[congenitaldisease]

On 30 June, 1971, the Soviet Union were preparing to welcome the Soyuz 11 team, consisting of Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev,back to earth. The cosmonaut heroes had just succeeded in a record breaking space mission - they had spent 22 days in orbit but also occupied the world’s first space station, Salyut 1. Nobody could have anticipated the horror that they found inside - the entire crew were dead with blood coming from their noses and ears. The capsule had de-pressurised during preparations for re-entry causing the crew to asphyxiate. The crew are the only humans to have died outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

[metatheatre]

“[on wrapping the DS9 series finale] I remember the end. We were all gathered together, they had shot the final shot, and the AD came up and she just started saying, ‘Okay, it’s time to say goodbye and goodnight to Nana Visitor.’ And everybody applauds. And that’s when it hit me, it was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it, we’re saying goodbye.’ ‘Goodbye and goodnight to Alexander Siddig. Goodbye and goodnight to Michael Dorn. Goodbye and goodnight to,’ and at every one, every single one, as she goes through the entire cast, there’s a surge of emotions that’s building, and we’re all in this confined place… and the applause is getting louder, and the cheers are getting louder, and we’re going through the cast one by one to Avery. ‘Goodbye and goodnight to Avery Brooks.’ And the place just explodes, and we’re hugging each other and crying, and I’m crying and I’m going up to cast members and I can’t even talk… there’s tears rolling down my face, and I turned and I looked, and I waved to the writers. I just walked out. I walked off the soundstage and got in my car, and that was it, that was it, that was the moment it was all over… it was such a moment, it just hit me so hard… how much I loved those people, how much I loved those characters, how much I loved Deep Space Nine.”

— Producer Ronald D. Moore, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine