yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

How the End of the Cold War Led to Birth of the International Space Station | Rewind the '90s


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

NARRATOR: Our story opens with revolution. After decades of cold war, the mighty Soviet empire is collapsing.

MAN: The wall is effectively down.

NARRATOR: Just weeks before the 90s begin, the most famous symbol of the political divide between east and west is toppled.

CHUNG: We as boomers lived under the threat of nuclear war. We lived with the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was the symbol of all of that.

CHUNG (over TV): Today was the beginning of the end of what they call the wall of shame.

CHUNG: It was a glorious moment. It was like a street party.

MAN (over TV): Until yesterday the wall was a symbol of Cold War fear and loathing. Tonight it's the scene for a celebration of freedom, peace and love.

NARRATOR: As political shock waves echo across Europe, the world watches as the Soviet super power collapses.

MAN (over TV): The exuberance, the delight, the passion, they are all tangible. 40 years of Stalinist oppression crumbling.

NARRATOR: And in December 1991, communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares the end of the Soviet Union. The Cold War, which sparked fears of global apocalypse, is over.

CLINTON: Russia's strategic nuclear missiles soon will no longer be pointed at the United States. Nor will we point ours at them. (applause)

NARRATOR: As lifelong enemies join forces, they open up bold new frontiers.

CLINTON: Instead of building weapons in space, Russian scientists will help us to build the International Space Station. (applause)

KURT: The space race had been part of the Cold War, especially in the early days it was all about we gotta get to the moon before the Soviets.

MAN (over TV): They've got the flag up, you can see the stars and stripes.

KURT: It made sense in a symbolic way to show that the old Cold War, including this ferocious space race, was done.

MAN: This is an historic moment that I'm just very excited. Mr. Kopchev I wanna give you a hug. (laughter, applause)

NARRATOR: With grand designs for a high tech future, construction starts on a project of cosmic scale and ambition.

BILL: The purpose of the ISS is to be a laboratory in space. It's the largest international cooperative science program that we've ever seen. 15 nations managed by five separate space agencies, all contributing to make this laboratory a reality.

NARRATOR: And as mission training begins in Moscow and Houston, for a launch that will herald the new millennium, humanity contemplates its destiny.

BILL: One of the biggest questions that the space station is trying to help answer is, is earth the only spot in the whole universe that we can reside or do we have the capacity to live and work elsewhere?

More Articles

View All
Prepositions of space | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy
Hello, Garans. So we had said previously that prepositions, uh, express relationships between two ideas, right? And we can do that either in time or in space or in other ways. But today I want to talk about prepositions in [Music] space because this is a…
What Women in China Want | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic
Foreign. I’ve traveled to China scores of times. I know every way of getting in, but this I really was stuck. In the summer of 2022, Justin Jin started a project that would become a National Geographic cover story. Justin is a photographer based in Brusse…
Using the Teacher Skills Report to drive differentiation on Khan Academy
Today, I will show you how to use the skills overview report in the teacher dashboard on Khan Academy. Once you have logged into Khan Academy, go to your teacher dashboard. Once you are in your teacher dashboard, on the left-hand panel under Tools, click …
How To Pay NO TAXES In 2024 (What Nobody Tells You)
What’s up you guys? It’s Graham here, and if you pay any amount of tax whatsoever, you need to hear this because chances are you’re wasting a lot of money. Don’t believe me? Well, just consider that here in the United States, the average single worker pai…
Controlled Bush Fire Burn | Rebuilding Paradise
ZEKE LUNDNER: One of the things that spread the Camp Fire through Paradise was all the spot fires. All those little baby trees are what carries the fire up into the crowns, and up in the crowns, when wind’s blowing, that’s how you get the one-mile to two-…
The Inverse Leidenfrost Effect
Now you’ve probably heard of the Leidenfrost effect. That’s when a volatile droplet like water levitates over a hot surface because it’s floating on a little cushion of its own vapor. Here I’m gonna try to create the inverse Leidenfrost effect where we le…