Soviet Cosmonauts Trained at Star City as They Raced to Beat America to the Moon. Now, a New TV Series Imagines What Happened Behind the Base's Walls
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Apple TV’s new series “Star City” is a spinoff of the alternate‑history show “For All Mankind,” focusing on the Soviet side of a never‑ending space race. The drama is set in a fictionalized version of the real Star City training center and follows cosmonauts, engineers and KGB agents as they strive to keep the USSR competitive in space exploration. The series premieres on May 29, 2026, and expands the franchise’s timeline into the 2010s with a Mars colony backdrop.
- ▪“Star City” tells a fictional story of Soviet cosmonauts and officials working at the real‑world training facility outside Moscow.
- ▪The show is a spin‑off of “For All Mankind,” which imagines a timeline where the United States never halted its lunar ambitions.
- ▪Season five of “For All Mankind” already depicts a 2010s Mars colony where the United States, Russia and North Korea compete for dominance.
- ▪The series creator Ben Nedivi and co‑creators say the program highlights the Soviet Union’s many achievements beyond the moon landing.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Based on a True Story Soviet Cosmonauts Trained at Star City as They Raced to Beat America to the Moon. Now, a New TV Series Imagines What Happened Behind the Base’s Walls Apple TV’s “Star City” takes place in a world where the space race never came to an end. A spinoff of “For All Mankind,” the show is told from the Soviet perspective Hunter Ingram | Freelance Writer May 27, 2026 ShareCopy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrintAdd as preferred source Rhys Ifans (standing in second row) as the chief designer in "Star City," a spinoff of Apple TV's "For All Mankind" Apple TV What might have happened if the Soviets had been the first to walk on the moon? That’s the question posed by “For All Mankind,” a hit television show that imagines a scenario in which the space race between…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Smithsonian Magazine.
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