Unloading the Progress. Slept poorly, mostly dozed. The whole day in the cargo ship. The skill makes all the difference — you know everything, how to approach, where to begin. We nearly finished unloading in one day, though the program allots three. But when they told us there were more letters in a container at the bottom, accessible through a small hatch loaded right at launch, I worked like a mole, clearing cargo in my path, and in a couple of hours reached them. Emerged happy, with letters, face gleaming with sweat and fine silvery metal shavings.

The biologists wrote that recently plants have been getting great attention in domestic and foreign press, with the American press especially noting our achievements. And our garden is growing by leaps and bounds — cucumbers, radishes, borage, and cilantro are up. So much greenery, like a Caucasian table.

In the gift pack they sent mustard, honey, almonds, apricot sticks, and our wives added crab, caviar, onions, and garlic. Delicious, but tastiest of all is my favorite Tula gingerbread, which Lyusya also sent. Too bad there’s no cold milk.

At day’s end we opened a large, thick, colorfully decorated envelope. Inside were letters, a set of children’s drawings, and proposals for possible space experiments from a children’s astronautics club.

“Dear space explorers!

You are greeted by the participants of the first international competition ‘Little Intercosmos.’

We’re sending you our ideas. What do you think — could any of them be useful? It’s very important and interesting for us to know your most authoritative opinion.”

I liked the poem:

And you know, you know

Somewhere

On a distant planet

Perhaps, on this day

And at this hour

Adults and children debate about stars

And, not knowing us,

Are also thinking of us…

Tolya Kondratyev

The children proposed experiments including studying worm regeneration in weightlessness, whether ants can build an anthill, whether bees can make honey, how pearl grows in a mollusk, silkworm behavior, whether fireflies would glow in space, and — most amusingly — sending up a rooster and hen to see if the rooster would crow (and how often, since we have 16 sunrises per day), whether they’d mate, whether the hen would lay and hatch an egg, and whether a chick would emerge.

There was also a letter from a girl named Svetka from the Pioneer Palace astronautics club, striking in its warmth:

Dear ones! Svetka writes to you, just Svetka. I’m writing to you while outside the window drizzles rain, the wet trees stand alone. Over these long months you’ve become close to us, very close. You’ve become members of our cheerful family. We’re waiting for you on Earth and at our club. You’re welcome guests everywhere.

Sveta Vertushkina.

The future Soyuz T-5 crew — A. N. Berezovoy and V. V. Lebedev during training for a possible splashdown of the descent module.

In the evening I read a greeting to Checheno-Ingushetia for the republic’s 60th anniversary, since I have close ties with its oil workers. I stumbled, but the ground said they’d clean it up.