Got up at 8:30; I’d woken around 8. Couldn’t fall asleep for a long time last night — Tolya was doing something and went to bed around 2 AM. In the morning there was a TV report on “Delta,” and the next orbit was a test of “TsUP-vision” — two-way video (we see the ground, and they see us). It was combined with a meeting at Ostankino with the composer Yan Frenkel. We had a fine conversation; he sang “Russian Field” for us, and we sang along. They say it came out well. On the following orbit there was a meeting with the executive secretary of the journal “Around the World.” He read us several children’s letters that had come to “Pionerskaya Pravda” for us. I was moved by the children’s sincere delight in their cosmonauts’ flights. Apparently everything is as it is in nature: for some, bright sunrises, joy and wonder at what is first seen and heard; for others, the no less beautiful season of grasping the reality of life’s colors, the ability to value what’s been achieved, faith in the future, and the enjoyment of rare tranquility.

Today I spent two whole orbits looking at the Earth; I understood a great deal, but I wish there were more time for detailed preparation. It’s a constant time crunch. All day we were stowing equipment and loading Progress. We placed the French instruments near the scientific equipment bay, put the food on the ceiling, and stored the regenerators in the orbital module of the spacecraft and in the station’s intermediate chamber. After we’d arranged everything, things got a bit roomier. We packed the cargo ship with everything we no longer need and tied it all down with ropes. When you go into the cargo ship now, it clangs with metal, so when we undock, during any dynamic maneuvers, it’ll ring out across the cosmos like an orchestra.