Woke up at 5, though I’d gone to bed at 4 AM; lay there miserably until 7:30, then got up, washed, and started preparing food. Amazing — I look at the guys and think: today they’ll already be sleeping on Earth. During the comm session they received their descent data. Then we took final photographs together, did a television report, and went to see the crew off at the hatch. And here my heart ached. Volodya and Jean had tears in their eyes. We embraced, kissed warmly, and at the ground’s command the hatch slowly began to close. When we heard the guys had sealed their ship’s hatch, we immediately collapsed into sleep. How we didn’t sleep through the undocking, I don’t know. I barely heard the “Call to comm” signal. I put on headphones and hear the ground calling “Pamirs” and “Elbrus” alternately. They say mountains never meet — but they did, only in space. We went on comm and got the undocking data. After undocking, the crew was to rotate their ship sideways to us for station photography. We were supposed to do a 2-degree-per-second pitch rotation at 60-meter range so they could film us from all sides. Then I went to the intermediate compartment to film the departing ship through its window. Against the black of space I saw its dark gray silhouette. It rotated very smoothly 90 degrees sideways, then yawed past the window edge, and I lost it. So we parted ways.

In the next session we listened as the crew went down. They initiated the descent program at 15:24:42. “Granit” (V. A. Shatalov) followed tradition and gave them the weather report at the landing site. Good weather, +27 degrees, light wind, cotton harvesting underway, lots of machinery in the fields. At 18:21 the crew landed 65 km northeast of Arkalyk.

In the evening we had a TV session. I understood that Mission Control probably thought we were in a sour mood, so I decided to joke around. I put on the hideous Quasimodo mask Jean-Loup had left us, and when the broadcast started, I was out of frame. Tolya called me, and I pretended I was upset and didn’t want to come out. Then I floated in — face-first into the camera. On the ground nobody could figure out what had happened to me — a disfigured face covered in horrible scars and wrinkles, hair standing on end. At first everyone was baffled, then the whole of TsUP was roaring with laughter; they said they’d never seen a broadcast like it.

Before bed I reread all the letters and newspapers. Warmth filled my soul. Tomorrow is a meeting with the families.

Checked my blood pressure — 120 over 76. Exercise goes well, with enthusiasm and no difficulty.