'Russian Poem' which was actually the recipe for toad in the hole or having the Russian pilot wear makeup, place plastic spoons in his hair and insist the Cadets act out Alice in Wonderland) Nonsensical space experiments, including tests to make balloon animals The motto of the establishment S.T.A.R. is 'Это не ракетостроение'. The mission commander claimed this means 'We, the adventurers', but it actually means 'It's not rocket science', a phrase meaning that something is very easy, here taking on a double meaning. During the training lectures, the cadets were told that Russia's first cosmonaut to successfully orbit and return to earth was a monkey called Minsky (who is supposedly stuffed and kept on display at S.T.A.R.), and that the city of Minsk is named in her honour. According to one of the "pilots", if the shuttle was unable to land at the S.T.A.R. base in Russia, one of the back-up sites was at Woodbridge, UK. This is an in-joke as, unknown to the cadets, RAF Woodbridge was the 'twin' airbase to RAF Bentwaters. Woodbridge is also the nearest town to the actual Space Cadets production site in Suffolk. The cadets were also told the segments of Mission Control, referred to by acronyms, some of which are made up – CAPCOM, FlDO, LIDO, DIDO, NACAS and MUMI (only CAPCOM and FlDO are genuine positions). Resolution The show's ending occurred on the last day as planned. The Cadets had started to gain suspicions due to increasingly ludicrous set pieces (notably the space funeral of a fictional celebrity dog "Mr. Bimby", whose ashes were spilt and had to be vacuumed up). The Cadets were prepared for a spacewalk, but once in the module Vaughan showed them a montage of their suspicions, finishing with an outside shot of the simulator, which was the moment when the "cadets" knew they had not left the Earth. The module door was opened onto the studio set, complete with friends, family and the actors. Soon after, they were told they were in England, and had not actually even left the country. Viewer reaction Initial viewing figures were 2.6 million (11% share), dropping to 2 million; although Channel 4 was reported as being 'not disappointed' and the figures were in line with that time slot, and 42% of the viewers were the crucial 16- to 34-year-old segment. Early viewer reaction to the show contained disbelief that such