Space records. First in space

Who made the world's second car? Who ended up in America immediately after Columbus? Or maybe someone remembers who Usain Bolt overtook? So in the space race, as in any other, the latter were not remembered.

Open, come out

Astronaut Edward White walked into open space June 3, 1965. For the 60s it was a very significant event. At that time, it could have been compared to the flight of Yuri Gagarin, if not for one thing. Four months before White, Alexey Leonov entered the then “closed” outer space.

The exit of the American astronaut was accompanied by some difficulties. Planned for the second round, it had to be moved to the third due to fatigue and some excitement after the start. Then White was prevented from leaving the ship by a jammed hatch. He also caused difficulties for the crew during their return. White spent 20 minutes in outer space - almost eight more than Leonov. But how many of them did he think that they had already been here before him?

Space. Start

In fact, radio was the first to appear in space - the exploration of infinite space began with the launch of an artificial Earth satellite. And to say that no one remembered all subsequent launches would be incorrect, since each subsequent spacecraft was the first in something. This happened with the second one too. artificial satellite Earth. Sputnik 2 became the first spacecraft with a passenger on board.

The dog Laika became the first living creature in space. True, she also became the first dead creature in orbit. Laika survived four orbits around the Earth, but due to errors in calculating the satellite's area and the lack of a thermoregulation system, the temperature inside the device rose to 40 degrees and the dog died from overheating. The satellite itself made 2,370 orbits around the Earth and burned up in the atmosphere six months after launch.

Herman and Alan

According to all canons, German Titov should be considered the second cosmonaut. He was already faced with broader tasks than Yuri Gagarin. In general, it is not entirely fair to include Titov in the text about those who did not make it. He became the first person to make a long space flight, lasting more than a day. That is, he was already flying not just to check in.

Alan Shepard's flight looks more interesting from the point of view of the silver medalists. It took place after Gagarin, but before Titov. It was his flight into space that is considered the second, although, unlike the Soviet cosmonauts, Shepard did not go into orbit. In general, the American, in fact, did not fly, but looked into space. The rocket launched his capsule onto a ballistic trajectory. Shepard rose to an altitude of 186.5 kilometers, looked at the Earth from space and began to descend. The entire flight took a little over 15 minutes.

It is difficult for a person who has not been in space to understand what Shepard or Gagarin felt. But you can try to put yourself in the shoes of the discoverer and his follower. Gagarin, who understood his role, said his famous “Let’s go!” before the start. His American colleague, who knew that he was not the first, said before the launch: “Don’t fuck up, Shepard.”

Woman on a ship

Despite all the tolerance and political correctness, the second woman in space after Valentina Tereshkova was also a citizen of the USSR. In all the 19 years between the flights of Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya, not a single self-respecting or self-respecting American woman ever went into orbit.

The second female cosmonaut went on the expedition as part of the Soyuz T-7 crew, along with Leonid Popov and Alexander Serebrov. It was a connecting flight. Savitskaya's Soyuz T-7 docked at the Salyut-7 station, where Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev were already with their Soyuz T-5 spacecraft. After almost eight days of living together and experimenting, the crews swapped ships. Savitskaya, Popov and Serebrov went to Earth on the Soyuz T-5. Lebedev and Berezovoy went home only four months later.

Fly Me To The Moon

At some point, the Americans got tired of being second, and money began to be pumped into the space race that the USSR could not collect. The USA began the lunar program.

Like any franchise with significant financial investments, the American lunar program has become large-scale, multi-episode and sometimes dramatic. Here you have six landings on the surface of the Moon, and the almost tragic, but with a successful outcome, flight of Apollo 13 (it is impossible to describe it in detail within the framework of this text, and the movie, of course, has already been shot). However, when mentioning lunar program The United States still remembers the first landing and Neil Armstrong with his small step for man, and big for humanity.

The second landing on the Moon was made by the Apollo 12 crew in 1969. The epic phrases for this event ended already then, therefore, stepping onto the surface of the Earth’s satellite, the short Charles Conrad could only remember his predecessor Armstrong and his first step: “Perhaps for Neil he was small, but for me he was big.” In general, the crew almost completely completed their expanded flight program compared to Apollo 11. It was only possible to carry out two television broadcast sessions due to a broken camera.

Off-road strike

When the Moon was already trampled under the astronaut's boots, there was no point in running in other people's footsteps. The USSR decided to respond with a two-part Lunokhod franchise. A third launch was also planned, but the launch vehicle was actively used to launch communications satellites into orbit and there was no one to lift the device to the Moon. "Lunokhod-3" was donated to the museum "NPO named after Lavochkin", where it is still located.

But the second Lunokhod, which, according to the logic of this material, no one should have remembered, set several records. It was delivered to the Earth's satellite on January 15, 1973, and operated until June 4 of the same year. "Lunokhod-2" set records for the duration of active existence, distance traveled (42.1-42.2 kilometers), speed of movement and duration of active operations.

The era of space shuttles

The monopoly on reusable devices belonged to the Americans. The first reusable US spacecraft was the space shuttle Columbia. He made his first flight on a very symbolic date - April 12, 1981.

The second shuttle flight took place on November 12, 1981, and it was also Columbia. Well, if only because he needed to confirm the status of a reusable ship. That is, this was the first flight in history when the spacecraft was reused. The flight was the shortest in the history of the Space Shuttle program.

However, in this text about catching up, it is impossible not to mention Buran. Yes, it launched seven years after the first flight of Columbia, and it only had one flight, but what a flight. Buran was launched into orbit by the Energia launch vehicle. The ship made two orbits around the Earth in 205 minutes, and then automatically landed at the Yubileiny airfield of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. During the landing, an abnormal situation occurred, which further emphasized the success of the test. Having received weather data, the Buran's automatic system decided to further reduce speed by landing against a stormy wind. So the Soviet shuttle outwitted its creators, appearing from the wrong side from which they expected it. The only thing that ruined the Buran program was the lack of funding.

Fly with Roscosmos starships

As for tourists, it turned out to be really difficult to remember who was second without the help of the Internet. Moreover, the first one - Dennis Tito - came to mind quite quickly.

The second space tourist was IT specialist-millionaire from South Africa Mark Shuttleworth. Despite the “shuttle” in his name, he went into orbit on the Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft. Like Tito, Shuttleworth fulfilled the main condition for flying into space - $20 million. His preparation lasted a year, including seven months in Star City. The second space tourist spent eight days aboard the International Space Station. He took part in experiments aboard the ISS and returned to Earth on May 5, 2002.

He became the first person to go into outer space: on March 18, 1965, he, together with cosmonaut P.I. Belyaev flew into space on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft as a co-pilot. For the first time in the world, Leonov went into outer space, moved away from the ship at a distance of up to 5 m, spending 12 minutes in outer space. At the state commission after the flight, the shortest report in the history of astronautics was given: “You can live and work in outer space.”

The records of the first years of space exploration paved the way for new achievements and discoveries, allowing humanity to step far beyond the limits of the Earth and human capabilities.

Oldest man in space
The oldest person in orbit is US Senator John Glenn, who flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1998. Glenn was one of America's first seven astronauts, the first American astronaut to fly into orbit on February 20, 1962. Therefore, Glenn also holds the record for the longest period between two space flights.

Youngest cosmonaut
The astronaut was 25 full years when he went into space on Vostok 2 on August 9, 1961. He became the second person to orbit the Earth, completing 17 orbits of the planet during a 25-hour flight. Titov also became the first person to sleep in space and the first to experience space sickness (decreased appetite, dizziness, headache).

Longest space flight
The Russian cosmonaut holds the record for the longest stay in space. From 1994 to 1995, he spent 438 days at the Mir station. He also holds the record for the longest solo stay in space.

Shortest flight
On May 5, 1961, Alan Sheppard became the first American to leave Earth during a suborbital space flight. He also holds the record for the shortest flight into space, which lasted only 15 minutes. During this quarter of an hour, he flew to an altitude of 185 km. He splashed down in Atlantic Ocean 486 km from the launch site. In 1971, Sheppard visited the Moon, where the 47-year-old astronaut became the oldest person to set foot on the Earth's moon.

Farthest flight
The record for the maximum distance of astronauts from the Earth was set by the Apollo 13 team, which in April 1970 flew over the invisible side of the Moon at an altitude of 254 km, ending up at a record distance of 400,171 km from the Earth.

Longest in space
Cosmonaut Krikalev spent the longest time in space, spending more than 803 days in space during six flights. Among women, this record belongs to, who spent more than 376 days in orbit.

Krikalev also holds another, unofficial record: last man, who lived under the USSR. In December 1991, when the USSR disappeared, Sergei was on board the Mir station, and in March 1992 he returned to Russia.

Longest inhabited spacecraft
This record, which is increasing every day, belongs to the ISS. The $100 billion station has been continuously inhabited since November 2000.

Longest shuttle mission
The space shuttle Columbia launched into space on November 19, 1996. The descent was originally scheduled for December 5, but weather conditions delayed the landing of the spacecraft, which spent 17 days and 16 hours in orbit.

Longest on the Moon
The longest time that other astronauts spent on the Moon was 75 hours. During the landing, they made three long walks totaling more than 22 hours. This was the last human flight to the Moon and beyond Earth orbit to date.

Fastest flight
The fastest people on Earth and beyond were members of the Apollo 10 mission, the last preparatory flight before landing on the Moon. Returning to Earth on May 26, 1969, their ship reached a speed of 39,897 km/h.

Most flights
Americans flew into space most often: Franklin Chang-Diaz and Jerry Ross flew into space seven times each as part of the space shuttle crews.

Maximum number of spacewalks
Astronaut for five space flights in the 80-90s he made 16 exits outside the station, spending 82 hours in outer space.

Longest spacewalk
On March 11, 2001, astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms spent nearly nine hours outside the Discovery shuttle and the ISS preparing the station for the arrival of the new module. To this day, that space walk remains the longest in history.

The most representative company in space
13 people gathered in space at the same time in July 2009, when the Endeavor shuttle docked at the ISS, where there were six astronauts. This meeting became the largest number of people in space at one time.

The most expensive spaceship
International space station collection began in 1998, and it was completed in 2012. In 2011, the cost of its creation exceeded $100 billion. The station became the most expensive single technical object ever built and the largest spacecraft. 15 countries took part in its construction, its dimensions today are almost 110 m. The volume of its living quarters is equivalent to the volume of the Boeing 747 passenger cabin.

The twentieth century gave us the world's first person in space, the first woman astronaut and the first person to walk in outer space. During the same period of time, man took his first steps on the Moon.

First man on the moon

The first spacecraft to bring people to the surface of the Moon was the American manned exploration spacecraft Apollo 11. The flight began on July 16 and ended on July 24, 1969.

The pilot and crew commander: Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong spent almost a day on the surface of the Moon. The time they spent there was twenty-one hours, thirty-six minutes and twenty-one seconds. All this time, the command module was controlled by Michael Collins, who, while in orbit, was waiting for a signal.

Astronauts made one exit to the surface of the Moon. Its duration is almost two and a half hours. The first step onto the surface of this planet was taken by crew commander Armstrong. Fifteen minutes later, Aldrin joined him. During the surface exit, the astronauts planted a US flag on the Moon, took several kilograms of soil for further research, and also installed research instruments. They took the first photographs of the landscape. Thanks to the installed equipment, it became possible to determine with maximum accuracy the distance between the Moon and the Earth. This significant event took place on July 20, 1969.

Thus, America won the lunar race, being the first to land on the surface of the earth's satellite, and the national goal set by John Kennedy was considered fulfilled.

It should be noted that some researchers call the landing of American astronauts on natural satellite Earth is the biggest hoax of the twentieth century. They also provide a number of evidence that the above-described landing did not take place at all.

First man in outer space

Man first went into outer space in 1965. We are talking about the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. He set off on that significant flight on March 18 together with his partner Pavel Belyaev on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.

Having reached orbit, Leonov donned a spacesuit designed for spacewalks. The oxygen supply in it was enough for forty-five minutes. Belyaev at this time began to install a flexible airlock chamber, through which Leonov was supposed to enter space. Having taken all necessary precautions, Leonov left the ship. In total, the astronaut spent 12 minutes 9 seconds outside of it. At this time, Leonov’s partner sent a message to Earth that the man had gone into outer space. An image of an astronaut floating against the backdrop of the Earth was broadcast on television.

During the return, I had to worry, because in the vacuum conditions the suit was greatly inflated, which is why Leonov did not fit into the airlock chamber. Finding himself a prisoner of outer space, he independently found a way out of this situation, realizing that in this case, advice from Earth would not help him. To reduce the size of the spacesuit, the astronaut vented excess oxygen. He did this gradually, at the same time trying to squeeze into the cell. Every minute counted. Leonov prefers not to tell anyone about his experiences at that moment.

Difficulties with the spacesuit were not the last troubles of that significant flight. It turned out that the orientation system did not work, and the astronauts were forced to switch to manual control to land. The result of such a landing was that Belyaev and Leonov landed in a different place than expected. The capsule ended up in the taiga, 180 kilometers from Perm. Two days later, the astronauts were discovered. This successful flight was marked by awarding the title of Hero to Leonov and Belyaev Soviet Union.

First woman astronaut

The first woman to go into space was Valentina Tereshkova. She carried out her flight alone, which in itself is an unprecedented case. Tereshkova for this flight was selected from large number paratroopers

The Vostok-6 spacecraft found itself in Earth orbit on June 16, 1963. The Soviet Union became not only the first country to send an astronaut into space, but also the first country to send a woman into space. This step was politically motivated.

It is surprising that the relatives of the world's first female astronaut learned about her flight into space from radio messages only after she made a successful landing. Knowing that the flight could very well end in tragedy, the girl chose to keep the upcoming event a secret.

Tereshkova's flight lasted 22 hours and 41 minutes. During this time, the first female cosmonaut made forty-eight orbits around our planet. Her call sign is “Seagull”.

The first man to go into space

As you know, the first person to go into space is Yuri Gagarin. His historic flight, which thundered throughout the world, took place on April 12, 1961. This date is called “Cosmonautics Day”. During the time spent in orbit, Gagarin completed the entire planned program. According to his recollections, he carefully recorded all his observations, examined the Earth and even ate.

Well, not a single astronaut will go to the largest star in the universe, the radius of which is one and a half thousand times greater than the radius of the sun. According to the website, there are no plans to send people outside yet. solar system.
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Publications in the Literature section

Time of the first

The first 108 minutes in space of Yuri Gagarin and the first multi-day flight of Andriyan Nikolaev, the first woman in outer space Valentina Tereshkova and the first spacewalk in history of Alexei Leonov. The best excerpts from the memories of our cosmonauts are on the Kultura.RF portal.

Yuri Gagarin

Andrey Plotnov. In the Motherland (Yuri Gagarin). 1982

On April 12, 1961, the Vostok-1 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. On board was senior lieutenant of the Soviet Union Yuri Gagarin. The pilot-cosmonaut with the call sign “Kedr” gave a speech before the launch.

“Dear friends, relatives and strangers, compatriots, people of all countries and continents! - I said. - In a few minutes, a mighty spaceship will take me to the distant expanses of the Universe. What can I tell you in these last minutes before the start? My whole life now seems like one beautiful moment..."

Years of training, selection, testing - and here he is in space.

“The ship entered orbit - a wide space highway. Weightlessness has set in - the same state that I read about as a child in the books of K.E. Tsiolkovsky. I tore myself away from the chair and hung between the ceiling and the floor of the cabin. The transition to this state happened very smoothly. When the influence of gravity began to disappear, I felt great. Everything suddenly became easier to do. All loose objects also float, and you observe them as if in a dream. And a tablet, and a pencil, and a notepad... And the drops of liquid that spilled from the hose took the form of balls, they moved freely in space and, touching the wall of the cabin, stuck to it, like dew on a flower.”

Yuri Gagarin spent 108 minutes in outer space - during this time the Vostok orbited the Earth. Gagarin’s charming smile, his hand raised in greeting and his decisive “Let’s go!” all over the world have become a symbol of humanity’s first step into the unknown.

“Well, where will you go,” they told me at the school headquarters, “Orenburg is a good city. You have a family, an apartment, your wife is studying... Why ruin your life?
But I decided even earlier - to go where it is most difficult. My youth, the example of our entire Komsomol, obliged me to do this... I felt like the son of a mighty Komsomol tribe and did not consider myself entitled to seek quiet harbors and cast anchor at the first pier.”

"The road to space. Notes of a USSR pilot-cosmonaut" (1961), chapter "In the Light of the Northern Lights"

Andriyan Nikolaev

In four days (August 11–15, 1962) on the Voskhod-3 spacecraft, Andriyan Nikolaev made 64 orbits around the Earth - this was the first multi-day flight in history.

“The elevator takes me to the top of the rocket launcher. I take a seat in the ship and begin checking the onboard equipment. I'm reporting to the command post. I hear Gagarin's voice:
- Andryukha, no fluff or feather!
- To hell!
There is a minute left before the start. A living trembling began to run through the powerful body of the rocket. The power plants thundered. The rocket takes me high off the ground. As the speed increases, the overload becomes more and more noticeable. A weight falls on your shoulders, on your whole body.”

“The gravity of the earth. Notes of an astronaut - 3" (1999), chapter "64 orbits around the Earth"

The second time, together with cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastyanov, he stayed in the vastness of the Universe even longer - almost 425 hours, from June 1 to June 19, 1970. The ship circled the Earth 286 times. This was the first flight in the history of astronautics during which people worked in orbit without spacesuits.

“A ship is flying in the blackness of space. The cabin is bright. And in the portholes there is darkness. Only the young moon in the sky and the stars lazily speak to each other in a mysterious language unknown to earthlings. But we have no time for the stars now. Our work begins.
And then the ship came out of the shadows onto the bright side of the Earth. This was my second time in orbit and I saw the sunrise more calmly. And Vitaly is new to space. And he perceived the first cosmic dawn very enthusiastically.
“Andrey,” he exclaimed, taking me by the hand, “look, wow, what a dawn on the right, an amazing dawn! Look, what a sun... It's coming right at me! The sun is blowing right on me! The beauty is incredible!”
I understood his delight, but I still told Vitaly: “We’ll still have time to admire it - there will be so much dawn ahead! Now let’s get to work!”

“Space is a road without end” (1974), part II, chapter “In orbit”

Valentina Tereshkova

Amir Mazitov. Gull. 1964. Yaroslavl Art Museum

Valentina Tereshkova became not only the first woman to go into space, but also the only one to go there alone.

The then captain Tereshkova made her first flight into space on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft - she was chosen from five applicants.

“How many times have I witnessed how the impossible became possible. Hearing the last command, I gathered myself internally and tensed my muscles. Just recently I listened to my grandmother’s tales about the magic carpet, then I saw the first airplane, learned about the feat of the first cosmonaut, and now in a second I’ll fly into space myself! As K.E. once so wonderfully said. Tsiolkovsky: “First comes thought, fantasy, fairy tale. Behind them comes scientific calculation. And in the end it’s the thought that crowns.” Maybe there was even a second of fear, suppressed by delight. But I remember well: even before the rocket moved, my breath was taken away and my heart was beating furiously. A soldier probably experiences something similar in his first attack.”

Chapter "Forty-eight turns".

She told her family that she was going to a parachute competition; they learned that Tereshkova was in space from the news on the radio. The flight lasted 2 days 22 hours 50 minutes: the ship made 45 revolutions around the Earth.

“Yuri Gagarin was right when once in the “star city,” sharing his impressions of his flight, he told us that when viewed from space, the spherical shape of the Earth is felt. He colorfully described the Earth, surrounded by a pale blue halo. Now I admired this halo, saw how it gradually darkened, became turquoise, dark blue, purple and turned into slate black. Nature did not skimp, wrapping the Earth in clothes of the richest colors, trimmed with a blue border. I thought: it would be nice to dress our girls in silks of such colors!”

"The Universe is an open ocean"
Chapter "Forty-eight turns"

Alexey Leonov

Alexey Leonov. Over the Black Sea. 1966

After five years of special training, on March 18, 1965, two more cosmonauts went into space for more than a day - Alexey Leonov (call sign “Almaz-2”) and Pavel Belyaev (“Almaz-1”).

“There is one more name that I always remember with gratitude. This name is Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. I can talk about him very long and warmly. Our whole life on the space path is connected with this person. We stood in front of our rocket, ready to enter the elevator and ascend to our ship, Voskhod 2. There were a lot of mourners. Korolev was calm and kind. At the start, time is precious. He said just a few words:
- I ask one thing. You, Lesha, just get out of the ship and enter the ship. May the solar wind be favorable to you."

“Solar Wind” (1977), chapter “Course - Baikonur”

During the flight, Alexey Leonov went into outer space for the first time in history.

“Here is the cosmic sky. I am the first to see space with billions of stars, not from a ship, not from a porthole, but through the light filter of a spacesuit! The hatch slowly went up, the window into space opened more and more. I watched with bated breath as the star pattern quickly changed in the dark cosmic sky.
The hatch froze, everything was ready to go.
We are approaching the Black Sea.
In my headphones I hear:
- Lesha, start leaving!
- Got it, I'm off!
“If you call yourself an astronaut, get out into space,” I thought.
It was so quiet that I could hear my heart beating. I heard the sound of my breathing.”

"Going Out into Space" (1980)

As the sports commissioners recorded, he stayed “outside the ship’s cabin in outer space conditions for 23 minutes. 41 sec." and outside spaceship- 12 minutes 9 seconds. Then followed a technically difficult return - first to the ship, and then to Earth - the cosmonauts landed not in the place calculated by experts, but in the Perm taiga. Alexey Leonov described his adventures in memoirs and books for children with his own illustrations. And in 2017 he released a colorful publication “The Time of the First. My destiny is myself...”, which was filmed.

“The first words I said, stepping into the void (I don’t remember them, but they were written down): “But the Earth is round.” But in general, space is, of course, harmony. When you look at photographs of supernova explosions, the “collapse” of galaxies, taken by the Hubble telescope, this is chaos and this is scary. And when I went into space, I saw complete color harmony. Based on the colors, I clearly divided them into the colors of Rockwell Kent and Roerich. When you move from the Sun to night - it's Kent, and in reverse side- Roerich. There was music too. On the dark side of the Earth, where there is no interference, I could clearly hear the sound of my breathing and my heart beating. These sounds lined up into some kind of musical narrative. You can compare it with the sound of the theremin and the electronic compositions of Vyacheslav Meshcherin.”

“Time of the first. My destiny is myself...” (2017)

Georgy Grechko

Georgy Grechko speaks to children from the Young Cosmonauts Club. 1982

Cosmonaut Georgy Grechko made several flights into space - the first in 1975 to the Salyut-4 orbital station. And in 1977–1978, together with cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, he became the first to meet New Year in orbit. For 13 years, Grechko remained the oldest person to go into space - he was 54 years old at that time.

“What's the hardest thing? Weightlessness? Isolation from the Earth, from the family? Emergency situations? No. The most difficult thing, as on Earth, is to tell the truth!”

“Cosmonaut No. 34. From splinters to aliens”, chapter “The most difficult thing in space”

Georgy Grechko was not only an astronaut and researcher, but also a TV presenter, actor and author of several “space” books.

“On the last night before the flight, before going to bed, you just need to watch a movie. You need to calm down, distract yourself from gloomy thoughts and anxiety. When doctors advised watching a funny movie before bed, the choice fell on the comedy “Thirty Three” by Georgy Danelia.
The guys watched it for some time before the flights. But when “White Sun of the Desert” appeared, they stopped watching “Thirty-Three.” Such bright, seemingly win-win comedies as “The Diamond Arm” and “Shirli-myrli” did not catch on either.
We watch how Sukhov walks through the desert and meets enemies, how he behaves. You know that in space you will experience overload, weightlessness, and danger, which can even be fatal. And you learn from the Red Army soldier Sukhov how to behave in a dangerous situation. Do not lose your presence of mind, you must resist to the end, and you must not lose your sense of humor. This film sets a certain line of behavior, teaches at the same time not to be too tight and not to be reckless. And we are gearing up for teamwork.”

“Cosmonaut No. 34. From the torch to the aliens”, chapter “At Salyut-4”. Signs and “White Sun of the Desert”.

Yuri Usachev

Yuri Usachev with a portrait of Gagarin

The cosmonaut's first flight is already Russian Federation, and not the Soviet Union, committed in 1994: Yuri Usachev stayed for orbital station"Peace" 182 days.

“January 10.
Here we are at the station!!!
The docking went well and after the usual checks for the tightness of the joint, we opened the hatch to the Kvant module. Vasily Tsibliev and San Sanych Serebrov were already waiting for us there. It was a very warm welcome, they presented us with traditional bread and salt on a tray they had made from the lid of a food ration container. On the same tray were three medical syringe filled with something red. The syringes had plastic cocktail straws on them instead of needles; we clinked the syringes together like glasses and squeezed the contents into our mouths. In the evening, Mission Control arranged for us to have telephone conversations with the families. This was completely unexpected for me and therefore pleasant. From a conversation with Vera, I realized that our house was full of guests who had come to congratulate the family on the docking. Good tradition and well done guys for coming.”

Usachev described his space journey every day - everyday things, bright events And extreme situations- there were a lot of them. In total, he spent almost 553 days in zero gravity, during which time he went into outer space seven times.

“14/07/94. It's been 5 days since we landed!!!
For five whole days we have been living in old - new conditions. There is a lot of movement around us, medicine is watching us gently and closely. This state is unusual and I want to tell everyone around us - freeze at least for a moment, let me see enough. Just a week ago we were living the weightless life of an orbital complex, and they look at us as if we were aliens from another planet. They probably notice our certain detachment from earthly concerns, and it’s true - I’m still there - in space. At the very beginning of the flight, for about a month, I couldn’t believe that it was me flying, that all this was happening to me. Now a reverse adaptation is taking place, and the people around us are changing their attitude towards us a little every day - they see that we, in principle, have remained the same.”

“Diary of an astronaut. Three lives in space" (2014), "Life First"