Word: leonov
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...problem was the only real mishap in a nearly perfect double exercise. Leaving behind the orbiting Apollo after their 44-hour handclasp in the sky, Soyuz earlier in the week came to a near bull's-eye touchdown on a dusty Kazakhstan plain, ending what Soyuz Commander Aleksei Leonov in his colloquial English said was a flight that seemed to go "as smooth as a peeled egg." The Kremlin promptly hailed the joint mission with yet another barrage of pronouncements. Exulted Izvestia: SUCCESS IN OUTER SPACE FOR PEACE. The Russians had more reason to crow. At week...
Stafford and Slayton crawled into the Soyuz and shook hands and exchanged bear hugs with Leonov and his fellow crewman, Valery Kubasov. Then they traded gifts, including flags and commemorative plaques; Leonov, a gifted amateur painter, gave the astronauts sketches he had done of them. After some small talk the four, plus Astronaut Vance Brand back in Apollo, sat back to listen to greetings from their national leaders. Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev, in a message relayed by mission controllers outside Moscow, hailed the meeting in space as marking a "new page in the history of research." President Ford, sitting...
...shared aboard Soyuz; Stafford bolted down three tubes of soggy borsch, only to resort to three Lomotil pills later. Soon it was show time again; as the lights and TV cameras clicked on for a joint press conference, the crews answered questions relayed from newsmen in Houston and Moscow. Leonov, fielding a question about the relative merits of Soviet and American space food, proved himself a deft diplomat. Said he: "It is not what you eat but with whom you eat that is important...
...then redocked briefly in a retest of the docking system, but this time the hatches remained closed. Before long the ships separated for the last time. As Soyuz pulled ahead under a gentle thrust from its rockets, the spacemen bade each other a final radio farewell. "Mission accomplished," said Leonov. "Good show," said Stafford...
...Leonov, for his part, also did some skillful converting-linguistically. "Well done, Tom, it was a good show," said the Soviet air force colonel in his colloquial English. Mission rules called for each team to speak only the other's language and the Russians proved to be far better at dealing with that assignment than the Americans...