Jerry M. Linenger - Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir

Linenger, Jerry M

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SURVIVING FIVE PERILOUS MONTHS ABOARD THE SPACE STATION M

JERRY M. LINENGER

U.S.ASTRONAUT/M/R COSMONAUT

$24.95 U.S.A.

On January 12, 1997, Jerry M. Linenger tookoff aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, en routeto an historic rendezvous with the RussianSpace Station Mir. One of the few Americanastronauts to formally partner with Russiancosmonauts, he had been selected to spendfive months aboard Mir, participating in ajoint initiative to lay the groundwork for anew International Space Station. As theAtlantis rose into the flawless Florida sky, sodid Dr. Linenger's elation. Here, at last, wasthe culmination of years of careful planning,self-sacrifice, and rigorous training, includinga two-year stint at the cosmonaut trainingcomplex in desolate Star City, Russia.

But when he finally boarded Mir and tookhis first tour around the dark, ramshackle,incredibly cluttered space station, reminiscentof "six school buses all hooked together,"Linenger knew he was in for a rough ride.Little did he know just how rough it wouldbe, or how many brushes with death he andhis Russian colleagues would face over thenext 132 days.

A hair-raising tale of survival in the forbid-ding depths of space, Off the Planet tells, forthe first time, the complete story of that ill-starred mission. Not since Apollo 13 had amission been beset by so many near-fatal cata-strophes. But while the former lasted only afew breathless days, the Mir mission went onfor five months132 days of unremittingdanger and deprivation that stretched thecrew's ingenuity, endurance, and courage tothe limit.

In a dramatic, first-person narrative, Lin-enger chronicles the crew's heroic day-to-daystruggle to keep themselves and their missionalive in the face of failing equipment onboard and bureaucratic arrogance and politi-cal maneuvering on the ground. Lacking ade-quate provisions and choking on antifreezefumes leaking from rusting pipes, the crewbattled system failure after system failure.

(continued on back flop)

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OFF THEPLANET

Digitized by the Internet Archivein 2012

http://www.archive.org/details/offplanetsurviviOOIine

To my children:

John, Jeff, and (newly arrived!) Henry.

May their lives be full of adventure.

Contents

Preface ix

PART ONE: ON THE PLANET

1. Looking Upward 3

2. Becoming an Astronaut 5

3. Hello, Russia 16

4. Hanging Out in Star City 28

5. Training, Russian Style 38

6. Tomorrow, Mir 48

7. Crew Quarters 57

8. Off to Work 64

PART TWO: OFF THE PLANET

9. Docking a One-Hundred-Ton Space Shuttle 75

10. My First Days on Mir 88

11. The Arrival of Vasily and Sasha 92

12. "Fire!" ^

13. An Attempted Coverup I 1 1

14. Cosmonauts, Dal Mission Control, Nyet! I 18

15. The Glories of Earth Gazing I J5

16. Profound Isolation I4C^

17. Escaping a Near-Death Collision L60

VII

viii Contents

18. Housekeeping in Space 178

19. Hurtling Into Nothingness 184

20. Broken Trust 194

21. Taking a Stroll 203

22. Going Home 211

23. Even the Air Tastes Sweet 220

PART THREE: BACK ON THE PLANET

24. Home at Last 231

25. Getting Back on My Feet 237

26. Aftershock 241

27. "Are You Glad You Flew on Mir?" 246

Index 255

Preface

On the last line of my astronaut application form, I paraphraseda quote that had once caught my eye, and that I tried to live by. Myvariation on the original read: "Specialization is for insects. Manshould be able to change a diaper, run a marathon, build a house,write a book, appreciate good music, and fly in space."

I have now flown in space, traveling around the planet more thantwo thousand times. On my last trip, I lived on the Russian SpaceStation Mir for nearly five months and traveled the equivalent dis-tance of one hundred ten round trips to the moon and back.Although I was single when I filled out my first astronaut applica-tion, I now have three boys. I know how to change diapers. I haverun a marathon or two, my stereo is always blasting, and while Ihave not yet built a house, I have built additions and turned a fixer-upper house into a livable home. And now I have written a book.

I wrote this book mainly because five months in space aboard Mirwas one great adventure. I want my children to be able to read aboutit someday, to know what their father did, stood for, and was will-ing to sacrifice. I want them to be able to feel what it was like upthere. My goal was to take them there with me.

Living in a former KGB-guarded compound in Russia for a yearand a half while preparing for my Mir flight was difficult. Russiandid not come easy to me. Trying to unravel the political undercurrents of post-cold war U.S.-Russian relations, which oftentimesdrove irrational decisions at NASA, was never straightforward.Working in space on a rapidly deteriorating space stationfightingfires, tumbling uncontrollably in utter darkness in an electrically

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power-dead space station, watching a spacecraft moving at eighteenthousand mph nearly collide with usproved the ultimate challenge.In retrospect, now that I am firmly planted back on the earth, it wasone incredible experience. Specialization is for insects.

Under the "Manual Skills" section of my astronaut applicationform I had listed "woodworking, drafting, carpentry, small enginerepair, electrical wiring, sprinkling system installation, heavy cementwork, plumbing, and bricklaying." I explained to the astronautselection board during my interview that some of these skills wererudimentary, but that I could get by.