Word: tsibliyevs
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Without Spektr's solar panels, the space station has been limping along at half power--a situation that, if unremedied, would make it impossible to keep Mir operating as a research station. Rather than abandon Mir, the Russians worked out a way the crew could fix it: Tsibliyev and fellow cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin would put on space suits and take an "internal eva"--an indoor space walk--to reattach the cables. The power lines would then be passed through a replacement hatch that was sent up aboard a supply rocket earlier this month...
Star-crossed is too melodramatic a term for Colonel Vasily Tsibliyev, Mir's commander. Stressed out is probably more like it. Like the Mir spacecraft itself, Tsibliyev is worn down and in danger of falling apart. He has been aboard the aging space station since February and has had to cope with nonstop crises: a fire, breakdowns in oxygen and cooling systems, a collision with a cargo ship and last week a power failure. No wonder he's suffering from an irregular heartbeat and taking sedatives...
...make things worse, the Russian media have been pointing fingers at him as the cause of some of the accidents, and one of his bosses has labeled him a chronic complainer. Tsibliyev was guiding the cargo ship on June 25, when it bashed into the station's Spektr module, and some Russian commentators say he may have created the problem by entering the wrong numbers into a computer. At one point last week, ABC News reported that it was Tsibliyev who yanked the wrong plug and cut off the station's power. Mir flight director Vladimir Solovyov would...
...first, Russian space officials did not seem to take Tsibliyev's struggles seriously. "We've been hearing his complaints of the workload being too heavy since the first day of the flight," one of them told the Associated Press. They seem to be worrying more. It turns out Tsibliyev first noticed changes in his heartbeat in late June, right after the collision. Even though he was ordered to take it easy last week, he worked through the night to repair the power break. Reporters at mission control heard Igor Goncharov, the chief physician, speaking sternly to Tsibliyev: "Vasily, I insist...
...home in Star City, the cosmonauts' training center, Tsibliyev's wife Larissa is more angry--at the Russian press--than worried. "I just wish they would report the truth," she told TIME. "Why are they picking on him? What kind of morals do our journalists have?" The space doctors, who give her regular reports, tell her Tsibliyev will be fine. He's no shirker, she says. "He's been a hard worker all his life. This speculation is all such nonsense...