Who Knew?

Where Astronauts Go to Hang

Welcome to Russia’s Star City.

There’s a lot for Americans to learn at Russia's Star City, the outer space training facility shared by the two nations. Star City, profiled in the New York Times earlier this week, will become especially important in 2010 when American shuttles go off-line for five years and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft becomes the only ride available to the International Space Station. The piece has some great anecdotes about Star City's rough and tumble past: when food ran scarce but the vodka flowed all night; when tele-conferences were openly taped by the KGB; when heat came from an electric coil wrapped in asbestos. Now the Americans live in suburban style duplexes and have their own basement bar with a big screen TV.