A good, rare day. More like this — and you could fly for a long time. The reason — good contact with the ground.
Got up, refueled the oxidizer tanks. On comm is duty operator Pyotr Ivanovich — representative of the cosmonaut training center. He asks: “How’s the mood?” “Good. We’ve learned to craft it ourselves.” Pyotr Ivanovich is our corps veteran. His morning news, which we’ve dubbed “Kolodin’s Mosaic,” are decorated with jokes, anecdotes, news tidbits, and have become an integral part of communication with Earth. He always tries to help during experiments, reminds us of equipment switch-on times, mode changes, etc. Very good-natured — before bed he always calls our wives, finds out how things are at home, and passes all the latest news to us.
Today there was a serious alarm for the first time — we smelled burning lacquer or insulation. We quickly shut off all ventilators to stop air circulation, closed the hatches to the transport ship in case of smoke, grabbed fire extinguishers, and flew around the station like bloodhounds, sniffing out the source.
After finding the location, we had to disassemble a panel. When we opened it we saw lots of dust on the fans cooling the angular rate sensors, gyroscopes, and other control system instruments. Also lots of small objects — pieces of insulation tape, a felt-tip pen. Apparently something had gotten into a fan and jammed it. The protection didn’t trip, and it overheated. We didn’t tell the ground about it — didn’t want to cause panic.
During the day we met with the families. Lyusya came with a bouquet of rowan and maple branches. Our son came straight from school in uniform. We talked cheerfully. There was also a sailor friend Volodya, who’d seen our photos in Western German and Irish port magazines alongside cowboys and gangsters.
Lyusya told a story: riding the bus yesterday, an old man reading our article in the newspaper turned to her and said: “What great fellows, these guys — flying so long and always in good spirits.” A woman nearby remarked: “And imagine what their families go through.” Lyusya says tears came to her eyes, and we were touched hearing it up here too.
Passing over Everest. We see the ridges with the world’s highest peaks. On the edge of a gorge known as the Katmandu valley, I found Everest. Amazing — everyone climbs it to look out at the world from the maximum height accessible to humans, and from up here we can barely recognize it.
After his first spaceflight, V. V. Lebedev worked three times on the BAM railway during his vacations, serving as commander of the MAI student construction brigade.
At the end of the day I slept for a couple of hours. Such languor in the body. First time I’ve slept during the day in flight. Got up at 9 PM. Silence. I looked down the station. Tolya is reading magazines in the orbital module.