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How ‘Star City’ Reimagined the Space Race With Soviets as the Stars

How do you capture the mood of the 1960s space race in a fictional universe where the Soviets beat the Americans to the moon?

The American side of the story was told in “For All Mankind,” an Apple TV series that concluded its fifth season in May. Now a spinoff series called “Star City,” which tells the Soviet side of the story, is set to wrap up its critically acclaimed first season.

Reimagining the Soviet space effort — and the Star City cosmonaut training center that served (and still serves) as its epicenter — was a challenge worthy of the Chief Designer himself. But cinematographer Brendan Uegama and the rest of the production team were up to it.

“We set up a really high bar for our standard of what our world was,” Uegama says in the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast.

“That was not a perfectly beautiful world of photography like you would typically see or experience in a lot of movies,” he says. “We didn’t go to the beauty just for the sake of making a pretty picture. We stuck with our gut and said, no, it’s better if it’s a little uglier, because it feels a little more truthful to what this would be.”

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The production team had to balance several factors as they created the Star City that’s shown in “Star City.” The visual look and feel had to reflect the closed society of the Soviet Union in the 1960s and ’70s, but it also had to accommodate fictional changes in the timeline — including Soviet moon landings and a mission to Venus.

None of the filming took place in Russia. Instead, most of the scenes were shot in the former Soviet republic of Lithuania, where enough of the era’s brutalist architecture remains to provide the foundation for a suitably gray Cold War tale.

Uegama studied old photos and newsreels to sharpen his sense for Soviet-era settings. His main inspiration came from a set of photos taken in the early 1950s by Martin Manhoff, an American diplomat and suspected spy.

“He took just unbelievably fantastic photos of Moscow and everything around that time, and that informed me a lot personally,” Uegama says. “It inspired me a lot … to at least start to go down the road of what I thought this world could look like.”

Brendan Uegama, the director of photography for “Star City,” reviews a scene on video. (Credit: Apple TV / Lukas Šalna)

The story behind Manhoff’s photos and film footage could merit its own TV drama. Manhoff is best known for capturing footage of Josef Stalin’s funeral from a vantage point in the U.S. Embassy in 1953. He was never able to go to Star City. “That was, of course, completely out of bounds in the 1950s,” historian Douglas Smith says. But Manhoff was able to travel around the Soviet Union, chronicling everyday life in cities as well as the countryside.

When Manhoff and several other military attachés were accused of spying, he returned to the U.S., bringing the slides and reels of film back with him. They eventually ended up in cardboard boxes that were stored in a former auto body shop in the Seattle area, but overlooked until after Manhoff’s death in 2005. Smith played a key role in rediscovering and organizing the visual treasure trove.

The cinematography of “Star City” reflects the grainy look of 1960s-era film footage. “I started to lean into this world that felt imperfect and felt a little more handmade and a little more ‘found,’ in a way,” Uegama explains. “It wasn’t about constructing perfect scenes in the sense of traditional cinema…. We wanted to feel like we just walked into this room, and there were the people, and this is what it looked like, and how it was lit, and we photographed it.”

That doesn’t mean that “Star City” lacks the artist’s touch, or the filmmaker’s craft. In an Instagram post, Uegama says he used nearly 30 lenses made by 11 different manufacturers — tools that were selected to reflect “a deliberately imperfect aesthetic from the lens up.”

Check out an Instagram montage of shots from ‘Star City’

I had the opportunity to visit Star City myself a quarter-century ago, during a reporting trip tied to the final days of Russia’s Mir space station. So, I can vouch for the retro feel and the imperfections that Uegama picked up on for “Star City.” Back then, I noted that all but one of the toilets in the restroom I had access to were out of order, and the tank on the one toilet that worked was half-disassembled.

In the real world, the Soviets suffered a string of failures during the 1960s that ruined their quest to put cosmonauts on the lunar surface. The space program’s secretive chief designer, Sergei Korolev, died during surgery in 1966. And the Soviets’ massive N1 moon rocket failed spectacularly during an uncrewed test launch that took place just two weeks before Apollo 11 lifted off in 1969. The Soviets abandoned their drive to the moon, ceding the Cold War space race to the Americans.

In “Star City,” the unnamed Chief Designer survives his health crisis in 1966, and a fully operational N1 rocket sends a crew to the moon less than a month before Apollo 11. That success energizes the Soviet Union and its space effort — and a follow-up mission known as Luna 16 puts the first woman on the moon. (The real Luna 16, which launched in 1970, was the first robotic probe to bring lunar samples back to Earth.)

Luna 16’s female cosmonaut takes the global spotlight and plays one of the leading roles in the first season of “Star City.” But the series highlights several other characters and plot threads, including a spy-hunting story that’s as gripping as anything in the files of the CIA.

One of the key events in the first season is a crewed mission to Venus, organized in secret by the Chief Designer and designated as Venera 7. The idea of sending a crew to another planet in 1970 is totally made up, but the real Venera 7 mission still made history. It was the first robotic probe to make a soft landing on Venus’ hellish surface and transmit data back to Earth. Years later, a succession of uncrewed spacecraft (Venera 9, 10, 13 and 14) sent back images of Venus.

So, what’s the future of “Star City”? Based on what we know from five seasons of “For All Mankind,” the Soviet space program will continue to move ahead in parallel with the alternate universe’s American space program, deviating from the real-world timeline in interesting ways.

The big question is, will Apple TV renew “Star City” for a second season? Based on the reviews for the first season, which is wrapping up this week, that seems likely. But Uegama is keeping his options open.

“I just like to work on things that inspire me in different ways, so doing the same thing over and over again isn’t as inspiring as finding a new world to dive into and figure out,” he says. “But we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what it is.”

The season finale of “Star City” makes its debut on Apple TV on July 10.

You can take a time machine back to my reports from Russia’s space hotspots thanks to NBC News and the Internet Archive:

This feature was originally published to Cosmic Log. Fiction Science is included in FeedSpot’s 100 Best Sci-Fi Podcasts. Stay tuned for future episodes of the Fiction Science podcast via Apple, Spotify, Player.fm, Pocket Casts and Podchaser. If you like Fiction Science, please rate the podcast and subscribe to get alerts for future episodes.

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Cyclosporiasis hits 1,000 cases in U.S. What Californians should know

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Several states, primarily in the Midwest and on the East Coast, have reported thousands of cases of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic disease that can cause an extended bout of debilitating diarrhea.

There have been cases of cyclosporiasis infection in California this year, but none has been linked to the current outbreak. Public health officials, however, have advice for residents to stave off illness.

Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by several species of the microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis and is spread through the feces of an infected person that has contaminated food or water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People become infected with the illness by consuming food or water that has been contaminated with the parasite — the infection is not transmitted from person to person.

The epicenter of the current outbreak is in Michigan, which has reported more than 1,000 cases since June, including 44 people who were hospitalized. The state typically reports about 50 cases of cyclosporiasis annually. Now there may be hundreds more infected as 17 states have reported numerous cases.

Officials say the true number of infected people is likely higher because some people recover without medical care and are not tested for the parasite.

In the United States, foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have been linked to various types of fresh produce imported from Latin America, including raspberries, cilantro, basil, snow peas and mixed salad, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Officials say those who have fallen ill became sick after eating food in the United States and did not report travel during the 14 days before they got sick.

Those who have contracted cyclosporiasis have ranged in age from 5 to 86.

There is currently no evidence of a single, multi-state cyclospora outbreak, meaning there isn’t a common source linking all cases, according to the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which are working with local public health authorities to investigate the cases in each state.

At this time, there aren’t any local outbreaks in California, and current cases of cyclosporiasis infection are not linked to the multi-state outbreak, according to the California Department of Public Health.

“From January to June 2026, California has reported 41 provisional cases of cyclosporiasis, compared to 80 cases during the same period in 2025,” said Beth Deines, information officer for the state agency.

Most of these cases are associated with recent international travel, she said.

“With the significant increase in cases in the Eastern and Midwestern states, we will monitor for cases that may be associated with travel to areas of the country that are experiencing these increases,” Deines said.

Similarly, officials with the public health department will look for clusters of cases that may indicate transmission occurring in California.

There have been four domestic cases reported since May 1, 2026.

Two of those who were infected reported that they had traveled to the Midwest. Investigation of these cases is ongoing. To protect patient privacy, the state public health department does not disclose where in the state the patients reside.

Symptoms of cyclosporiasis

Cyclosporiasis cases are reported year-round; however, infections are most common when temperatures are warmer, in the summer and early fall.

Infected people experience symptoms from two days to two weeks after consuming food or drinking water containing the parasite.

Some people who are infected, particularly those from areas where cyclosporiasis is endemic, may not have any symptoms.

Those who do develop symptoms could experience:

Watery diarrhea
Loss of appetite
Weight loss
Cramping
Bloating
Increased gas
Nausea
Fatigue

Less common symptoms may include:

Vomiting
Body aches
Headache
Low-grade fever
Other flu-like symptoms

Cyclospriasis can be treated with a combination of antibiotics. Without treatment, symptoms can last from a few days to a month or longer.

Some symptoms, such as diarrhea, may go away and then return.

How to protect yourself

When traveling to areas where cyclospriasis is endemic — including tropical or subtropical regions — avoid drinking tap water. Also make sure hot food is served piping hot, health officials say, and cold food should be kept thoroughly chilled. Germs that cause food poisoning can grow quickly in lukewarm food.

A complete list of food and drink considerations provided by the CDC can be found here.

Most foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis in the U.S. have been linked to various types of imported fresh produce, so public health officials in California and in states reporting infection cases recommend:

Wash your hands with soap and water before and after handling or preparing raw fruits and vegetables. Note that hand sanitizer does not kill the parasite that causes cyclosporiasis.
Wash all fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running water before eating, cutting or cooking.
Scrub firm fruits and vegetables, such as melons and cucumbers, with a clean produce brush.
Cut away any damaged or bruised areas on fruits and vegetables before preparing and eating.
Refrigerate cut, peeled or cooked fruits and vegetables as soon as possible.

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Grocery Stores Lower Prices as Consumers Pare Spending

While shoppers may get better deals on some items, it’s unlikely their overall grocery bill will fall.

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Does Space Speed Up Ageing? A New Study Says Yes!

Tracy Caldwell Dyson in Cupola ISS 20260709 054437

Could a trip to Mars leave an astronaut’s liver looking decades older than it should? Researchers at the University of Central Florida believe they may have found exactly that, and the implications reach far beyond the astronauts themselves.

Led by Professor Michal Masternak, the team set out to understand what prolonged exposure to microgravity and cosmic radiation actually does to the body at a molecular level. Rather than waiting years for natural ageing to unfold, they built a simulated deep space environment in the laboratory, exposing animal models to fourteen days of simulated microgravity alongside doses of galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events designed to mirror what astronauts would encounter on a journey to Mars.

A classic anatomical illustration of the human liver, the organ at the centre of the UCF team’s findings. Its central role in metabolism makes it especially sensitive to physiological stress, which is exactly why researchers chose it as their focus (Credit : Henry Vandyke Carter)

Within just twenty four hours of radiation exposure, the liver showed a wave of genetic changes strikingly similar to those seen during the natural ageing process. The organ displayed increased cellular senescence, a state in which cells lose their normal function, alongside rising inflammation and fibrosis, changes that, left unchecked, can eventually push an organ toward failure. Masternak’s team focused specifically on the liver because of its central role as one of the body’s key metabolic organs, making it a particularly sensitive early indicator of wider physiological stress.

What makes the findings especially compelling is that they didn’t stop at the laboratory model. The researchers compared their results against real human data, drawn from blood samples collected during NASA’s famous Twins Study and from the civilian Inspiration4 mission. The genetic signatures lined up. That overlap between simulated exposure and actual astronaut biology gives the team confidence that they have identified genuine, meaningful biological targets rather than a laboratory curiosity.

The team pushed the research a step further still, identifying a class of molecules called antagomirs, capable of interacting with the body’s microRNA to influence several of the genetic pathways involved in both ageing and inflammation. It is early stage work, but it points toward a possible future where astronauts on long duration missions could be given targeted protection against this accelerated cellular damage.

Identical twins Scott and Mark Kelly gave NASA a unique way to study spaceflight’s effects on the body, real data the UCF team used to test their own findings against (Credit : NASA)

There is a broader payoff here too, one that reaches well beyond spaceflight. Studying ageing on Earth is notoriously slow, often requiring decades of observation in human subjects. Space, with its harsh combination of radiation and weightlessness, appears to compress that timeline dramatically, offering researchers a rare opportunity to watch the ageing process unfold in a matter of days and weeks rather than a human lifetime. Insights gained this way could eventually feed back into therapies here on the ground, aimed at preserving organ function and slowing age related disease in everyone, not just those who leave the atmosphere.

Masternak is careful to frame ageing as something far more complex than surface level change. It is, in his words, “the gradual and cascading failure of multiple organs and systems happening together,“ and understanding where that cascade begins may be one of the most important open questions in medicine today.

As missions to the Moon and Mars edge closer to reality, this research is a reminder that protecting astronauts and understanding human ageing may turn out to be two sides of exactly the same problem, one that space may help us solve faster than we ever could down here alone.

Source : New UCF Study Links Microgravity, Space Radiation to Accelerated Aging