The Russians are coming. And they want to fire off a rocket. The old man will have no choice but to flee. In fact, he's already looking forward to it.

"A rocket launch like this is almost like watching a second sun rise," raves Serge Colin. It's a spectacle he's enjoyed more than 60 times. "But, this time," he says, "it will be a very special day."

Colin, a Frenchman with a pointed moustache, is 80, but he seems much younger. Since retiring from a career as a ship's captain, he has worked as a museum guide on Ile Royale, the site of a notorious penal colony off the coast of French Guiana. The prison's ruins were made famous in the classic film "Papillon."

TAGGED: Space Exploration, Europe, Russia