Word: tsibliyevs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...scientific experiments. It hasn't quite worked out that way. On June 25 an out-of-control supply ship slammed into Mir, knocking out power, ruining many of Foale's experiments and making the three spacefarers scramble to perform emergency repairs. Then, early last week, Russian commander Vasily Tsibliyev announced he was having heart problems. He couldn't perform the more extensive repairs the ship needed, and if NASA was willing, the Russian space agency wanted Foale to put on a space suit and try to help put Mir back together...
...even as NASA was giving the go-ahead for Foale to start his training for this unanticipated job, another disaster struck. Someone--according to one report, Tsibliyev--pulled the wrong plug on an onboard computer, sending Mir into a spin and robbing it of power once again. Foale greeted this latest setback with the same low-key we-can-handle-it attitude that Americans have learned to expect from their astronauts. Yet as he and his comrades inched their way through a dark, cold, lifeless Mir for the second time in a month, no one could have blamed Foale...
...that could have been stiff upper lip. Even as colleagues on the ground rehearsed procedures that cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin must undertake to fix their troubled station, Russian commentators candidly admitted that the damaged part of the station could be a Pandora's box. Rammed by another Progress on June 25, Mir's Spektr science module suffered a foot-long tear in one of its sail-like solar panels and an inch-wide breach in its hull, depressurizing the interior. To keep the rest of Mir's precious atmosphere from spilling as well, the crew hurriedly sealed...
When Foale was first told of the repair scheme, his silence echoed around the world. "Incredible," he finally muttered. Tsibliyev and Lazutkin groused more openly before assenting to a four-hour "internal" space walk in the frigid, airless and possibly contaminated lab. As one stands by, the other will enter with a flashlight to look for the right wires, moving gingerly in the tight quarters to avoid ripping his bulky space suit. Then they will reseal Spektr with a new hatch fitted with cable ports on either side to complete the electrical circuits to Mir. Foale, meanwhile, will be waiting...
...were going to pay the Russians to conduct experiments aboard Mir. For the moment, things have settled down in orbit. With Mir's solar panels once more pointed at the sun and its batteries recharging steadily, the crew has been given a day off. Anxiety-ridden Mir commander Vasily Tsibliyev reportedly took a few sedatives so that he could get some much-needed sleep...