200 days on the road in space. We got up late, around noon. Sometime around 9 AM, Mission Control performed an orbit correction. I heard in my sleep the station orienting itself — the dull thuds and pops of the engines — but I didn’t hear the main engine fire; I must have been sound asleep. Only when the water tanks behind the panels started rattling did I open my eyes and think it was Tolya moving around the station. But then I saw unsecured items flying and felt a gentle, sustained pull of g-force, as if on shock absorbers.

We got up and went to work. Replaced 2 regenerators and stowed the spent ones in the cargo ship. Started inventory in the small-diameter section of the work compartment. Listed all the film, the return equipment. Then I filmed the Earth’s horizon with Niva — its layered structure and the sunset — but at the last moment the tape ran out. In the evening Kaverznev met with us. He gave a fairly detailed account of the foreign policy situation, relations with China, the attention being paid to our flight around the world, and said the Americans consider our long-duration station program significant and interesting. In the evening, the entire TsUP duty shift congratulated us on crossing the 200-day mark in space. The 300-day mark, I think, won’t be crossed for at least 5 years, if not more. It’s midnight now, but we’re still working and asked the communications operator to come on for the next session, since tomorrow is a critical day for a new experiment, and we’re not sure exactly how it’s performed, so we need to prepare seriously. Today we also did an additional crystal melt in the Kristall furnace. Tomorrow is the last day working with station attitude dynamics. The remaining days we’ll spend preparing for the return. Oh, and by the way — we have a small painting on board, done by guys from the enterprise where the station was built. It’s got character and in many ways reflects our life. It shows a cowboy tied to a post; above him, on a beam, a revolver is mounted and aimed at him, with a rope running from the trigger through a pulley and tied to… what it shouldn’t be tied to. And in front of the cowboy is the gorgeous figure of a naked woman gazing at him provocatively. Off to the side stands a horse, looking at its master with tears of sympathy rolling from its eyes. It understands: the master is locked in an inner battle with himself, and his life depends on his self-control. That’s exactly how it is with us — you can’t let your guard down.

Today in shadow I saw a moonbeam beautifully gliding across an island with two glowing cities, and this ray from a giant “Gulliver’s lantern” was illuminating a tiny island of “Lilliputia” on the enormous globe. You see and notice many interesting things when you’ve been flying a long time.