Again I woke up at 5 AM. I don’t like this. I tossed and turned for a long time; all sorts of thoughts crept into my head. I thought about my family, my friends — and so I lay restlessly until half past eight. Got up and told Tolya we can’t linger in bed today — the rendezvous with the cargo ship begins at 10:40.

We managed a quick bite and switched on the rendezvous mode in time. Everything normal. The approach went smoothly, by the book. At about 5 km range I went to look into the PrK compartment to watch the ship coming in. During preparations for docking, the hatch between the work compartment and the PrK is supposed to be closed, but we rigged the limit switches on the hatch, simulating a “closed” reading for the ground, and left it open so we could watch the cargo ship’s approach and docking through the PrK porthole, just in case. The sight, I have to say, was impressive. Progress, as though alive, hung in space against a shifting background — first the coast of the Atlantic Ocean off Africa, then the Mediterranean Sea, and then against the backdrop of space as we moved along our orbital arc, since we were descending while it was rising above the horizon. The cargo ship was approaching from below, and the impression was (we were in gravitational stabilization, docking port pointed down) that the Earth behind it stood vertically, like a wall with a relief of land and water. You could clearly see the orientation thrusters firing — short jets of gas from the nozzles — to null out lateral velocities. The sensation was of a glider under tow, gently swaying and drifting: up, then to the side, then down; or like a boat behind a motorboat on a slight swell. I photographed and filmed the cargo ship. When only 40 meters remained and I saw this 7.5-ton mass bearing down on me, it was actually a bit frightening. I wanted to stay until contact, then decided — next time.

I returned to the primary post, came on the air, and reported that the approach was proceeding normally. The docking was very soft — a slight bump, approach speed was 0.25 m/s. After docking I peered through the PrK porthole again — there was such a feeling of closeness to the cargo ship that I could reach out and touch its antenna, as though there were no glass in the porthole.

In the evening we built the gravitational stabilization orientation for the combined assembly: Soyuz T-5 — Salyut-7 — Progress-13, with the transport ship pointed toward Earth. The station’s thrusters fire sharply; you hear the valves slap with dull thuds, like someone pounding on a barrel with a sledgehammer. All day we continued preparing the station to receive cargo, clearing space behind panels. We finally sawed through the partition with a hacksaw to stow the refrigerator — that hulking thing was getting in the way in the middle of the work compartment. We took photos, had a heart-to-heart, and said that the main shield against all troubles is our bond, and that we’re lucky people: of four and a half billion people on Earth, we are the ones flying in space. Of course, even now we can’t fully grasp this event and its significance in our lives. I lay down to sleep, but Tolya is still puttering, tinkering, clanking metal. Today he fixed “Oasis.” In one vessel the peas have grown to almost three centimeters and produced 9 sprouts, and in the other, 5 sprouts of oats.