Astronaut who was stranded in space for 311 days after his country stopped existing
Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev spent nearly a year stuck in space after the Soviet Union dissolved during his mission.
What was due to be a five month trip doubled in length as people on the ground tried to work out how they were going to bring him back to Earth.
This was partly due to the fact that the Baikonur Cosmodrome and the landing area were both located in the newly independent Kazakhstan.
This threw up huge uncertainty as to how or when Krikalev could return home.
Trapped aboard the Mir Space Station, he finally made his way back down to Earth in March 1992.
Because of this unique situation, Krikalev became known as the ‘last Soviet citizen’, but it wasn’t his final time in space.
Bad and sad to be left in space because of ground politics beyond his control, at least Krikalev made it back to earth alive. Spending long periods of time in space is detrimental to one’s health, and they want to send men to Mars !
ReplyDelete-Rj
This sounds like where the idea for "The Martian" sparked.
ReplyDeleteAnd now we have those poor folk trapped up there because NASA can't guarantee their return flight. This is an interesting story I had not heard. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteScott from Massachusetts said.
ReplyDeleteSo glad he made it home safely. Yes, I'm one of those too, that is seeing this story for the first time.