Word: tsibliyevs
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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TUESDAY, JUNE 24, EVENING Vasili Tsibliyev had more on his mind than eating his dinner. The Mir workday was over, and except for a few things that had to be powered down or mopped up, the crew had the evening to themselves. This meant they could linger over a Western-style meal of stew or beef at a tiny table in the main module--a welcome relief from the traditional Russian fare of warm borsch and jellied perch...
...Tsibliyev seemed distracted, thinking less about what he was doing tonight than what he would be doing tomorrow. Sometime in the morning, probably just before noon, the commander would lock his remote-control guidance system onto an unmanned Progress cargo ship hovering far away and bring it into the station for a docking. For a commander like Tsibliyev, steering a limber little ship like Progress toward a big whale of a target like Mir should not have been cause for worry, and ordinarily he would have been looking forward to the exercise. But tomorrow things would not be so ordinary...
Several weeks earlier, before Foale replaced astronaut Jerry Linenger aboard Mir, the TV camera had quit at the last minute in a practice run, and Tsibliyev--one of the space agency's best pure pilots--had narrowly averted disaster. Now, with Foale onboard, the TV system once again operating and Progress stabilized several miles away, ground control ordered Tsibliyev to try the same exercise again. "This is a bad business, Sasha," Tsibliyev said to Lazutkin as he picked at his food...
...Tsibliyev nodded a slow no. "It's bad," he repeated. "It's a dangerous thing to do." Foale, the newcomer, thought it best to hold his tongue...
JUNE 25, EARLY MORNING Before he was fully awake, Foale could hear the Russian romance music playing. Despite the fog of sleep, he smiled. Tsibliyev, it was clear, was already...