Constellation
Season 1 – Episode 3
Episode Title: Somewhere in Space Hangs My Heart
Original release date: February 21, 2024
Plot: The space agencies begin their investigation into the ISS collision. Jo struggles to reconnect with Magnus and Alice.
* * *
[Alice] Mummy, where are we going?
[Jo] There’s another cabin over the lake. Come on.
Honey, what are you doing? We gotta keep moving.
I’m making a trail like Hansel and Gretel.
You remember? You used to read me Hansel and Gretel.
[Jo] There’s another cabin.
It’s like our cabin, but it’s not our cabin.
We’re not gonna get lost. Come.
[Alice] Mummy?
Mummy!
[echoing] Mummy!
[sighs]
[sighs]
[inhales deeply]
[Alice] She doesn’t look too much like herself.
[Magnus] She’s still your mum.
She looks like she’s dead.
Hey, hey, hey, Alice.
What if she doesn’t come out?
[“Tellur” by Surrogate Sibling plays]
[shutters clicking]
[Jo] I’d like to take a moment
and remember our colleague and friend Commander Paul Lancaster.
He was the most amazing, funny, dedicated, smart person,
a loving husband and father, a great leader.
And no words can describe how much we miss him.
[Frederic] Your questions, please.
What do you personally think caused the accident?
It was a collision.
Yes, but with what?
Probably something very small.
[reporter] There are systems on board the ISS that scan for debris.
There was an alarm. We just didn’t have time…
We’re in the middle of a joint investigation
and we don’t wanna anticipate the inquiry.
Sorry for interrupting you, Jo.
It’s okay.
Is your mission over?
Do you get to spend some time with your family?
We… No, my mission is… is not over.
I have nine months of, um,
experiments and data collections that I, um… [clears throat]
My specific mission has been to monitor
the physical and neurological effects of long-term space travel and…
And are you feeling those effects currently?
Well, I feel…
I feel a lot better than I did a couple of days ago. [Chuckles]
Um, but you know, um
you forget how Earth smells.
There is no weather in space.
There’s no seasons.
So it’s really nice to… to feel the autumn and to smell the rain.
I’m very happy to be back home.
[shutters clicking]
Are you guys okay? [Sighs]
[Magnus] Great.
Look, there are three of us again.
[Wendy] Where will they bury him?
[Frida sighs] I don’t know, honey.
Arlington?
That’s where they bury people like Neil Armstrong, President John Kennedy.
People from the olden days?
People who come from America
who have done something really brave and important.
Heroes like your daddy.
Erica,
he was a great man. I’m so sorry.
Frida is my name.
[footsteps approaching]
[sighs]
[colleague] We brought the machine learning stuff, the stuff we could carry.
It’s not ideal, but…
Doesn’t matter.
Look.
This is what we got
just before the collision.
There’s an interference effect.
I got the same thing when I extracted the data down here at Baikonur.
What?
The exact same.
How? It can only run in space.
Okay, show me.
I didn’t record it.
I mean… [stammers] …it faded away, but it was there. I saw it.
I know it was there on the ISS,
but it can’t possibly have survived on Earth.
It’s-It’s impossible.
Well, exactly, Eryn.
And that’s why we’ll run it again with all this.
[machine whirring]
[exclaims]
[gasps]
[sighs]
[breathing heavily]
[announcer] Welcome to Berni-Con IV.
Hey, Bud. Bud?
Hey.
[guest] What’s your per diem?
Ooh, not e-fucking-nough. [Sighs]
Ten days on a ship, talking to fucking lunatics.
Oh, and look at this guy.
Huh.
I walked on the fucking moon, and this is how the journey ends.
Making me sit and debate that asshole.
Hi.
Can I get you a glass of water?
I got 250. Twenty bucks per autograph.
And in the middle of a space tragedy.
I tell you, it’s bad taste. It’s bad timing.
And all the supposed bullshit that happened with me
and those other guys… [groans]
Damn it.
[guest] The convention circuit’s much better than acting. [Grunts]
Lot more sex in it, for a start.
I’m sick of hearing it.
This is the way it is now.
I am sick of the status quo.
Things are gonna change.
[sighs]
[fan] Hi.
[guest] Here come the aliens.
[fan] Can you sign this to Sophie Space…
Yeah.
Oh. We have to whisper.
Why is that?
‘Cause they’re doing something very fiddly at the CAL.
Hey, Alice.
Hi, Paul.
[Paul chuckles] Your mama’s big day today.
RPL. CAL data:
Core signals green, magnets aligned, 25.5.
[Henry] Copy, phase six.
[Paul] Copy.
Core temperature.
[Jo] I miss you so much.
[Alice] I miss you too, Mummy. Will you be careful when you go out there?
[Jo] Always.
[explosion, air hissing on recording]
[Paul grunts]
[grunting, screaming]
[recording pauses]
I find it strange that there isn’t an MMOD alarm,
’cause I remember hearing it quite clearly.
That’s important to know, if the collision was signaled.
What about your colleagues?
I don’t recall it.
There wasn’t an MMOD data report. There was no alarm. I checked.
I was asleep.
So there was no alarm.
NASA’s responsibility.
And NASA’s financial liability.
[recording resumes]
[Paul screaming, grunting]
[distorted murmuring, grumbling]
[recording pauses]
[Jo inhales deeply]
What’s that sound? I-I’ve heard that sound.
Not just once, but several times.
Static.
[recording resumes]
[alarm blaring on recording]
[Michaela] All comms are open.
Crew gather in Soyuz 1 evacuation capsule. Initiate pre-evacuation protocols.
[Jo] Fire and fog in Zarya.
[Michaela] Power down.
[Jo] Houston,
there’s a fire between us and Soyuz 1.
[Michaela] Let’s gather in Rassvet instead.
[Jo] Ericsson.
[Ilya] Andreev.
[Audrey] Brostin.
[Yaz] Suri.
[Paul] I’m stuck.
[Michaela] Ericsson, Brostin,
air is clear.
[recording pauses]
The collision object was shown as an obstruction
on the electrical node on the trusses.
[Frederic] It isn’t a known piece of orbital debris.
[in Russian] Bring up the footage of the space walk.
[recording resumes]
[Sergei, in English] Jo, medical team is working on Paul. Continue with EVA.
[Jo] Copy. Keep me posted. Where am I heading now?
[Irena] Tell her to head to the truss.
It’s critical they fix secondary life support systems.
[Sergei speaks Russian]
[Sergei] Jo, we can’t see what you see. Check camera.
[Jo] Understood. I got a red light. It’s a fault. Sorry.
[recording stops]
[Frederic] We lost video here.
We don’t have a full transcript of what went on next.
NASA/ESA are responsible for the exterior cameras.
[Michaela] There was collision damage.
So there can be no conclusion about the collision object.
It was a body.
A human body.
[attendees murmuring]
It was the body of a woman wearing a USSR flight suit and helmet.
The body inside was desiccated,
mummified.
I reached out to touch it.
It came free and continued its orbit.
Commander [sighs]
you realize how unlikely it is that a body has been preserved in space
for at least 32 years, at least since the fall of the USSR?
And that such an object could have impacted ISS?
Yes.
Obviously, I do realize…
We have a note here in our recovered transcripts.
“06:55:48. Ericsson.”
“‘Can you check oxygen mix?'”
What was your reason for asking for the oxygen check?
There was no issue with the oxygen mix in my EVA suit.
The… The test shows that I…
That was not my question.
What was your reason for asking for the oxygen check?
I was concerned that I was
hypoxic.
That you were getting insufficient oxygen to your brain?
Yes.
Because?
Because just like you,
I found it hard to believe what I was seeing.
No cosmonaut or astronaut has ever been reported dead or missing
above the Kármán line.
Isn’t that true?
Yes.
So what’s your explanation?
I think we should start to look at space debris.
Did you ever have any other such instances?
[sighs]
I beg your pardon?
Did you feel that you were experiencing hypoxia,
symptoms of lack of oxygen,
at any other point in your mission, before or after?
[sighs]
[Irena] Symptoms of hypoxia include memory loss
confusion
hallucinations.
No.
I didn’t.
[breathing heavily]
[panting]
[Paul speaking indistinctly]
[monitors beeping]
[Paul speaking indistinctly]
[treadmill beeps]
[breathing heavily]
[scientist] Watch your step down here.
[breathes deeply]
[nurse, in Russian] You are to take one of these pills daily until further notice.
What is it?
Folic acid, vitamins D and B-12.
[typing]
[in English] There’s no condensate, only the residue.
[sighs] It was there.
Henry, come on. It can’t have lived more than a millionth of a second.
“Henry, come on”?
What, do you think I’m seeing a ghost?
Don’t speak to me like I’m stupid.
And don’t speak to me like I’m your PA.
And how do you explain the fact that when I extracted the data yesterday,
it was the same image that we saw when the experiment ran on the ISS?
It’s a glitch.
This is Russian machinery.
All right. Enough of this.
Apologies for being short with you, Eryn.
But it was damn well there, even if it isn’t now.
There’s an interference effect.
There’s a connection, and we need to know what that is.
[“The World is Crowded” playing]
I like your hair like that.
I don’t give a lot of consideration to my hair.
The older you get, the better you look. [chuckles]
Well, dagnabbit.
I think I just got a compliment.
I’ve missed you.
I missed you too, Jo.
It kind of felt like I was drowning
you know?
Uh-huh.
I’m sorry… [stammers] I’m sorry I put you through that…
No, no, no, no.
That’s what we shook hands on. Right?
Wine. [Chuckles]
I forgot the wine.
[Alice] Daddy?
[Jo sighs]
How about Mummy?
Mummy’s home. Don’t know if you heard.
[speaks Swedish]
[wine pouring]
Has she forgotten all her Swedish?
[Alice] Daddy?
[sighs]
[Magnus] What’s up, honey?
[water runs, stops]
[beeps]
[machine powering up]
[panelist] One year before Apollo 11,
there were over 10,000 recorded faults in the command capsule,
including 500 critical reports in the life support systems.
The Apollo 9 fire was caused by one of these.
Three people died.
There was no time to fix these problems
before Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins set off.
Except, as you’ve said, there was one year.
Now, do you think NASA spent that whole year scratching their hemorrhoids?
[audience chuckles]
You know, I do wanna say,
we just lost someone up there,
an astronaut.
That is a real person with a real family…
Point four, the Van Allen radiation belt.
There’s a basic standard
of human respect, sir. We just lost the whole International Space Station…
With the levels of radiation between the Earth and the moon,
and the relative thinness of the command module,
the astronauts would have had serious radiation sickness.
You would have all died of leukemia by now.
[Bud] When you leave the Earth’s atmosphere,
your exit velocity is about 10,000 miles an hour.
You pass through the Van Allen belt in a blink of an eye.
There’s no time for radioactive particles to interact with the body.
There. Hmm? I engaged.
I shouldn’t have engaged, but I engaged.
What I should have done is thrown you in the goddamn sea.
[audience laughs]
[Bud] Let me ask you something.
You think we’re up there,
or do you think we’re just playacting, huh?
How about you, sir?
You think the ISS is a fairy story?
Nope. I believe it exists.
Mmm.
You know, I w… I wasn’t on Apollo 11, so I don’t know if they went to the moon.
But I was on Apollo 18,
and I know I sure as hell did.
[panelist] Yeah. I read your book. [Chuckles]
There you go, kids. Book available at the door.
It’s so full of inaccuracies as to be completely worthless.
Excuse me?
It’s full of things that are factually incorrect.
You don’t even get the name of your first dog right.
[audience murmuring]
I mean, who wrote it?
Me.
You don’t think I know the name of my first dog?
I don’t know. You don’t get things right, sir.
I think you’ve been fed a story. Or you have a very unreliable memory.
I would be very careful before you call me a liar.
I think perhaps you did get to the moon.
I think maybe by then, they’d solved some issues.
But there was a near disaster on Apollo 13.
And on your mission six years later, two men died.
I think you’re telling a story
or you’ve been fed a story that does not make sense.
[computer beeps]
[grunts] Hello, baby!
[breathes heavily]
Ah, Christ.
Come on. Jesus Christ!
[sighs]
[sighs]
[groans] No!
Where the hell are you going?
[groans]
[Jo] You okay?
[Alice] Don’t know. A bit weird.
[Jo] You wanna talk about it?
[Alice] Um… It… It’s okay.
[Jo] Are you sure?
[whimpers]
[Alice] Yeah, sure.
[Jo] My legs are so swollen.
When you’re up in space,
all your fluids kind of races up to your head.
And now they splash down.
[panting] Mmm.
[Alice] I’ve got you.
You sure?
Mm-hmm.
Okay. You gotta… You gotta hold tightly, okay?
Yeah.
Okay.
[grunting]
You okay?
Yeah. Careful. I’m good.
I think you need to go and… [stammers] …go and get Daddy.
I’m sorry.
[panting] You’ll be okay?
I’m okay. Just get Daddy, okay?
[Alice] You sure?
Yeah.
[grunts]
[panting]
[gasps]
[clanging]
[Jo whimpering]
He… Hello?
[breathing shakily]
[clanging continues]
[knocking]
[breathing shakily] Alice?
[Alice] Here.
[gasps, breathes heavily]
[breathing heavily]
You all right? You fell. Yep, I got you.
That’s it. [Grunts] That’s it.
[sighing]
[panting]
Uh, I’m okay. It’s okay.
[kisses, sniffles] It’s okay.
[Sergei] A glove lost by Ed White on the first American EVA.
A camera lost by Michael Collins near Gemini 10.
A thermal blanket lost during STS-88.
And these garbage bags
jettisoned by astronauts from Skylab over the period of ’73/’74.
I think garbage bag is a good candidate.
You think it was a garbage bag that caused the accident?
No, I don’t think it was a garbage bag.
The size and shape of a garbage bag?
If I would have seen a garbage bag, I would have said it was a garbage bag,
for Christ’s sake!
Please moderate your tone, Commander.
It’s not anybody’s job here to take your word for it.
Eleven, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20!
Coming, ready or not!
[sighs] We’re not replicating it, however much we might want to.
[sighs] Replicating?
I replicated this.
[chuckles] It’s a drawing, Henry.
[chuckles] You don’t win a Nobel Prize with just a drawing.
Oh, Eryn, I know.
I already won a Nobel Prize.
Yeah. In, like, 1981.
[machine humming]
[Henry] Can’t you just help me out?
Damn thing’s been my life’s work for the last 35 years.
[Eryn] Well, why do you see it and I don’t?
The goddamn observer effect.
It’s the only explanation I can think of
short of me seeing things.
[giggles]
[panting]
Hey!
Hey!
[panting]
Found!
What did you do to my rabbit? That’s my rabbit.
I didn’t do anything to your rabbit.
Why are you being horrible?
You can’t be evil to somebody else’s rabbit.
I’ve got your stupid rabbit.
But why did you do it?
You can’t just do anything just because your dad’s dead.
It should’ve been your mama.
Your mom’s a crazy bitch.
That’s what my mom said.
Your mum’s a bitch too.
We just take a look at this slide.
This is a garbage bag jettisoned from Mir by Soviet cosmonauts.
NASA estimates about 350 of these are…
[sighs] Commander, nobody has anything but respect for you and for what you did.
But the entire history of the Soviet space program
has been declassified,
and there are dozens of memoirs of cosmonauts, engineers, controllers
who have gone on the record even after the fall of the USSR.
We know who was on the cosmonaut teams, who flew, who didn’t fly, when they flew.
There isn’t a single unaccounted-for man or woman in any of them.
You saw something that was not there.
You were under enormous stress.
[Jo swallows]
It happens.
Let’s adjourn for today.
[Michaela] Come on. Let’s go talk in my office.
[speaks indistinctly] Henry.
Look, I’m sticking my neck out for you.
It’s not gonna be good for us if this whole thing devolves
on whether you were getting enough oxygen to your brain.
They’re gonna keep on trying to make you look unreliable,
because they don’t wanna admit the possibility
that any of their debris is responsible for the collision.
I saw what I fucking saw.
[sighs]
[sighs]
Are you taking your vitamins?
[sighs]
Huh?
What are you doing?
I don’t know what the fuck is the matter with you, Jo.
Just sort out your story.
[Jo panting]
[keys jingling]
[sniffles, breathing heavily]
[cries]
Magnus! [Crying]
Magnus! Magnus! [Breathes shakily]
[exclaims, grunts]
Whoa! Oh! I’ve got you.
I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t feel like myself anymore.
Okay. All right, let’s just get you inside.
[Jo sighs]
Wha…
Here. Sit down.
It just feels like they’re attacking me all the time.
[Magnus] Okay. [Sighs]
I just wanna go home.
Okay. [Panting]
I know.
Let’s just take this really easy.
Mm-hmm.
Okay? [Breathing heavily]
You wanna take your shoes off?
Mm-hmm.
Okay. [Breathes heavily]
[grunts]
There you go. Okay? That’s one.
[breathes deeply] I love you.
I love you too. [Sighs, sniffles]
Would you, uh, stand up? [Stammers]
[groans]
[Magnus] Just… [straining] There we go.
[Jo sniffling]
Okay. Uh, you okay there?
[sniffling]
Lift that arm. There we go.
[both breathing heavily]
[Henry] There you are.
Hi.
Hi.
How are you, Alice?
I don’t know.
Anything on your mind?
Did you go to the moon?
Once. 1977.
What was it like?
Pretty good.
Hmm. What are you doing here?
Oh…
[sighs] Science stuff.
[chuckles] Like what?
Have you ever heard of quantum physics?
Yes. I don’t know what they are.
Would you like to?
Sure.
For a long time, the way that we understood the world
was governed by what is called classical physics.
You know what that is?
Kind of.
It is a basic way of measuring and predicting things.
Then along came people, people like Albert Einstein.
Have you heard of him?
Yeah.
Yeah. He started to look into really small things
like atoms, subatomic particles, waveforms.
And it began to look like classical physics didn’t apply anymore,
which is mysterious.
It’s not predictable in ways we currently understand.
For example, the same thing can be in two different states at the same time.
You could have a particle, for instance, the exact same particle.
There’s a world in which that particle is black
and a world in which that particle is white.
And there’s a kind of point of liminal space between those worlds,
where the particle is black and white at the same time.
And they don’t seem to want to decide which state they’ll be
until someone looks at them.
That’s nuts.
Well, that’s nuts.
But it’s real.
[inhales deeply]
I invented a machine that we took up into space
and I was hoping to get some answers to…
Did it work?
I don’t know.
I kind of think I saw something,
but it seems like it doesn’t want to be seen.
Like hide-and-seek.
Just like hide-and-seek.
[static buzzing]
[Jo] Alice.
[speaks indistinctly]
I’m sorry I, um…
[sighs]
I left you alone.
[buzzing stops]
Do I seem the same to you?
[sighs] Not entirely. [Chuckles]
Why?
You look at me a bit differently.
How do I look at you?
As though you like me.
[laughs]
[chuckles]
Okay.
[doorbell buzzes]
[Henry] I brought you something home.
[Jo] Oh, hello.
And I’d like to thank you for bringing my baby home.
The CAL wasn’t an ESA experiment.
You didn’t need to help. I appreciate it.
Jo Ericsson.
Henry Caldera.
We’ve met.
Yeah.
You’re the, um… Apollo program.
Man and boy.
The CAL, thi… this experiment, it’s a… it’s important?
It is to me.
Listen, there are big bureaucracies at play here, Commander.
They all have their agendas. Not just the Russians, everybody.
It’s easy to get ground up in the gears.
Those people who have actually been up there,
they need to watch out for themselves.
If you ever want to talk…
Thank you.
[sighs]
I thought you were at Wendy’s.
We had a fight.
About what?
She said her mum…
She said her mum thinks you’re crazy.
Oh.
I found the flight suit that I think it was.
The one that I saw.
[Audrey] Hmm?
That hit us.
Look, it…
It’s an early-’60s Star City life suit.
Salyut 7 and onwards.
You know who that is?
Who?
Irena.
Well, I’m not saying it was her.
But if it was a failed… [stammers] Soviet mission,
they would’ve covered it up.
[chuckles] You know, I heard from a guy that Gagarin was not first in space.
It was… No, really. It was… [chuckles]…Vladimir Ilyushin.
But he crashed in China,
so they brought him back home and locked him up.
That’s a conspiracy theory. We can’t start on conspiracy theories.
Guys, this is not a conspiracy theory. This is what I saw.
What’s the least reliable form of evidence?
Audrey.
What is the least reliable form of evidence, Jo?
Eyewitness testimony.
You’re a scientist. You know this.
Guys, it’s here.
[Audrey] Looks like it’s dead.
It’ll be okay in the spring.
[Audrey] Here.
[sighs]
[breathes deeply]
Could I get a moment alone, please?
Sure.
[sniffs] Yeah.
[sniffles]
[breathes deeply, gasping]
[Paul] Somewhere in space hangs my heart.
From it stream sparks
into other intemperate hearts.
[gasps]
[Sergei] There you have one of the Mir garbage bags for medical waste,
which they were using in the 1980s.
There are several hundred of them still in orbit.
[Irena] To be fair, it’s a very close match. We can accept this.
USSR debris, not our financial liability.
You have to consider the extreme trauma you were all experiencing.
Fine.
[Irena] Repeat that.
Fine.
[Irena] You withdraw your claim that you saw a space suit?
Yes.
[attendees gasping, murmuring]
[Sergei sighs]
[Michaela] We’re very happy that we have consensus.
Great, Jo. Good job.
Can we go home?
[Jo] Did we get a new car?
What?
[stammers]
What did you do that for?
I-I thought it’d float.
You literally just dropped that on the floor like a complete doofus.
Alice, do you wanna take your bag upstairs?
You all right?
Yeah.
We got a new car?
What?
It’s blue.
It is.
Bu… It’s not red…
I’m pretty sure we had a red car.
No, it… it’s blue.
Hmm.
[doorbell rings]
[water running]
[water stops]
When’s the last time we do this?
It makes me feel obscurely better.
As you said.
You dreaming of the Earth or of space?
I am always dreaming of space.
I’m dreaming of endlessly circling the Earth.
You wonder why that’s the case?
You’re covering, Irena.
Why is it such an issue that there wasn’t a dead cosmonaut?
Because there was no dead cosmonaut.
Maybe there was.
I’m dying…
I have lymphoma. Stage four.
[inhales deeply] So this is the last time.
Are you really dying, Valya?
Music. You choose.
[“The Other Half of Me” playing]
[Henry] You feel obscurely worse?
Seriously?
Mmm.
Since the accident?
Of course I feel worse.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.
I’m worried there won’t be any heaven or there won’t be any hell.
[song continues]
[breathing heavily]
[sighs]
[panelist] So what was the deal?
[guest] Oh.
[Bud] Excuse me.
You wanna join us?
[Bud] No.
I need you to come take a walk with me.
[panelist] None of the other return flights had landed
within a thousand miles of their intended site,
yet you managed to land an unpiloted module
within 500 yards of where the USS Franklin Roosevelt was waiting for it.
[chuckles] Yeah-Yeah, me and two dead bodies.
Let me ask you, do you think I killed those guys?
Is this part of the whole thing? Make me a murderer?
Oh, of course not.
But you very conveniently blacked out during the depressurization.
You tell me how fucking convenient it is
to wake up with the corpses of your friends.
Listen, we’re going round in circles.
I take an evidence-based approach.
Thirty years a senior police officer.
Ah, please.
Sixty years military pilot.
Theoretical physicist.
Astronaut.
Depressive. Alcoholic.
Can you help me?
What?
‘Cause you’re right.
There are black holes. There are things I don’t recall.
Like what?
I fixed it…
I fixed everything on Apollo 18.
Those guys were alive, and then suddenly they were dead.
I’m sorry, how can you have fixed it?
I fixed it.
We went all the way to the fucking moon, and I didn’t fuck up once.
It was Henry’s fault.
What?
Fifty years of brandy and pills. Henry Caldera.
Henry?
[mumbling]
[inhales sharply]
You wanna help me?
You wanna take a step back?
‘Cause I should not be standing here
talking to a fucking ugly asshole like you.
You wanna know how I know I was there?
Because I got a fucking hole in my head.
You don’t know, because you didn’t live it.
Neither did you.
Moron.
Failure.
No, no, no. [Groans, chuckles]
Fraud.
[chuckles]
You know… [chuckles] I’m… I’m just not… not a fucking fraud!
[screaming]
[panelist screams]
[gasps]
[screaming, grunting]
[song ends]
[Alice] Mummy, I don’t think there is another cabin.
I think…
What?
People can see things sometimes when they’re upset.
And people who have been to space,
they’ve seen things.
I don’t wanna hurt you…
I really don’t wanna make you upset, but I think you’re right…
I don’t think you’re my daughter.
But… [stutters] …if I’m not, then who are you?
[sighs]
What have you done to my mummy?
