this is nightline. tonight. >> training for danger. shocking

recent accidents by aerial artists. highlighting the sky. high stakes under the big top. we're behind the scenes with the circus performers of tomorrow. >> we're here in circus school and y'all actually consider this college? >> yeah. >> as they learn the trade. >> i'm, like, super zoned into what i'm doing. everything just kind of, like, blurs out in the background. >> is there a way to have what some think is the greatest career on earth safely? >> i feel like my ego is on the line, but i'm excited. excited to give it a shot. it's going to be fun. >> plus and liftoff. >> staying in space. astronauts scheduled for an eight day mission now. there for eight months. >> we don't expect things to go wrong, but we know that we are going to be fine. >> nasa pulling the boeing starliner, citing safety concerns, giving the return leg to competitor elon musk's space x. >> we want to ensure that we can continue to send humans to live and work in space, and the way we do that is to is by preserving life. >> how they'll pass the time

waiting for their trip home. and fake heiress anna delvey and her ankle monitor heading for the dance floor. dance floor. >> nightline will be right back . a lot of code. if an application needs to be modernized, then you'll need time, resources... and caffeine. if this sounds daunting, then use watsonx code assistant. built with ibm's granite code model, it's ai designed to multiply developer productivity, so you can generate code quickly. ibm. let's create. let's go! hustle! is getting started.

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focus needed to pull off these high stakes maneuvers. night after night. but where can the big top performers of tomorrow go to learn the ropes? here's nightline correspondent ashan singh. >> this was the heart stopping moment. floating high above the ground, a cirque du soleil aerial artist loses her grip on the hoop mid stunt and plummets to the ground during a show in portland as bystanders watched in horror. >> it just went instantly silent when she fell. at first, we all thought it was part of the show. >> osha is now investigating. and just days before that, another harrowing fall. this one during a tight rope chair stunt for england's gravity circus performed by the high wire troupe. both performers survived their falls. people all over the world go to the circus to see incredible performances. but

these stunts come with incredible risks for the performers. with stakes so high, how do they prepare for these big moments? here's a peek behind the curtain. welcome to circus school. >> we're here in circus school, and y'all actually consider this college. >> yeah, you guys are getting college credit for it. yes, yes. >> this is the circus school of contemporary circus in philadelphia. it's one of the only professional circus programs in the entire country, and the only one where you can get a diploma in circus arts. >> this is like college for circus. >> absolutely. so for students who want a higher education pathway where they get a diploma after three years of full time study from an accredited school, this is their place. >> now, before we go on, let's talk about the circus for a minute. for hundreds of years, this is the circus that we've known in the u.s. there's excitement everywhere. >> the circus is here.

>> elephants, lions jumping through hoops. bears on bicycles. the big top was a place for fun and spectacle. and clowns. lots of clowns. >> circus has been in this country since the late 1700s. the first circus in the u.s. was actually in philadelphia in 1793. that history has been a really important part of american culture. and all the big spectacular, gigantic spectacle of circus is really an american invention. but now many look like something else entirely. >> instead of elephants and ring bearers. you see acrobatic feats famously showcased in cirque du soleil. forefront of training the next generation of performers. seana kennedy is circadian executive director. a former juggler and aerialist, she founded the school with her husband in 2017. >> i feel like when you go to the circus and you're actually watching a performance on the way, everybody wonders how did that person get there?

>> but few actually realized that they did go to school to learn some of these skills. >> so 100 years ago, if you wanted to be in the circus, you needed to be raised in the circus, be part of a circus family, or run away and join the circus, as people would say, literally, yes, you would have to hop on a train and join the circus. >> go where that desire is as american as apple pie highlighted in film and culture with movies like the greatest showman starring hugh jackman. it's the dream. ava haley and their classmate bailey all decided to pursue. tell me that moment where you're telling your friends and family, i'm not going to go to college, or i'm not going to go to a traditional college. i want to go to circus school. >> i had no idea i wanted to do circus. i took recreational classes and i went to normal college. i was studying to do science, and then one day i just decided to do this instead. >> you literally gave it the old

college try. yeah, yeah, yeah. >> i also did a year of normal college and i just hated it. >> my parents always knew that i wasn't really going to go to a normal four year college, but they, like, always tell me that their friends are like, oh, it's so great. you're letting haley do what she wants. and they're like, we didn't have a choice. >> like a regular college, every student here chooses a major. bailey majors in aerial straps. haley is a trapeze artist. what's that moment like being up there on the trapeze? for people who will never kind of experience that? >> most of the time i'm, like, super zoned in to what i'm doing. that's all i can focus on. and like, i'm not thinking about, like, anything else that's happening in like, my life or in the world. and then i'll, like come down and then i'll see people just, like staring at me and i'm like, oh, hello. >> y'all were watching that. >> yeah, but like, everything just kind of like, blurs out in the background and ava, ava is a contortionist. >> so were you that kid growing

up that would, like, squeeze into suitcases and into lockers and surprise people? >> i didn't really do that very much, but i do remember, like at recess, putting my feet over my head to like, impress my crush. >> so how does it all work? because it can't just be death defying tricks all day. you guys also don't just offer physical classes here. there's some. there's a bit of classroom work here in circus school. >> there is. we try to keep the kind of written and academic portions of the class all related to their art form and to their careers. so we do do a career planning class where we do financial management and we do marketing, and we do things like that. >> success could mean making a living out of this. according to indeed.com, the national average for a circus performer in the u.s. is around 77,000. a year, with salaries at the biggest shows like cirque du soleil getting to more than twice that. and how much does it actually cost to go here? >> so tuition is $12,980 per year. we try to keep it affordable for students. and,

and that covers everything that covers their whole time here. good. that's really the standards here are high because the danger is so high. >> captured in disturbing videos in 2018. cirque du soleil aerialist jan arnold died after a fall while performing a high flying routine and multiple performers were hurt. during this 2014 ringling brothers show in rhode island. these falls, along with the two this past month showcasing just how much could go wrong with these kinds of performances. gravity circus putting out a statement at the time of the accident, saying in part in live entertainment and high risk performances, accidents can unfortunately happen despite stringent safety measures. our emergency protocols were immediately enacted and the performer was promptly taken to the hospital and cirque du soleil, telling abc news today. the artist is doing well and has now been discharged from the hospital. whilst being cared for by our

team. how about the danger aspect of it all? i mean especially the two of you all. you all are up pretty, pretty high. do you guys have any fear? >> sometimes i'll usually working on some pretty crazy stuff. yeah, i'll usually learn skills low to the ground and then bring them up. but i have lately been putting a pool noodle around the metal bar, so if i hit it, it doesn't hurt as bad. >> so pain is just a part of this game? yeah. it's just you have all accepted it. >> yeah. it doesn't really affect you as much anymore. you get used to it. >> how do you prepare your students for literally i mean, this is class to them at a certain point, but this is risky stuff. >> you'd be surprised. so the things we do here are not actually significantly riskier than most professional sports. in fact, in some ways, they're a lot less injury prone than some professional sports. everything has safety mechanisms in place. we've developed systems for keeping people safe, but also not overstraining the body. so there's less traumatic injuries because you're training appropriately. what we do have

to do to prepare students for is when they go out into the world, being in a space that may not be as controlled as this. so when they when they work professionally, they're going to be intense. they're going to be in buildings, they're going to be working for corporate clients where they may have to rig their own apparatus. and those are the things we need to be very careful with them and to teach them how to ask the right questions. >> so, shayna, we're in school. >> okay, i can't wait to show you this stuff. we're here to teach you some circus. >> i feel like my ego is on the line, but i'm excited. excited to give it a shot. >> it's going to be fun. >> growing up, my mother always told me that i needed to become a doctor or a lawyer. yeah but now i'm hanging upside down on television. sorry, mom. i feel like miley cyrus right now. >> you got this. >> you got this. there you go. yes. >> i'm not running off to join the circus any time soon. this seems feels crazy. all right. yes. >> okay. >> but in a few years, all of these students will. and maybe a new adventure is waiting for each of them.

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>> welcome back. it's a story that reads like a space age. gilligan's island. two astronauts now staying on at the international space station after their spacecraft was deemed unsafe for human transport and for a lot longer than a three hour tour. >> three. two one. already 180 engine start and liftoff.

liftoff of the atlas five rocket carrying nasa astronauts. butch wilmore and suni williams. >> boeing's starliner capsule lifting off in june on its historic maiden voyage. the first crew to man the boeing vessel docking at the international space station. suni williams danced in celebration as she and butch wilmore glided aboard, welcomed with cheers and hugs from the seven waiting iss crew members. lots of. but houston quickly noted some problems, flagging helium leaks and issues with starliner's control thrusters. >> the team is also looking at that thruster to see could that particular seal survive the rest of the flight? >> unexpected repairs in space reminiscent of one hollywood version, with matt damon playing an astronaut stranded on mars in the martian. >> i have no way to contact nasa, and even if i could, it's going to be four years until a manned mission can reach me.

>> but the real-life astronauts learned that their eight day mission would become an eight month odyssey. worried about the safety of the starliner? nasa announced that williams and wilmore would stay aboard the iss until february 2025. >> i think they're happy that a decision was made and they understand the plan forward in the communications with me, they're kind of thankful and ready to move forward. >> in a statement, boeing said in part, we are executing the mission as determined by nasa and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return. 321. >> and liftoff. >> nasa says they're taking no chances when it comes to astronaut safety. after two catastrophic space shuttle missions, the challenger explosion in 1986, which killed seven crew members shortly after launch, and the 2003 columbia disaster, seven astronauts died as the shuttle broke up on

reentry. >> we want to ensure that we can continue to send humans to live and work in space, and the way we do that is to is by preserving life and making sure that we don't have any, you kno, catastrophic failures that we can't recover from. >> both astronauts were chosen for their extensive experience. sonny williams previously spent 322 days in space and butch wilmore logged 178 days. before launch, they expressed confidence in the starliner. >> we don't expect to have significant failure modes, but the spacecraft was designed and we have orchestrated procedures and capabilities that didn't exist years ago. that makes it the most capable spacecraft that exists. >> we don't expect things to go wrong, but we know that we are going to be fine because we have this backup capability. >> but nasa's backup plan relies on boeing's biggest competitor, elon musk's space x, which will

bring the astronauts back to earth aboard their crew dragon spacecraft. since winding down the shuttle program, today's new space race is all about private contractors boeing and spacex each competing to build spacecrafts to bring astronauts and cargo to and from the i.s.s. >> as we transition from a government run organization which really spends taxpayer money, we're trying to use that to seed opportunities and other companies to start to build that economy. >> on friday, the unmanned starliner will undock from the iss and return to new mexico's white sands space harbor. it's bittersweet to be packing up starliner and putting our stimulators in our seats, but, you know, we want to do the best we can to make sure she's in good shape. >> what else do we want to say about it in here? >> what will the astronauts do now? nasa says they'll catch up on science experiments, help maintain the space station, and even track down unusual noises.

>> i did it one more time, and i'll scratch their heads and see if we can figure out what's going on. here we go. >> nasa later explaining the mystery sounds are feedback from the starliner's communication system. friends of the pair say they're taking news of their longer trip in stride. >> we knew that he could be there for a short period or possibly a long period. he knows that there's always i mean, there's always risk involved. that's one thing he told me, that there's always risk involved in spaceflight. they're at home. they're on the space station. >> butcher's wife, deanna, telling abc news. our girls and i were praying for safe return on whatever spacecraft that may be. his college aged daughter darren, supporting her dad in a tiktok post but still missing him being at home. >> we're a very close family and there's a lot of things he's missing. i'm going to be in an operetta and a play, and i just became part of our improv troupe, so he's missing out on all those performances. it's my sister's senior year of high school and her last volleyball season. so again, that's really

hard. >> sunny's husband, explaining that space is her happy place. williams even taking time to talk with elementary students at a school named after her in needham, massachusetts. >> are there any games you play in space? well sometimes we play hide and go seek as a matter of fact, because we can. >> and there's all sorts of places where you can hide and then you can pop up on each other and say hi. oh, hey, who's here? hey, sasha. >> hello. >> today, nasa administrators say they're staying true to the heart of the mission. >> as you know, they've got phones that they can use to call down and talk to their family. but we have great support assets, both for our crew on board and for all of the family members. they're part of the nasa family. >> when we come back, fake heiress anna delvey granted permission for a new side hustle where she'll be wearing dancing shoes along with that ankle

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the stars. the fraudster sentenced to house arrest for bilking banks, hotels and at least one friend and the subject of the true crime series inventing anna. >> anna committed real white collar felonies while posing as a socialite in an attempt to steal millions of dollars. >> granted permission from ice to participate, she and her ankle monitor are now set to compete against pommel horse guy steven. 90s tv star tori spelling, and abc's brokenhearted bachelorette jen tran, among others, all hoping to win the coveted mirrorball trophy. the new season of dancing with the stars premieres on september 17th, right here on abc. and that's nightline. thanks for staying up with us. good night america. >> they both want to be your next president. now, finally, kamala harris. >> do we believe in the promise of america, donald trump? >> we will soon