derive from the completed space station. Former United States 180 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:58,400 Senator and Apollo 17 moonwalker Dr. Harrison Schmidt. 181 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:05,000 A great deal of the effort is going in to try to make it an international space station rather than 182 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:10,600 one which the United States might find quite functional for its own purposes. We often forget 183 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:17,600 we already had a space station, Skylab in the 70s was a tremendously capable space station. We 184 00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:23,100 learned a great deal there and in fact it's going to be a long time before the space station that's 185 00:22:23,100 --> 00:22:28,300 under construction right now even comes close to matching what was possible and indeed what was 186 00:22:28,300 --> 00:22:34,900 done with Skylab back in the 70s. And we should actually be calling the International Space Station 187 00:22:34,900 --> 00:22:41,100 what it is which is not really science. We know pretty much what we need to know from our own 188 00:22:41,100 --> 00:22:49,300 previous work about the long-term effects of space habitation. What the International Space 189 00:22:49,300 --> 00:22:57,600 Station program ought to be called is an effort to aid Soviet and Russian science in sectors 190 00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:04,300 where we feel the non-military character has to be increased and the military character has to be 191 00:23:04,300 --> 00:23:11,700 diminished. Now if you've got political reasons for doing it and you want to that's part of the 192 00:23:11,700 --> 00:23:17,300 game plan of the international cooperation and that's good thing to do and you want to keep the 193 00:23:17,300 --> 00:23:22,300 Russian scientists inside of Russia instead of letting them the brain drain leave Russia that's 194 00:23:22,300 --> 00:23:29,900 your problem. You tell us they want us to do that then by gosh we will do that when you tell us to 195 00:23:29,900 --> 00:23:37,220 do it and we can do it and we will do it. But don't ask us is there anything to be gained from a 196 00:23:37,220 --> 00:23:43,100 technical point of view and from a NASA point of view in working with the Russians the answer is no. 197 00:23:43,900 --> 00:23:50,100 Several domestic and international security and defense agencies report that a number of oil rich 198 00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:57,500 nations such as Libya, Iraq and Iran are soliciting the services of Russian scientists. By offering 199 00:23:57,500 --> 00:24:03,200 millions in salaries and benefits these countries seek to develop nuclear capabilities and ballistic 200 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:07,400 weaponry with the help of the technical expertise of these accomplished men and women. 201 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:19,880 For very real and reasons people are concerned about keeping the scientists and engineers of 202 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:26,000 the Soviet Union employed in peaceful activities rather than possibly many of them going to the 203 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:32,160 highest bidder for not so peaceful activities particularly in the more terrorist-oriented 204 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:38,560 states of the world where they could contribute to the development of nuclear and biological 205 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:47,720 chemical weapons. This prospect is unthinkable to the U.S. and its other partners. The executive 206 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:53,800 branch positions itself to prevent this mass exodus. The International Space Station is 207 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:58,120 established as the flow-through project for funding the needs of Russian rocket scientists and 208 00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:06,880 engineers to ensure that their special talents remain in Russia. That is an admirable goal 209 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:13,400 however the amount of money that the space station can contribute and that NASA can contribute to 210 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:19,440 that effort is very small compared to what's probably needed. The unwitting victims of this 211 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:25,800 affair are once again the American taxpayers never informed by their government that the space 212 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:32,080 station partnership is in reality a foreign aid project. They are duped into believing that the 213 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:40,480 financial burden is to be shared largely with the Russians. For their part the Russians never 214 00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:45,840 have any intention of honoring their contractual obligation to be equal partners either financially 215 00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:54,960 or technologically. The cost sharing was one of the original justifications for bringing Russia 216 00:25:54,960 --> 00:26:01,680 and other nations into it but in the case of Russia it has not worked out. In fact Russia's 217 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:09,320 participation is costing us much more money now than we might have saved had they even performed 218 00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:15,520 well and it's just a different game. The Russians were not prepared politically 219 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:23,960 or technologically or economically in order to participate in the space station program and we 220 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:28,680 knew that and many people predicted that this is what was going to happen and indeed their 221 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:35,720 predictions have come true. In its last cooperative effort Russia partnered in the design and launch 222 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:42,800 of an unmanned probe to Mars. An ominous signal of coming events one of the probes scavenged rockets 223 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:49,120 fails to ignite and the German finance multi-million dollar probe burns up in the earth's atmosphere. 224 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:56,960 Despite this and other costly Russian failures the United States enters into and continues to 225 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:03,880 sustain the partnership with regular infusions of hundreds of millions of American dollars. They 226 00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:09,280 even redesigned the project to fit some of the more antiquated technical processes still employed 227 00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:15,880 by the Russians. Despite the special provisions exceptions and dispensations made on their 228 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:23,280 behalf the Russians prove impossible partners attempting by every means to escape their contractual 229 00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:33,160 obligations. Russia according to international division of labor is responsible for delivering 230 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:45,480 to orbit of two early modules. The first outpost model which is called FGB is built under contract 231 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:55,440 given by NASA. The second model so-called service model is under construction as a Russian contribution 232 00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:05,400 to international space station and this is clearly underfunded and this is one of the major issues 233 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:15,000 debated between Russian government and US government. All the international participants of space 234 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:25,960 station are quite unhappy with the delays in Russia. Right now they're angry at us and we're angry 235 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:31,560 at them. It actually has produced the opposite result that we were seeking. We were trying to create a 236 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:40,960 collaborative cooperative joint venture on a grand scale with US taxpayer money subsidizing the 237 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:48,080 process and what it became was a source of great friction and tension and a lot of conflict and I 238 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:52,960 think if the Russian space agency staff could vote they would probably vote that NASA goes away 239 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:59,120 but they can't because it's not a democratic system and B that's what's keeping them afloat. 240 00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:04,240 Frustrated NASA officials know full well that the international space station could have been 241 00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:10,360 completed on time and on budget according to its original illustrious specifications had the 242 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:15,480 Russians not been involved. Their frustration is compounded by the fact that the space station 243 00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:21,640 being built presents little potential for groundbreaking scientific work. The leadership of 244 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:26,360 the American government maintains its stalwart commitment to sponsor the Russian's decrepit 245 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:33,240 space program. From missed deadlines to inferior construction virtually every aspect of Russia's 246 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:40,160 participation in the effort proves inferior. This is not stopping their space officials from 247 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:47,680 making additional demands for cash as in desperation they hold the space station hostage. An additional 248 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:55,120 660 million American dollars are committed by the US supplementing the 700 million already shoveled 249 00:29:55,120 --> 00:30:07,400 gratuitously in Russia's direction. With all of the political rhetoric about government spending 250 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:12,840 and cost control why haven't the floodgates been closed? With every conspiracy there's a winner 251 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:18,760 and a loser and we already know who the loser is the taxpayer but who wins in a situation like this? 252 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:25,720 Certainly the gun-running activities of Iran-Kantra were a far more dastardly and contemptible 253 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:31,000 example of government conspiracy as was the Reagan administration's blatant bypassing of 254 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:37,640 Congress and utter disregard for the American Constitution. Past wrongs however do not sanction 255 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:46,520 continued abuse of power. Even so the executive branch continues to defraud the American taxpayer 256 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:51,640 authorizing billions in payments to the Russians under the pretense of their essential participation 257 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:58,600 in the partnership. The American Congress long concerned over NASA being turned into a de facto 258 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:04,840 foreign relations branch of the government stands idly by. Apparently the political challenge of 259 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:09,880 cutting funding to the popular space station project is too great. Why rock the boat when 260 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:15,240 this funding can be so easily justified behind the pretense of limiting nuclear capabilities 261 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:21,400 around the world? They did not expect that state of Russian economy would deteriorate to such a 262 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:28,760 degree. Whatever is going to happen to the economy would provide an answer where the Russian space 263 00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:37,800 is going in future. If economy would stagnate like today, the space station would be the last page in 264 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:44,280 the Russian space program. And I happen to think that the International Space Station so far is 265 00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:51,480 a program that's gone bad because we operated as though the Russian space agency was just like 266 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:57,160 any other contractor. When in fact it's a totally different animal that we don't even begin to 267 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:02,360 understand. The way that they make decisions, the way that they finance their programs, the way that 268 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:07,400 they set priorities, the way that they govern themselves, we have no idea how that works. 269 00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:15,880 It's a very circuitous, very convoluted, frankly not very logical system of priorities and decisions. 270 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:21,560 I don't think we're very good at getting a grasp on it. With the president and the vice president 271 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:26,760 forcefully endorsing the Russian partnership on one side and Congress tightening the reins of 272 00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:32,600 government subsidy on the other, NASA finds itself entangled in a gordian knot of partisan politics. 273 00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:38,760 After surviving catastrophes like the explosion of the Challenger and the rescue of Apollo 13, 274 00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:43,480 this groundbreaking, innovative civilian organization credited with the most important 275 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:48,280 technological breakthroughs of the century has become a pawnbroker to the Russians. 276 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:57,720 Despite this, NASA continues to repurpose dated technology and to work with an unmanageably 277 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:04,600 corrupt system to somehow install the bottom on the bottomless pit that is the Russian space program. 278 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:10,680 Struggling mightily to keep the president happy by continuing to fund the Russian effort, 279 00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:16,760 NASA is forced to fight Congress for every dollar it receives. Ultimately, something must give. 280 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:22,920 NASA is forced to redesign the space station, lowering its overall cost through compromising 281 00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:29,560 the final product. It is this series of redesigns that virtually eliminates any potential for 282 00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:33,160 important scientific work. There's still a bickering about a space station. 283 00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:40,520 The space station is going from a Taj Mahal to an outhouse. And it's an outhouse in orbit. It's about it. 284 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:47,400 Right now, it appears that those dollars that are being sent to the former Soviet Union, 285 00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:55,640 primarily Russia, to ensure their participation in the space station may have been largely wasted. 286 00:33:55,640 --> 00:34:00,200 And so that's the kind of thing you get into when you make your space program primarily 287 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:03,480 an instrument of the State Department. If you're going to have a federal government 288 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:07,160 space program, it should be in and of itself for its own purposes. 289 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:14,440 NASA is about the future. NASA is about rewriting physics textbooks and biology and 290 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:20,200 chemistry textbooks. NASA is about understanding where new sources of energy could come from 291 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:26,280 and how matter gets formed. NASA is about understanding who are we and why are we and 292 00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:32,120 how do we relate to our universe. NASA is about understanding our universe and solar system 293 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:37,800 to better understand our own planet. NASA is about trying to understand how we could make 294 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:44,760 long-term predictive models of our weather and our climate so we could avoid natural disasters. 295 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:53,720 Let's throw the baby out with a bath water, so to speak. There is a lot of bad in anything. 296 00:34:56,440 --> 00:35:01,400 I'm a super critical person when I talk to my colleagues about it, but I don't go out and 297 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:07,880 sell the world at NASA's doing all the wrong things. I mean, Mr. Goleman is doing the best he can. 298 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:13,720 Under the circumstances, he wouldn't have a space program if he didn't do what he's doing. 299 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:19,480 And I would say an answer to that. So what? Don't do it. 300 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:28,200 It could have been more. It could have been a project focused on developing the human 301 00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:34,600 understanding, the physiological understanding of human beings, some of the technologies necessary, 302 00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:39,720 as well as how to build things with indefinite life for use in space. All of those things are 303 00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:44,520 important to going back to the moon and to Mars and on out into outer space, but that is not 304 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:50,760 the purpose of today's space station. There'll be some indirect fallout and valuable technologies 305 00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:56,360 to come out of it, but it's not the primary thrust of that. Unless we call it what is, 306 00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:02,360 we're perpetuating the kind of lie, which is a little bit similar to what we saw in the 60s. I 307 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:10,280 mean, it's not like we're covering up massive catastrophe malfeasance or other kinds of errors. 308 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:16,120 Here, we're just basically trying to gloss over the true story, which is that the Russian science 309 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:22,680 program, particularly space science, is on its knees and that we don't want somebody else getting 310 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:27,720 access to it because it has the potential to be used for weapons of mass destruction. 311 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,600 I think if we called it that, we'd be a lot clearer about our goals. 312 00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:41,560 Why hide the truth and the evidence from the people of the world? Well, 313 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,960 the fact is that this kind of government suppression is not without precedent. 314 00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:51,880 Through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the Soviet government grossly exaggerated the 315 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:57,480 accomplishments of its space program. It distorted reality by covering up its setbacks 316 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:01,800 and preventing public recognition of its cosmonauts, scientists, and engineers. 317 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:09,480 This systematic line to itself, its people, and to the world has sent the Russian space program 318 00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,920 reeling to the point where it is now living in the light of its own shadow. 319 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:21,480 If the American government insists on relegating NASA to the role of political attaché, 320 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:26,200 while simultaneously lying to the American public about the true nature of the space station 321 00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:33,240 partnership, NASA and the U.S. can expect little more than a place alongside the Russians in infamy. 322 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:44,280 The reality is that there is a chronic problem in Russian official organizations 323 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:51,800 in owning up to the truth. And the most recent financial crisis in August of 98 in Russia, 324 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:55,960 which practically saw the demise of the Russian economy as we know it, 325 00:37:56,680 --> 00:38:02,840 and came very close to a meltdown. That was due to systematic lying, Yeltsin to himself, 326 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:07,160 not telling the truth. Yeltsin and his cabinet not talking the truth to each other, 327 00:38:07,720 --> 00:38:12,280 the bankers in the West not wanting to see the truth of the situation in Russia. 328 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:16,760 And it really has dramatic implications. I mean, we fundamentally may get burned 329 00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,760 in a global economic sense because of the way the Russians deal with the truth. 330 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,120 How does the U.S. government deal with the truth? 331 00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:29,720 Humanity may be in danger should Russian rocket scientists move to unfriendly nations 332 00:38:29,720 --> 00:38:35,960 to create weapons of mass destruction. But how will the fallout resulting from 333 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:39,000 blatant governmental misrepresentation affect us? 334 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:46,680 With the clearest historical example of where a policy of deceit in government leads, 335 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:53,480 the Soviet Empire lays prostrate before us, drowning in a sea of economic turmoil. Rather 336 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:58,440 than learn from these mistakes, the leadership of the United States government seems determined 337 00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:06,600 to repeat the same grave errors. The creation of the International Space Station is a foreign aid 338 00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:11,560 program for the Russians, a charitable contribution made by the American taxpayer 339 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:18,840 to the Russian space program, a division of the Russian military. The price tag is T minus 340 00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:29,400 two billion dollars and counting. The judgment of those who would preserve a policy of deception 341 00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:34,600 at the expense of the International Space Station, intended to be the greatest collaborative creation 342 00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:40,920 since the pyramid, begs the question, why must the U.S. use the same deceitful methods employed 343 00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:44,680 by the Soviets during the 1960s, 70s and 80s? 344 00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:52,920 We're confronted once again with a larger and perhaps more oppressing question. 345 00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:57,160 How do we respond when our government, be it local, state or federal, 346 00:39:57,160 --> 00:40:01,480 turns a blind eye toward and even becomes a party to corruption? 347 00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:08,920 Soviet science and Russian science is not going to go away. 348 00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:15,240 Russians are going to be as oriented toward the basic and frontier sciences as they have 349 00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:21,000 ever been, especially once their economy begins to recover. The question we have to ask is whether 350 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:27,960 or not there will be a political system in place, which is democratically oriented and which is open 351 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:34,040 to inputs and criticisms from the outside, that will ensure that we don't get into 352 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:41,480 the kind of systematic lying and cover-up that seems to have been the case in the 60s and 70s 353 00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:47,640 and even into the late 80s. Is the program on the verge of extinction of collapse? 354 00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:55,960 Probably is from our perspective, but from the Russian perspective, they will probably be able 355 00:40:56,120 --> 00:41:06,280 to keep it going for enough years until somehow enough capital is infused into the country. 356 00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:13,400 They're still printing money, they're still producing a lot of vodka. Some of it is of 357 00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:20,840 international quality. They still export a lot of oil and gas to foreign countries, 358 00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:32,680 but the fate of scientific community, of the research community is really very ugly. 359 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:42,760 So all this Russian legacy or Soviet legacy now is going to be kept in space museum, 360 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:48,840 here, and perhaps in a few scattered exhibitions in Russia. 361 00:41:51,240 --> 00:41:55,240 Much like its Soviet counterpart did throughout the last four decades, 362 00:41:55,240 --> 00:41:59,320 NASA is falling victim to the political machinations of its sponsoring government. 363 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:04,680 Created and maintained as a civilian agency dedicated to the science of space, 364 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:08,840 NASA has led our world in one of its greatest eras of achievement, 365 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:15,240 since its inception is performed most exceptionally when it has been left to do what it does best. 366 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:22,600 We must in the United States look at our national priorities first, but after we define national 367 00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:30,440 priorities, we certainly can cooperate. And if we want our children to live in a world that doesn't 368 00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:38,440 have the tremendous number of wars and killing that we've had in this last century, working 369 00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:44,120 in space helps build bridges and break down lack of understanding among people. 370 00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:49,320 And so long as we put our national priorities first, we'll have lots of room to work together. 371 00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:56,600 If the U.S. government continues along its present course, using NASA as a go-between with the Russians, 372 00:42:57,240 --> 00:43:01,080 one of America's greatest assets may be undermined by lies. 373 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,320 If history is any indication of where this path leads, 374 00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:09,720 NASA could soon be following in the footsteps of its Russian counterpart, 375 00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:16,440 broke, dishonored, distrusted, and ultimately dismembered. 376 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:31,640 Recounting the lessons of history from the long neglected stories of tragedy and intrigue, 377 00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:38,040 these are the phenomenon archives, what you've never seen and what you're not supposed to know. 378 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:42,040 I'm Dean Stockwell. Thanks for tuning in. 379 00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:13,160 Put it up for sale, like National Pride. When it goes down, put it up for sale. 380 00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:23,880 Divide the republic, sell the remains. Politics dead, now money's the game. 381 00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:30,520 They steal from the people with no threat of jail. Just find what is failing, put it up. 382 00:44:31,240 --> 00:44:45,240 When it goes down, put it up for sale. Space program. When it goes down, put it up for sale. 383 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:55,320 Food and housing. When it goes down, put it up for sale. Nuclear bombs. 384 00:44:55,320 --> 00:45:10,120 When it goes down, put it up for sale. Weapon technology. When it goes down, put it up for sale.