How we lost Mir: a fire at a space station, a collision with a Progress truck, depressurization

February 20, 2020 marks the 34th anniversary of the launch and commissioning of the Mir space station. The station, which was inhabited from March 13, 1986 to June 16, 2000. And it could have been inhabited if ...

Most likely, many of you watched the movie "Gravity", which was recognized as one of the best films about space in the history of world cinema, but few people know that no less dramatic events took place at the Mir space station .



On February 23, 1997, at the Mir station, the entire international crew was to die - 4 Russian cosmonauts, one German and one American astronaut. And then the Mir station would have to be flooded not planned - in the spring of 2001, but forcedly, 4 years earlier, with a dead crew on board. Until 2006, it was customary to remain silent about this expedition, and so far little is known about it, apart from the astronauts themselves and the flight leaders, no one knew the details of what happened. In 2006, the cosmonauts of the 23rd international expedition agreed to tell what really happened at the space station, which they were held hostage and Channel One made an excellent documentary about this - “Nowhere to Run. Fire at the space station ”, which is now available on Youtube , the website of the Roscosmos studio, for some reasongives an error . Perhaps because not the whole truth was said there, or because the truth is not quite the same.

The fire was extinguished, but it had terrible consequences. For several months, the astronauts had to live at temperatures above +40 C, breathe poisonous vapors of ethylene glycol, and then save the station from depressurization caused by a collision with the 10-ton cargo ship Progress.

And just recently, my friend found a version of the collision from the Americans (see from 1:18:00), where astronaut Michael Fole, a direct participant in the events, claims that the collision was the result of an experiment with manual docking with the station, and that the experiment itself should not have been to be.

As it turned out, for the implementation of each of the dockings, an expensive module was used that cost about $ 2 million, produced in Ukraine, and it was clear that the Russian government was not happy to pay that much money each time. It is for this reason that the not-so-good idea came up with the idea of ​​conducting an experiment on the manual docking of the Progress unmanned cargo ship. A remote system was used for control, essentially a joystick and a monitor broadcasting a picture from Progress starting from a distance of 5 km from the station, which was controlled by a Russian cosmonaut at the station and this system was intended only for emergency situations. According to Alexander Lazutkin (from this video), in contrast to the words from the film shown by Channel One, it saysthat the ship approached the station at a very high speed and was noticed already when it was 150-180 meters from the station. While the version of the events of Channel One provides completely different information (low speed of approach and that they might not have time to dock before entering the shadow) and completely different words of the same Alexander Lazutkin (you can familiarize yourself with the second version below during the article) .

Nevertheless, whether the experiment was forced or planned, and as it was in fact - is not so important. It is important that the heroic work of the crews of the 22nd and 23rd expeditions made it possible to save the station for subsequent work for another 4 years. And on this day, the birthday of Mir station, I would like to once again recall these events and the people who survived in them and managed to extend the station’s work as much as possible.

February 23, 1997. In Russia, a national holiday is celebrated - Defender of the Fatherland Day; traditionally, the congratulations from the Earth are transferred to orbit at the flight control center of the Earth. Six astronauts gathered at the festive table, two crews at once. The crew of 22 expeditions Valery Korzun, Alexander Kaleri and Jerry Linanger have been flying the Mir for six months now and are going home in a week. The crew of 23 expeditions Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin arrived just two weeks ago, with them as a guest the German astronaut Reinhold Ewald arrived at the Russian station, all six just wished the Earth a good night and began to prepare for dinner. But I didn’t have to have dinner that day.



Clean air in orbit is generated from the water, but it is only enough for a crew of three. If there are more people at the station, they use the air brought from the Earth, or rather, not air, but oxygen drafts or oxygen generators in another way. For six people, in order to breathe easily, at least three checkers must be burned per day.



Alexander Lazutkin: flew here and here the installation for burning this very piece, it was behind the panel, put the piece into the pipe, I did all the operations, started the process, and then I hear a noise, so uncharacteristic, I turn to this setting, and around the cannon’s mouth is wearing a bag with a special filter and it struck me that the fabric was starting to burn on this bag ...



Vasily Tsibliyev:we were preparing for dinner, I was going to set an alarm for tomorrow, and at this time the German Reinhold Ewald says: “we burn men”. And I can see with my eye that really, flashes, Sasha Lazutkin is confused.



And such a stupor seized consciousness ... Then they took a fire extinguisher and began to extinguish.

In the beginning it was not scary. The first thought is that a fire extinguisher works in two modes. Foam. Foam covers, but since the jet is so strong, oxygen, this foam drops, I switched to liquid. Hot metal, naturally a lot of steam, which is immediately perceived as smoke.



Alexander Lazutkin: I am returning with a fire extinguisher and I see such a picture, a solid gray
veil, and against the background of this gray veil Valera extinguishes with a fire extinguisher, hangs in the air, he was already wearing shorts, and from there a bright crimson flame ...

Valery Korzun: during extinction, I touched the generator with my finger and got a burn, a small one, smaller than a penny coin, such a first-degree burn, a blister, it was not so critical.



A fire in space is a disaster and almost always death. Firefighters will not come to the rescue, there are no hydrants at hand, there is no escape from fire and smoke. It will not work even to open a window and ventilate the room - in space there is a vacuum, an airless space. Flames from the fire hit right in the station wall, and the walls on the "World" of the finest aluminum. Only one and a half millimeters of metal separates from outer space astronauts, it is thinner than the walls of the pan. The fire melts the metal, like oil, for a couple of minutes and the wall can’t stand it, and through the hole in the vacuum like water into the funnel all the air will clear and then blood will boil from a sharp drop in pressure in the veins ...



The astronauts are trying to act according to the instructions and count the remaining time, but just for this case, the instructions are not provided, how much time for salvation will not be calculated in advance, one can only guess. Air can bleed in seconds, or maybe in an hour, and it all depends on the size of the hole that burns through the wall of the station. Hundreds of station cables are laid along the walls. Korzun and Tsebliev notice that the isolation on them has already burned. The high temperature that formed around the generator, not directly in the direction of the stream, but around, melted the cables and cable network and even melted some of the aluminum parts of the panels that surrounded this generator.

There is a way out and he is the only one, throw everything, throw into the ships, urgently undock from the burning station and faster to Earth. There are just two Soyuzs at the station, each with 3 places, which means there is a chance for all six to be saved. The astronauts urgently begin to prepare the ships for launching, and only then they understand that for one of the crews the path to Earth is closed. One of the "Unions" just behind the fire and managed to choke on poisonous smoke.



Alexander Lazutkin: I fly into the ship, open the hatch and see that the ship is in smoke and I was probably scared a second time, I realized that, in principle, we could die because we have nowhere to smoke. I really wanted to open the window ... Normal human reaction! And when I felt that you won’t open the window, at once the whole world that was around you shrank to the size of a small station.



They are trying to extinguish the flame with the help of fire extinguishers; at the station they are in each compartment. Valery Korzun extinguishes, now he is the chief on the "World", the rest fly through neighboring compartments, tear off other fire extinguishers from the walls and transfer them to Korzun along the chain.

They began to extinguish, steam, smoke, soot, lights used - nothing is visible. There is a lot of steam, if you stretch out your hand, you can’t see half-hands. There is almost nothing to breathe - the entire station is in carbon monoxide smoke, the astronauts no longer distinguish each other at a distance of a meter.



Tsibliev gives orders to all urgently put on gas masks. The gas mask on Mir is special, space, unlike the usual ones, they themselves produce oxygen for breathing, they have never been used for their intended purpose. In such gas masks death from suffocation does not threaten for the next two hours. Exactly so calculated their resource. And in these 2 hours you need to have time to find a way out.



Sergey Silkov (the main communications operator at the MCC 1997): it was very strong, nevertheless, there was a psycho-emotional load, especially, according to my ideas, on the American crew member.



The most panicky American Jerry Linanger is panicking, he screams that he urgently needs to run into the ship and undock from the station. Valery Korzun sends him to the far end of the station, where there is less smoke, in order to somehow distract the American astronaut Korzun gives him a task.

Valery Korzun: since Jerry was a doctor, I asked him to prepare such a resuscitation post, taking into account all the medicines that were on board, which can be useful in the loss of consciousness from carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide poisoning, that is, the necessary funds, oxygen masks and ...



With every minute the oxygen in gas masks decreases. The crew commanders Korzun and Tsibliyev take risks, they take turns taking off their gas masks for a few seconds and take a couple of breaths of poisonous air for the sample, because in just half an hour all six will have to breathe the poisoned air, and only the commanders risk it. At the same time, Korzun is trying to communicate with the Earth via radio and get clear instructions on how to proceed. The fact that there is still no fire at the station, communication with the Earth is possible only when the "Mir" is over the territory of Russia. And during the fire, the station flew over the Pacific Ocean, one revolution around the globe “Mir” makes in an hour and a half, during this time there is every chance to die without contacting the Earth. The radio session with the MCC lasts only some 10-20 minutes. The rest of the time, the astronauts are left to their own devices,but now the Americans are flying at the Russian station, so NASA permits the use of its points of contact located in the United States.



Vasily Tsibliev: this system did not work well there, it was not debugged, that is, we say that they can hear us, but we do not. We transmitted the information, we explain that the fire, the smoke of the station was such and such, turned off this and that, we told all our actions. The crew is under observation, we look, we observe each other, everyone is healthy, thank God and literally on the tail of the session, there are 10 or 15 seconds left, Seryozha Silkov, who was the main operator, “we understood you guys, we are taking action”.

Sergey Silkov:Korzun and Tsibliev got in touch, no panic, a clear absolutely calm report. But of course there were elements of emotions, elements of such excitement. Indeed, the adrenaline rush took place because it is really just scary for people who are at an altitude of 400 kilometers and, in fact, to help them, except in words it is impossible. Of course, no one was sleeping, of course, all the necessary specialists were called, a whole set of recommendations was developed.



Two hours passed like a minute. Oxygen in gas masks is running out. Although the air purification system at the station is operating at full capacity, the smoke has not yet dissipated. Korzun and Tsibliev make a decision despite the mortal risk of taking off their gas masks and trying to breathe without them. Korzun gives the command to everyone to remove gas masks, a strong smell of burning immediately hit his nose, he breathes with difficulty, because of this, his eyes watery and sore throat. Valery Korzun just in case distributes respirators to everyone.



Vasily Tsibliev: this thing turned out to be the most successful, because this one, the so-called mask, had so many threads in it and we slept in it the night after the fire, so we almost gasped from the inside of CO2.



Sergey Silkov:in the first communication session, they went out and reported that in general everything was fine, the most important thing was the satisfactory composition of the atmosphere, they reported on the actions taken, and the process of identifying the reasons went on. A commission was immediately created.

Vasily Tsibliev: Isolation ... Well, you understand how it smells, this smell haunted us after many years, after it was all over.



Here it is, filled with foam, a broken checker, a broken metal bracket molten, a
piece of metal steel melted, you see ... Not only did the aluminum melt, but the steel also melted.



This is the bracket on which the TGK stood, it burned out. Trying to push it, they slightly bent the panel, broke it.

Wives and children of astronauts accidentally learn about the fire at the Mir from news releases, they tear down the MCC telephone and beg the flight managers to allow them to talk with their husbands, but at the MCC they repeat only one thing - everything is fine, everyone is alive and denied communication with Mir .



Lyudmila Lazutkina (astronaut’s wife): all the sessions were occupied by specialists and this was objectively necessary, but at least for a moment, or as you correctly said, they would give us just to listen to their voices. Because we can’t say anything, everything is fine with us, everything is fine, the main thing is that everything was fine with you. But we didn’t hear them, we didn’t know, we didn’t transmit pictures to Earth on TV, they only said comments and nothing more. And it was important for us to hear.

Relatives and relatives are denied communication sessions for a simple reason - all the time they were given to communicate with astronauts to specialists, doctors, engineers, psychologists, their help at Mir is now needed. And the useless lisp of wives and children will not eliminate the fire.

Lyudmila Lazutkina: it was important for us that we saw them alive, not wounded, not bandaged in any way there. They generally have a complex language, very complex abbreviations, incomprehensible, but it would at least be heard that there is a voice, lively, what kind of emotions prevail there. Guys work or guys in a panic or guys in fear.

By the morning of February 24, the smoke at the Mir station had completely dissipated, it was safe to breathe, the smell of burning remained only in the center of the fire. From the earth, astronauts are instructed to relax and sleep if possible. The MCC is convinced that it is possible to finally work and live at the station, but no one in outer space or on Earth has ever guessed how expensive this fire was.

On March 2, Korzun, Kaleri, and Ewald are scheduled to return to Earth. At the "World" remain Tsibliev, Lazutkin and Linanger.

Valery Korzun: we had a feeling that we hadn’t completed something and the guys stayed at such a not-so-so-happy station.

And almost immediately, the flight of Expedition 23 was under threat again, the crew would have nothing to breathe from day to day, this time the Electron oxygen production facility at the station broke down, this is a vital thing. "Electron" decomposes ordinary water into oxygen and hydrogen. They breathe oxygen, bleed hydrogen overboard.



Vasily Tsibliev: you see how large and complex the system is, it requires constant monitoring and maintenance. What does the first flight engineer do with us, but this system may not always work ...



There are two such installations at the station, the second in case the first breaks. The astronauts launch it, but it breaks in a day. There is one way out, but it’s too risky to start using oxygen checkers again. On Earth, the astronauts idea is flatly rejected - one more fire is missing. Indeed, the MCC still does not know the reason why a checker caught fire on Mira on February 23, but the astronauts didn’t feel any better, air at the station can appear only in one case - if these checkers are used again. By order on Earth, they burn about a hundred oxygen drafts, they even put rags, paper and other combustible objects in them, maybe the astronauts accidentally put something in the installation and this caused a fire. But not one of the pieces on Earth flares up.



Experts say that a fire arose due to a single defect, checkers are not dangerous. MCC gives astronauts good. Only now, when igniting, the astronaut holds ready a fire extinguisher, you never mind.

Vasily Tsibliev: why should you be afraid, you have to live somehow, you understand that of the many hundreds of thousands of their triggering this first happened.

Once there is air, you can live, but astronauts begin to worry about the temperature inside the station, it slowly but steadily grows, it seems like nothing at 3 degrees a day, but after four days in the main module of the World it becomes like +40 in the desert, and in some other compartments up to +48 with a maximum permissible of +28 and the reason for this forced resort is still unclear. Fans no longer save, they only drive stuffy hot air, besides there is high humidity throughout the station. Astronauts around the clock like in a Turkish bath, only nowhere to go out into the fresh air.



Alexander Lazutkin:a high degree of humidity led to condensation and there was a lot of this condensate - whole boxes of equipment were in the water. I was still surprised and said that at school they teach that water ... All electrical appliances must be in a dry place, but here it stands and works under water!



The base unit is the main module of the station, there are control panels, a kitchen, refrigerators with food, water supplies, exercise machines, a sleeping cabin. This is where you have to work and live most of the time. And it is here that is the hottest. But while the astronauts found only one way to deal with the heat - undressed almost to a goal. Work in their underpants.



Vasily Tsibliyev:why was it difficult in this humidity? Water or sweat covers the body with a thin layer - millimeter, it seems to have been brushed off with a hand from the eyes, and again, after a few minutes, it crawls. This is difficult, it does not drain, it spreads over the body or lies evenly. It feels like you're in some kind of wetsuit all the time.

Alexander Lazutkin: we have a toilet that began to work incorrectly, this is laughter and sin, laughter through tears, but no, not in the opposite direction! He turned on and off when he needed, and not when he needed a man, the automation gave a signal.

If it is cold outside, the apartment includes a heater, if it is hot, open a window or turn on the air conditioning. In space, heat and cold are incompatible things. On the outside, the sun heats the Peace casing to plus one hundred and thirty degrees, in the shade it cools to minus 120, but inside there should always be a maximum of 28 and a minimum of 20 degrees of heat. According to doctors, this temperature is the only possible for a six-month flight. The astronauts live, as it were, inside the air conditioner, if it gets cold on the Mir there are electric heaters, if it's hot, they turn on the cooling system.



It is special at the station - thin tubes are stretched along the walls of all the modules of the World, coolant runs through them - ethylene glycol and it starts to leak ...



Only where it is still not clear, the first to know about the leak on Earth by the sensors that worked on the "World". The MCC immediately passed into orbit an order to block the pipes and look for holes in them. Leaking ethylene glycol is invisible and toxic and can be seriously poisoned. Tsebliev and Lazutkin look for leaks for 6 hours a day, look at each tube millimeter by millimeter, and there are kilometers of such pipes on the Mir and everything is hidden under the casing on which hundreds of objects are fixed - equipment and spare parts, instructions, boxes with tools.



Alexander Lazutkin:We were scheduled to work there, to ring one electrical connector, we planned to work for half an hour, spent 5 hours on it, and at the same time we heard the annoyance of the specialist who said, “Well, they can't do this?”, and you understand that in order for you to ring the connector, you need to remove the equipment, it needs to be fixed somewhere before you open access to this device to this connector. And then it turns out that the specialist listened and said, you know, but I forgot there, another one had to ring ...

Repair involved Tsibliev and Lazutkin, an American Jerry Linanger does not count. Under a contract between NASA and the Russian space agency, the astronaut should not interfere in the technical repair of the station, he has his own program - to conduct experiments in a small greenhouse, photograph the Earth, and conduct medical experiments. This isolation of the American is not very popular with the Russians.



Alexander Lazutkin: Jerry planned the work according to the American program, that is, he carried out experiments, photographed the Earth, in general, he did the real work of the astronauts as he should. And we here, it seems, as a team of the Ministry of Emergencies, plumbers came.

Leaking poisonous ethylene glycol can be detected only through the eyes. It is a colorless, odorless liquid. They rush on Earth and do not understand why astronauts are so slowly searching.



Alexander Lazutkin: here it is necessary to plan the work, we are doing it, we are putting all our efforts, we don’t even have a thought about downloading, the Earth still doesn’t see ... But we nevertheless gave all the best, and after that someone says that you get off there ... And when they say it one, two, three - it naturally accumulates, irritation ...



Rostislav Bogdashevsky (psychologist at the CPC named after Yu. A. Gagarin, doctor of medical sciences, reserve colonel): and this reaction naturally went to Earth, the Earth is big - will understand.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rolls over, slowly and surely the body is poisoned by carbon dioxide, and you may not notice the border that separates life from death.

Vasily Tsibliyev: carbon dioxide is perceived as a pain in the head, when it begins to go off scale, the temples begin to crush, then the back of the head.

Alexander Lazutkin: physical education at the station is like a saint of saints, in order to go down to Earth after a long flight, you need to do physical education every day, and here we are told - "guys, you can’t." Why not? Because we are engaged in physical education, we breathe more oxygen and exhale more carbon dioxide, and our means to utilize it are limited. Therefore, they say this: "we breathe less often, we don’t do physical education at all."



Eye irritation, itching of the skin, and heavy breathing are added to headaches. All of this is caused by the invisible vapors of ethylene glycol flowing out of the pipes, a safe concentration of its vapor is 20 milligrams per cubic meter of air, and according to the Earth’s calculations, several liters have already leaked from the pipes.

Vasily Tsibliyev: this is shortness of breath almost constantly, it’s hard to breathe, because everything passes through the lungs.

Alexander Lazutkin: my eyes were swollen and swollen for no reason, well, I wasn’t afraid, I didn’t look at myself in the mirror, but Vasily, my commander, he was responsible for the safety of the whole crew, he even had to Report the earth so that the earth helps.



Sergey Silkov:there were such cases when the same Vasily Vasilyevich says that "you guys know, I was flying to this neighboring module right now, and there a drop of ethylene glycol the size of a bucket and I bogged down there." Well, of course, immediately, as if on alarm, the specialists of the medical support group, immediately recommendations.

Rostislav Bogdashevsky: such a volume, such a number of repair and restoration works were carried out, which have never been in any expedition.

Living conditions at the station are not only a problem of the MCC, NASA requires Russia to either quickly solve all the technical problems on Mir, or urgently return its astronaut to Earth and cancel the launch of the next American shuttle to Mir.

On April 6, the Progress M34 cargo ship was launched from the Earth to Earth. This ship was literally an ambulance for the station, it delivered astronauts the necessary equipment for repairs, additional oxygen checkers, spare parts for equipment and fresh water, and for the first time ever expedition luck smiled. Tsibliyev and Lazutkin miraculously found the unfortunate cracks from which ethylene glycol flowed.



“And here’s the tube along which it goes, VK29 or BP29 it’s called, so it went, it bent from below, and this droplet I’m going to zoom in on the camera, this droplet, you see.”

Alexander Lazutkin:I saw this coolant oozing from a pipe in a perfectly good section of the pipe. It was neither rotten, it was completely scratched and covered with paint, and most interestingly, there was a dry place and all the pipelines there were dry. The lacquered surfaces shone and I look at one of the lacquered surfaces a drop appears, which grows grows and becomes large.

Cracks in the pipes are no coincidence, the station is old, much of what is located here has long served its time, and the pipes, including Tsibliev and Lazutkin, have a new task - to postpone scientific experiments and have to work as plumbers, it is necessary to repair the old station to the maximum and extend it use.

The astronauts are well aware that they sacrifice health and life, but continue to look for millimeter holes in the cooling tubes, dozens of them were found throughout the station. By the end of April, the main holes were patched and the cooling system and air conditioning were launched again.

Vasily Tsibliev: the station temperature returned to normal, 27-28 degrees and we began to freeze. Everything that was on our feet, on ourselves, it was cold, the body gets used quickly.

Alexander Lazutkin: we were pounded, it was cold. I say Vasily, let’s say to Earth that it’s time to turn off, otherwise we’ve already gone to extremes. And they say, what are you - another 32 degrees, and the normal operating temperature is 25.

By early May, almost all defects were found and eliminated at the station. Russian experts convince Americans that they can live and work on Mir without a threat to their lives, but they do not believe in NASA and are very afraid to send their next astronaut, Michael Fole, to Mir. He himself is offered to choose to fly or not.



Michael Fowl: but I followed these issues quite well, I lived here in Star City with my family, I realized that there would be a shuttle launch and I also realized that this was already like an international program that has its own movement, inertia. Therefore, when I already heard that, maybe they will cancel my flight, I thought it was unlikely.

In early May, NASA decides to send the Atlantis shuttle to the station; it starts on May 15. The crew of seven is commanded by experienced astronaut Charles Prekort. He is assisted by pilot Aileen Collins, the crew of Michael Foul, Carlos Noriega, Edward Lou, Frenchman Jean-Francois Clervoy and Russian Elena Kondakova.



After two days, the shuttle approaches the station.





Michael Fowl: and when we were approaching the station, I remember how beautiful it looked on a black background, because the shuttle is always so suitable, from bottom to top, so that the station can be seen and the sun illuminates it. I remember that Kondakova told me, “Well, Michael, are you sad? It seems to me that you look sadly at the station. " No Elena, I just think how it will be 5 months to live there.



Among the shuttle cargoes is a new oxygen plant and a large supply of clean water. Jerry Linanger happily hands things over to Michael Fowle and moves to the shuttle. After a five-day joint flight, Atlantis flies to Earth. Foule remains at Mir with Tsibliev and Lazutkin and, unlike Linanger, fits perfectly into the crew, despite the prohibition instructions he helps the Russians in everything.



Rostislav Bogdashevsky: despite the fact that in general they are people of the same mental type, the crew perceived Linanger and Fole as completely different people.

Life enters into the usual mode - work, rest, work again. For families of astronauts, the MCC finally organizes a television show.

Lyudmila Lazutkina:this is always a very pleasant session, after it there are a lot of emotions, tears, children cry, their wives are happy, they saw something, at least there was some kind of brilliance in their eyes, and the guys said that this was serious support, that’s good.

In a month, an experiment is planned at the station - manual docking with the Progress M34 cargo ship, but the most ordinary experiment (according to Roscosmos) will end with the most serious accident for the entire flight of the Mir station.

On June 25 at 12:18 the flight control center roared an emergency siren - depressurization. This is the worst thing that can happen on a space station. This is worse than fire, heat, water shortage combined. This means a hole in the station wall and air escapes from it. On earth, shock, the situation is trying to figure out the director of the program "World - NASA" Valery Ryumin and flight director Vladimir Solovyov, both astronauts who have already flown. And the most important question on Earth is how to save the crew?



Sergey Silkov: of course, the sensations are scary, from the inability to help a person, to prompt. But in such situations, operations such as manual mooring, it all depends on only one person, the person who controls the shuttle, who opens there closes the hatches, turns off the ventilation there, and so on.

On this day, June 25th was the “most ordinary experiment”, the astronauts practiced the manual docking of the Progress spacecraft and the Mir station. This is necessary in case automatic control suddenly fails on an unmanned ship. For the experiment, the astronauts assemble a special control panel at the station and set up a monitor. On the monitor they see a picture from the television camera of a cargo ship. Feeling as if you were sitting in a ship and controlling it. At first, the rapprochement of the ship and the station is slow, according to calculations it should be faster, but Tsebliev does everything exactly as the program requires.



Alexander Lazutkin: they tell us he will approach at a speed of 5 meters per second, but here less. Vasily even then said how to get in time before joining the shadow to dock, that is, if we get closer together, then we won’t have time.

The crew was informed in advance at what point and at what porthole the "truck" would be visible. The appearance of the ship is closely watched by Lazutkin, but for some reason there is no truck in the right place and at the right hour.

Alexander Lazutkin: it was scary, it feels like someone is coming to you, completely uncontrollable and you understand what is coming to you and where it will hit - God knows him.

The speed of approach of the truck to the station increases, Tsibliyev sees this perfectly from the picture from the television camera and begins to slow down the ship.

Vasily Tsibliev: immediately the engine is braking, it’s obvious that it doesn’t help, the truck is half-controlled, it’s about to not talk for a long time, you are driving on ice, started to turn the steering wheel and braked. Where will you carry it?

Alexander Lazutkin:when I realized that the ship was already going to the station and such a critical dangerous situation was created, I told Michael - Michael was in the ship.

Michael Fowl: quickly into the ship and I realized that he said it so quickly and with orders that oh, bad ...

Alexander Lazutkin: Vasily said "so, we pass, we pass, we pass." Michael flies past us and touches Vasily’s hand, his hand jumps off the control handle. Basil says “eh,” and after a second, a blow.



A 6-ton ship crashes into the Spectrum module at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour, 1 out of 4 solar panels of the ship is crushed, the station’s hull is broken, and air goes out through it. This was already in space in the seventy-first year. Through a tiny pea-sized hole, air left Soyuz 11 in just one minute. Cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Victor Patsaev died. The Mir station is 40 times larger than the Soyuz spacecraft, so the crew still has a chance of rescue.



Alexander Lazutkin: the blow passed, the station shook, then silence, I think why nothing works and an emergency siren started working right away.

Vasily Tsibliyev:well, it shook well, all the lights blinked immediately, the “depressurization” alarm went off, the pressure dropped and went ... So let's say the convoy of fire engines is not noisy, like it was at the station.

Michael Fowl: I hear the sound of some kind of collision, right? And there around me, I’m not myself, I just sailed, the station itself somehow moved and I heard - badly and thought maybe the station itself is now exploding ...

Vasily Tsibliev remains at the control post, he does not take his eyes off the pressure sensor. The arrow is inexorably reaching for a critical point, at this moment a connection with the Earth appears. Tsibliyev immediately reported to the MCC - there was no braking, the truck could not be driven away, he got into the Spectrum module, damaged the battery, and depressurization was on. Earth instructs to urgently open cylinders with an emergency supply of oxygen. Tsibliev throws headphones and rushes to complete the task.

Alexander Lazutkin: I’m flying here for some regular instrument and past these headphones, and I hear the voice of the flight director, “guys, where are you, get in touch.” I fly over and think, but who needs this connection, such a phrase has whistled, I have to close the hatch, now I think to get in touch ... Well, it’s without any maliciousness, I had such feelings, I think, I’ll have time ...



Later, experts calculated that the hole was about three square centimeters in size — today's ruble coin, with such a hole, the pressure will drop in 29 minutes, the astronauts will lose consciousness, no one can help them.



Alexander Lazutkin: somehow it happened, at the first moment I flew into the ship to prepare it for an urgent descent and I saw that Michael was already in the ship. And he, the small ship in volume, went into the farthest corner and somehow cringed like that, and I thought I did it right, because he understands that if we drop in there now.

Vasily Tsibliev: he pressed very decently on the ears, you could scream into each other's ear and not hear. The pressure was falling pretty well.

Alexander Lazutkin:I flew into this module and I heard the familiar noise of ventilation, but in one place it was different, I also looked at this place, this was exactly the place where the cargo ship hit. I think, yeah, whistling.

Lazutkin is sure that there is a hole in the Spectrum module, Tsibliyev instantly reports this to the Earth, the answer is below - try to shut up the hatch in the Spectrum, then you can save the rest of the station. The Mir was designed on the principle of a submarine, each compartment is autonomous and independent of the other, if something happens in one it can be lifted up and live in the next, but thick electric cables are stretched through the hatch, something like extension cords on the ground. They go from the
solar panels of the Spectrum compartment to outlets in the main compartment of the station. With furious speed, Lazutkin tries to undock them.



Michael Fowl:I decided not to interfere with him, not to ask questions and just to help. And so I started to take these cables here and I thought it was impossible that we, as it turned out, in 6 minutes, remove all these 18 cables. I already thought about too little time, the pressure drops, it's time to leave, leave the station.

Vasily Tsibliev: you know, it’s one team, like in the same boat we either dig out, or we all die, there simply couldn’t be another way.

Michael Fole: and we put the hatch and he sucked. And I say, “yeah, he’s right, he’s right, and well done.” And I realized that we saved the station, now I’m not home to Earth. I will be a few more months.

The hatch into the punched module is closed, 14 minutes have passed since the accident, the astronauts had only 15 minutes to the point of no return, it was these 15 minutes that separated them from death. But another problem remained - the damaged panel stopped giving electricity, while others were turned in the wrong direction.



Alexander Lazutkin: we gathered in another module at the porthole and for the first time there was space silence at the station, there was cosmic darkness around us, there were many, many stars in the sky. We just flew near Antarctica. It was a gorgeous aurora, very beautiful and we saw this gorgeous aurora, sometimes it seemed that the aurora even entered the station. For the first time, probably from earthlings, we saw what real space is.

Michael Fowl:I remember how we peered into the darkness of space and I told Vasily “what a beautiful place”, and he answered, “yes, but it was a terrible day.”

For 24 hours, the station drifted around the Earth without communication and energy, and the team developed a plan to save the station. Using the engines of the Soyuz spacecraft, they corrected the position of the station and the panels were again directed toward the Sun and the station resumed operation.

Valery Ryumin (director of the Mir - NASA program): at first, of course, there was a certain shock, as we all have in the control center, because such cases have never happened before.

On August 7, 1997, a new shift arrives at Mir - Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov. A week goes watch transfer. On August 14, Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin return home. When landing on the ground - a new accident, on the "Union" soft landing engines do not work. This system is like airbags in a car; without them, a spacecraft landing is comparable to a frontal impact of a car against a concrete wall.

Vasily Tsibliev: we landed on the side without triggering soft landing engines, the sensations were such that they killed us.



Alexander Lazutkin:my breathing went astray, I can’t breathe, it hit us, put it on our side, and here we are lying and Vasily asks how my business is, and here we are lying on its side vertically on a wall, it’s under me, and I’m above it, I don’t say anything I can. Vasily can’t raise his head at me, because it's hard, but I just wheeze ...

After 10 minutes, the rescuers pulled Tsibliev and Lazutkin out of the descent vehicle. They reported to the MCC - the astronauts were safe, but very worn out, trying to stay alert.









Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin dreamed of flying into space, but at the next medical commission the doctors did not like Tsibliev’s health, he left the cosmonaut corps, and in 2003 he headed the cosmonaut training center. Alexander Lazutkin was already assigned to the crew of the 14th expedition to the ISS, but during training in the USA, Lazutkin suddenly felt ill, doctors noted the obstruction of a number of heart vessels. With such a diagnosis, it was no longer possible to fly into space, health crossed out the plans of both, it would have been enough for more than one flight, if it had not been necessary to put out a fire in space, live for many months in the heat, breathe poisonous vapors and carbon dioxide. The astronauts had every right to leave the station on February 23, 1997 during a fire,but then Mir would not have flown for another forty-four months, and five more expeditions would not have visited it — nine Russian cosmonauts, two Americans, a Frenchman, and a Slovak. The final point in the fate of the station was set on March 23, 2001, Mir was taken off orbit, its flight lasted 15 years. So long no space station has flown yet.



Alexander Lazutkin: I was in the mission control center at that moment and saw how the last impulse was given by the brake, and how this point on the screen disappeared. The sensations were as if a person had died. Not just me, all the people in the neighborhood. They worked with this station and seemed to see off a good friend on their last journey.

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