The comm operator on duty today was at it again with his jokes like: “Valentin, did you give a radio interview on international tourism?” Or: “Your article about football appeared in the newspaper?” (Meaning my namesakes.) That level is irritating. Here it would be appropriate to note that the preparation of operators, their human qualities, often greatly affect the crew’s mood. All day we were mostly occupied assembling the technological furnace “Korund,” and now we can run a melt on it. During the day, in the comm session with the biologist, I reported that in the “Fiton” instrument, the Arabidopsis plant had developed seed pods. He was so taken aback by this news that he was at a loss for words.

It turns out the plant had produced seeds in space for the first time, and we hadn’t even known. This was immediately broadcast on the “Mayak” program as a stunning piece of news, courtesy of radio commentator Pyotr Pelekhov. He knows how to do that. And the pods were so small and thin that we could barely make them out. In the first vessel, plants 65 mm tall, 12 leaves with three flower buds of delicate pink color, diameter two millimeters, and one seed pod 7 mm long. The second plant was 40 mm tall, three leaves, three buds, one about a millimeter in diameter and two others tiny, and a seed pod 3-4 mm long. In the second vessel, plants 25 mm tall, four leaves, the lower ones dried up, six remaining alive, no flowers. In the third vessel, plants 60 mm tall, four lower leaves dried up, five alive, a seed pod and four buds at the top. Also here another plant, like a dwarf, only 5 millimeters tall with five leaves. In the fourth vessel, three plants, one 35 mm tall, the other two 30 mm. All flowering, with four living leaves and two dried on each. Now an equally important task lies ahead — delivering the plants to Earth for study. And we can only do that at the end of August with the visiting expedition, which should come to us soon.

During the flight, I must say, you can’t forget about exercise. Sometimes it’s hard to force yourself to do it. But you must, and when you’ve trained to a sweat, you get pleasure and relief from the release of internal tension that has built up.

We prefer the treadmill, since you can vary the exercises on it. Today and yesterday, when I’d gotten upset, only through willpower did I force myself to run on the treadmill, and when I began running, I could feel my heart pressing and aching, but then I hit my stride and it got easier — though I still couldn’t give full effort, I got tired quickly. Today a radiogram came from the doctors asking us to begin taking dietary supplements: Panangin and Riboxin, 2 tablets each, twice a day. The doctors say we’ve been flying for quite a while now, so we need to compensate for the body’s salt losses and improve metabolism. By evening Seryozha Maksimov came on comm, and we had a good talk. In the conversation he emphasized that I’ve sowed good seeds on Earth with my work, and everyone can see it from the program execution results. He said he’d written me a letter. I wonder what’s in it.

Before bed I asked Tolya to give me a haircut. We went into the intermediate chamber (PrK) — we sometimes use it as a barbershop.

We took the vacuum cleaner and the “Agidel” electric razor, which can work in both shaving and clipping modes. And we started. Since the vacuum chamber of the razor can’t handle such a large volume of hair — I still have quite a lot, at least on the back of my head — we use the vacuum cleaner. Tolya cuts my hair while I vacuum up the clippings — works pretty well. Good haircut. I’m pleased.

A few words about the station’s atmosphere. We don’t detect any odors here; the harmful impurity filters, anti-dust filters, regenerators, and CO2 absorbers are working. In general, I’ll say this: the air is better than in any city. Dry, clean, healthy, ionized by the sun through those portholes that transmit ultraviolet — like in Crimea, only it never rains. Its composition: partial pressure of oxygen 160-180 mmHg, carbon dioxide 3-4 mmHg, humidity about 10% from dew point. Tomorrow an interesting piece of work begins for me with the station dynamics from the Delta system and the X-ray spectrometer SKR-02.