American and Russian Spending a Year in Space; Imagine a World.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight: "The fault is in not in the stars," said Shakespeare, "it is ours." But there's no fault as far as we can see in a view from 200 miles up. On life, the climate and world piece, an out-of-this-world interview from the International Space Station.</s>MIKHAIL KORNIENKO, RUSSIAN COSMONAUT (through translator): Cooperation onboard the ISS is a great example for all politicians because if they spent at least one month on board together, it would probably resolve most of their problems and discussions on the ground.</s>AMANPOUR: Now there's an idea. While on Earth, justice edges perhaps nearer for Assad after this program revealed shocking evidence of torture at the hands of the Syrian regime. It is now being presented to Moscow Assad's biggest backer.</s>AMANPOUR: Good evening and welcome to the special weekend edition of our program. I'm Christiane Amanpour. Space flight may now seem routine but it remains an incredible feat of human ingenuity. Sitting atop 157 tons of rocket fuel, three people were blasted off our planet this week, bound for the International Space Station. Among them, the first-ever official British astronaut, Timothy Peake.</s>TIM'S MUM: Hello, Tim, it's Mum.</s>TIM PEAKE, ASTRONAUT: Hi, Mum.</s>AMANPOUR (voice-over): Astronauts live for months at a time in an apartment-sized cylinder, hurtling at more than 17,000 miles an hour around the Earth. But spending a year up there is an extreme experience and two men are doing just that: American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. Speaking to someone on the space station is no easy feat, either, because it orbits the globe in just 90 minutes and you have a small window to make a connection. With help from some NASA wizardry, this week we managed to do just that.</s>AMANPOUR: Station, this is CNN. How do you hear me?</s>KELLY: We hear you loud and clear. Welcome aboard the space station.</s>AMANPOUR: Well, it is a huge thrill for us to welcome you to our program and for me to be able to talk to you all the way out there in space. It's really exciting. But you're halfway through nearly a year-long mission. Is it ho-hum for you at this point? Or is it still gee whiz, Scott Kelly?</s>KELLY: Yes, Christiane. You know, there are certain parts about it that at certain times I do kind of take a step back and I realize I'm living in space and doing this work that I consider a privilege. But we've been up here now over 260 days. So sometimes it -- the daily routine is somewhat of a routine. But there are those moments that impress me and I'm sure Misha in a very profound way.</s>AMANPOUR: Let me ask you, Mikhail Kornienko, how does it --</s>AMANPOUR: -- feel to be up there so long, nearly six months now?</s>MIKHAIL KORNIENKO, RUSSIAN COSMONAUT (through translator): Actually, it's not six; it's nine months. So I'm feeling fine -- besides my crew is just great, wonderful. All the crews that worked on board with me are great professionals. Of course, as any of us, I miss my family, my home. But I can say that I am happy, excited and very proud to be entrusted with this mission.</s>AMANPOUR: Let me ask you both, as I love watching you float that microphone back and forth to each other, you are watching our planet with a view unlike anyone else in this universe right now. And you've just seen a climate deal reached in Paris, about 200 nations signing on. Were you surprised that it would happen? I know you lobbied for it. And what is your take on the survival of our planet? Scott Kelly, first you.</s>KELLY: Well, you know, a couple of things. I was surprised on the agreement because just to get that many people to agree to anything is pretty difficult. So in that regard, it was a historic event. And hopefully it'll continue to be supported. I think it has to go back to all the individual countries and still gain their support. With regard to the planet, having this vantage point from space, you do see things like the thinness of the atmosphere that are alarming. I mean, it just looks very fragile. We can see the effects of our presence on Earth by looking out the window. There's certain areas of the globe that are almost constantly covered with pollution. We can see weather systems that don't normally occur in certain areas that we now see more commonly. So I think it's something that's very important for the collective group of people that require this planet for them to survive. You know, it's kind of funny; people say we need to save the Earth. I think what we need to save is us because the Earth is probably going to last a long time. But we need the environment of the Earth to be able to sustain us. So we have to protect it.</s>AMANPOUR: Good point. Let me ask you both, obviously your two nations, Russia and the United States, and many others cooperated on this agreement. But they are at loggerheads on so many other big, big issues today, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's Syria, whatever it might be. I'm just curious, does politics play any role up there, all those miles away in space?</s>KELLY: Well, Christiane, so clearly it's something where we're obviously aware of. I mean, we follow the news. It's not something we generally discuss between each other although sometimes we do. What's most important to Misha and me and our Russian colleagues and them with us is that we have to rely on each other literally for our lives. And not only are we great friends but we're completely reliant on each other. If there's an emergency up here, we have to take care of one another. And that's, for us, the most important thing. And we understand that there can be conflicts at times between nations. And I think one of the great things about this space station if we have demonstrated that two cultures that are somewhat different and then somewhat -- sometimes can be at odds with one another over certain things have demonstrated that they can work together in a very cooperative way. It's something very, very difficult for a long period of time.</s>AMANPOUR: And, Mikhail, your view?</s>KORNIENKO (through translator): I can only join in and say that the international station is free of any politics. We are very polite, always very considerate of each other in such discussions. Furthermore, I would say that our work here and our cooperation onboard the ISS is a great example for all politicians because if they spent at least one month on board together, it would probably resolve most of their problems and discussions on the ground.</s>AMANPOUR: Well, you've given me and the whole world now a whole great program. Maybe we should send them all up to space and they can solve all the world's problems up there, like you're working so hard. What are some of the real kind of hardships, for instance, physically?</s>AMANPOUR: I understand you have to really work out hard in order not to atrophy, for your muscles not to break down.</s>KELLY: Yes, our bodies are pretty smart, you know. They recognize in this microgravity environment that you don't need your skeleton to hold all your stuff together. So we lose bone mass because we don't need it. And likewise with your muscles. So we have to do exercise to prevent that from happening. But there are other hardships, too, up here that we -- you know, we deal with them and we understand it and -- but the fact that you can't go outside, I mean, you can occasionally do a spacewalk, but that's not like walking outside in the fresh air or at least a different -- the kind of air that you experience on a daily basis. The space station is nice but there's no running water. You can't take a shower. The diet is -- gets pretty routine. So all that is something that we've learned to live with. But we still understand that it's a big privilege to represent our countries up here.</s>AMANPOUR: Scott and Mikhail, I know we don't have a huge amount of time. I can see one of your colleagues behind you, who's sort of dancing and floating around in zero gravity, doing whatever he's doing there. Can you do something for us? Can you flip? Can you dance? What do you like to do for exercise up there? Both of you.</s>AMANPOUR: Oh, my goodness. Oh. All right.</s>KELLY: So that's not much exercise. But it's fun.</s>AMANPOUR: Well, Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko, thank you so much for joining us from space today. It's a big one for me today.</s>KELLY: Our pleasure, Christiane. Thanks for allowing us to be on your program.</s>AMANPOUR: Thank you for joining us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Station, this is Houston ACR. That concludes the event. Thank you.</s>AMANPOUR: And while the Earth looks serene from space, on the ground the depths to which humanity can sink shocks us every day. After a break, evidence of systematic torture by the Assad regime, now verified by Human Rights Watch and delivered to the desk of his Moscow backers. That's when we come back.