The Cosmonaut

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THE COSMONAU We had installed an antenna

on our roof in Turin

Our house

was located on a strategic path

that enabled us to listen

to radio messages from the USSR

My brother and I used to listen

to the launching of each rocket.

Yes, Sputnik 1...

with its...

The heartbeat of Laika,

the little dog...

Gagarin's first words...

"I don't see any God up here... "

John Glenn...

We spent whole nights awake

in front of our receivers.

One day...

German astronomy radio observatories

locked on some strange noises

in frequencies

normally used by the Soviets.

We hurried to listen.

It was a Morse code signal.

But the signal,

rather than orbiting the Earth

was at a fixed point,

sounding lower every time.

It was a spaceship

moving away from Earth.

We fine-tuned the signal

and the beeps became...

a sound.

Thanks to my father,

who was a doctor,

we discovered it was a heartbeat.

A human one.

Soon after that, the USSR announced

that a spaceship had vanished

in the edge of our atmosphere.

An unmanned craft.

Obviously.

They concealed everything.

From then on

it was all crazy.

In a disused German bunker

we built the world's most famous

amateur radio station.

Torre Bert.

They were amazing times.

Packed with emotion.

The world's two superpowers

that could have destroyed everything

overnight,

were, at the same time

competing

to conquer space,

to be the first out there.

To go further.

Back then, there was

a true love for space...

At the beginning,

the Russians won everything.

The first satellite,

the first animal in space,

the first man,

the first woman,

the first space walk...

While the Americans suffered

one explosion after another,

amassed one failure after another.

However,

when the Americans reached the Moon...

It was all over.

There was nothing left to explore.

Nothing to win.

Interest in space faded.

And the USSR...

lost.

Despite winning everything else...

they lost because they never managed

to reach the Moon.

The Moon was a long awaited dream,

it was everything.

And they let it slip away...

APRIL 18th, 1975

So here I am,

I hope this is working right,

if it isn't it must be broken,

which is your fault, Andrei, thank you.

I've decided to record as much as

I possibly can for a post-flight analysis.

As you know, something must have damaged

the Kolibri's communications antenna.

as all attempts to contact you guys

have proven futile.

I'm currently

on my third orbit of the Moon.

There she is, out there.

Isn't she beautiful?

It's hard to sum up how staggering it is

without sounding clichd or corny.

So, here I am...

Quarter of a million kilometers

away from home, all alone,

and the sense of isolation is...

Well, it's pretty overwhelming.

The good news is

I made this piece of sh*t work.

It wasn't poetry in motion or textbook,

but it did take off from the Moon.

So here I am...

In deep space...

Solar panels are history...

and unless I can find a gas station

on the way back

I'm pretty f***ed.

7 MONTHS LATER

Nikolai?

The Kolibri module is coming back.

Yes... Yes...

Ok.

The Kolibri is reentering

the atmosphere.

He's coming back.

I know it's been a long time

and I know it's impossible.

Do you think it's a coincidence

that he's coming to Earth?

Come on.

It's gonna land in less than an hour.

AGS seems burnt and out of function.

I see 3.0 in register 1.

Previous reading: 2.9.

Spacecraft entered a ballistic orbit

during reentry, sir.

Accelerations up to 21Gs are expected.

Rescue team's ready.

- Ready.

Recalculate the route. Do we have a range?

- 20 km sir.

Tracking stations.

- Notified and waiting.

Re-route the rescue teams

to the Orsk area.

Nothing!

Anything?

- Nothing!

Nothing over here!

I've found it!

Come over here!

The spacecraft is empty!

There's no one inside!

Chaika, do you read me? Over.

Chaika, do you read me?

Where the f*** am I?

Right, teams of two!

Let's go on and find him!

That way. You, with me. Come on!

Do you hear me? I'll give you

my coordinates. They are 40342004.

Chaika, a storm is coming,

it's very close.

Tell the rescue mission to find me

as soon as possible.

Over!

My muscles are weak from all the time

I've spent in zero gravity.

That was a dirty stunt, Stas.

You either come back or you don't.

But I don't like to be fooled.

Did you sleep at all?

I don't like what I see when I sleep.

Yulia, you have to get some sleep.

This is ridiculous. Can you just?...

Just please take the pills

the doctor gave you.

I've already started.

Ok...

I'll make some coffee.

Don't worry, I'll do it.

Today is June 15th...

1976.

My name is Stas Arsenievich.

I'm a soviet cosmonaut.

I write this diary

to leave a record of my arrival.

There's no one here.

It's like the whole human race

has been killed in a nuclear explosion

or melted or...

Everything else is still here.

Every leaf

waterfall

bird,...

Everything looks exactly like Earth...

Except it isn't.

They had this massive antenna,

they were receiving the signal.

I don't care!

I just hope that someday,

if somebody talks about us

it's because we did something

worth talking about.

Cheers to that.

Andrei Sergeevich Vasiliev...

you should rest.

I can't.

A memory is similar to a virus.

It's unique,

it can remain asleep for years

and when it comes to life it spreads,

it divides, it multiplies

and it can eat you alive.

This is my beer to spare.

Excuse me young lady,

is this man bothering you?

Cause I can get rid of him

for you if you like. - Really?

Thank you boys.

- There you go.

Gentlemen, on the house.

You got...

She is salty.

This isn't gonna work.

What's your solution then?

I don't know.

Wait.

Wow! Sorry, ok!

- Sorry...

Lo siento, solo queramos hielo.

- I'm sorry...

Ok, so...

Show me your hand.

First one out, loses.

Loses what?

- The girl, balland.

Ok...

Pact of silence.

We never talk to each other about her.

Ever.

Deal?

- Deal.

Ok...

T minus ten.

Nine...

eight...

seven...

six...

three, two, one.

Today I drank water from a stream.

I also ate the meat leftovers

by the bonfire

but they tasted of ash

and I had to spit them out.

I heard a scream in the distance

and I ran towards it.

Beats bouncing

inside my chest very fast.

I screamed with all my heart.

I laugh, my eyes filled with tears.

But there was no one there.

Do you know why I started to work here?

You never told me.

When I was seventeen I spent the summer

with my parents in the country

and I met this boy.

He was a pilot.

It was...

It was the best summer.

It was perfect.

And then at the end of it,

he just vanished.

I keep thinking...

that he'll be

on the next bus full of new recruits.

Or the next one.

So you're not here

because you love your job?

I hate space.

It's such a...

such a bizarre place...

There's so much to see down here.

If you were a time traveler,

but you could only travel in one direction,

which one would you chose?

Forward or back?

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