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01:00Sasha just says to me, Michael, go to Soyuz, and he said it was such alarm, such seriousness,
01:09that I knew something very bad was about to happen.
01:11It must be a collision.
01:24I felt a big bug, and so I then said to myself, this is bad.
01:28I'm thinking impact, pressure, loss.
01:33And the question is, is this going to kill you?
01:37Myr, the world's only manned space station, has had a disastrous year.
01:56year a series of accidents brought it closer to disaster the first incident
02:08came in February when a fire broke out in the space station for British
02:13astronaut Michael Fole who was soon to go on board Mia it was a stark reminder
02:18of the dangers of space I was pretty alarmed by that and the idea of a fire
02:25on any closed vehicle or anywhere I see is a terrible thought that's a great
02:31potential for people dying so that made me think this is a dangerous place but
02:35I've always known space is dangerous I was actually not so keen to join the
02:41mayor project I have young children and I had never been away from my wife for
02:46more than two or three weeks and I just didn't feel I could handle the absence
02:51however as the way the forces worked was that certain astronaut volunteers to go
02:58to them here one ended up too tall and I fell into his place after the fire in
03:04February on Mia the oxygen generators failed in March and the main computer
03:10crashed in April but regardless of the dangers in May this year Michael Fole
03:20became the fifth NASA astronaut to join Russian cosmonauts for a long stay aboard
03:24Mia his ride to the station was on the space shuttle Atlantis
03:30maintaining America's constant presence in space that proud NASA boast of having a constant presence
03:57in space has only been possible because of a collaboration with the Russians who have
04:02allowed them to send a succession of astronauts to Mia
04:09Michael Fole's mission to Mia would maintain that record
04:14standing by for SRB separation
04:18SRB separation is confirmed two minutes 15 seconds into the flight
04:31when the solid rocket boosters are released the main fuel tank is then dropped to burn up in
04:39the atmosphere and the engines which propelled Michael Fole into orbit shut down
04:43when the engines on the shuttle stop and you've been with a weight of three
04:48gravities you weigh 400 kilograms and then you transition to zero G that's a very
04:55noticeable sensation because your stomach lifts a little bit your hands everything kind of floats up
05:01this was Michael Fole's fourth journey into space
05:06it would be the high point of a career that began as a dream for a small boy from Laos Lincolnshire
05:11following in his father's footsteps Michael decided that the best way to get into space was to become a pilot
05:21but the RAF turned him down on medical grounds
05:25armed with a double first and a PhD as well as British US dual nationality Michael literally went knocking on NASA's door
05:34just four years later he was accepted for astronaut training in February 1995 he became the first Britain to walk in space
05:50NASA used him to test new space suits designed to keep out the cold
05:57it's getting pretty frosty now can't do work with my hands like this
06:01like putting your fingers into a very cold freezer
06:04shuttle missions last a maximum of three weeks by contrast Mir has been in orbit for nearly 12 years
06:14this 130 ton complex has been manned since February 1987
06:21it is stationed in orbit 248 miles above the earth
06:26and since the breakup of the Soviet Union rather than fund its own program
06:31NASA has been buying a share in Russia's considerable experience of long-term space travel
06:36on May 17th I mean I got brighter there's a bright star so I just thought yep there it is that's where I'm going
06:56The first time I saw Mir I was really quite bug-eyed about it
07:03it was the largest thing I'd ever seen in space
07:06it was actually quite beautiful
07:09it was an unknown a total unknown to me
07:12I mean really I had no clue what was on it so I basically thought it was all probably better than it was
07:18with Michael Foale on board and both spacecraft traveling at nearly 300 miles per minute
07:29Atlantis maneuvers into the correct position for docking
07:33latches on both sides link up
07:39this achieves what is known as a soft docking
07:42after about 15 minutes Atlantis fires its thrusters again to make a tight joint
07:55or a hard docking
08:01the operation was completed at 0434 Moscow time
08:06a hermetically sealed tunnel exists within the mechanism
08:09but before the hatch at the end of the tunnel can be opened
08:12the air pressure on the shuttle is dropped to equalize pressure inside Mir
08:16the very first impression that was new to me was when they opened the hatch
08:21what you get is the smell
08:29the smell of Mir rushes in at you as you open the hatch
08:32and it's like an old library
08:34except there's an oil smell mixed in with old books
08:37Michael would be sharing Mir with two experienced Russian cosmonauts
08:44Vasily Sibleev
08:48and Sasha Lazutkin
08:51they made a huge effort to pull me in
08:55I made the effort to get rid of my American clothes
08:58get rid of my shuttle clothes
08:59the day I arrived
09:00the day I was meant to move over I moved over
09:02I stopped eating shuttle food I ate Russian food
09:04I stopped using the shuttle toilet
09:06I used the Russian toilet
09:07all these things you don't want to do
09:08because you know the other one
09:09you're more used to it
09:11but you have to force yourself to make that transition
09:13and I did that quickly
09:14and they helped me
09:15even though the shuttle was still docked
09:19Atlantis was coupled with Mir for five days
09:22it flew 3.6 million miles
09:25and completed 144 orbits of Earth
09:30when its mission was over
09:31it undocked
09:32and headed for home
09:34it would not be coming back for 140 days
09:46Michael's first task on Mir was one of acclimatization
09:49he was shocked by what he found
09:52it's like going into someone's very old garage
09:56where there's just been stuff put away for years on end
10:01and no one's moved it
10:02all of the modules used to have passageways
10:06panels that were visible
10:08those aren't visible anymore
10:09there's stuff on every wall
10:11there's stuff on every floor
10:13on every ceiling
10:14it's all jammed in there
10:15it's like being in a garage
10:18where it's full up
10:19except for one suitcase of space
10:21and then to get anything done
10:22to get the experiment at the back
10:24that you've been told to do that day
10:25you have to move all the objects into that space
10:27move it around
10:28like those puzzles you see
10:29to get that object at the back
10:30and that is pretty much the way
10:33we are working on Mir today
10:36Mir has been the technological showpiece
10:39of the Russian space program
10:41its first section
10:43the base block
10:44has lasted far longer than its designer imagined
10:47the whole idea for the base block
10:54was to launch it
10:56and then equip it with five further modules
10:59each new module
11:01was to include the latest technology
11:03its equipment
11:05its valves
11:06its pumps
11:07switches and engines
11:09were all tested to last one year
11:11but we hope that they would last three
11:14it's been over eleven years now
11:16and the station is still functioning
11:18which is much longer than we promised
11:20our superiors
11:22the base block houses the central controls
11:26of the station
11:27it's the size of a London bus
11:29in 1987 the Covant I astrophysics laboratory
11:32was added to the base block
11:34three years later
11:36three years later
11:37Covant II was added
11:38it brought Mir's occupants
11:39their first shower cubicle
11:40and an improved toilet
11:43in June 1990
11:45the Cristal module was added
11:48June 1995
11:49and the Spectre module docked with Mir
11:51this was to be Michael Foll's home and office
11:56finally in 1996
11:57the Priroda module completed the space station
12:00its purpose was to analyze the Earth's environment
12:04fresh crews are brought to Mir aboard a Soyuz capsule
12:08in the event of an emergency
12:10Soyuz also doubles up as an escape module
12:13fresh supplies arrive in an unmanned robotic craft called Progress
12:18this is disposed of after each delivery
12:21with both Soyuz and Progress attached
12:24the complete station is the size of five school coaches
12:27stuck together around a central node
12:30its systems were advanced in 1986
12:33but no one expected Mir to survive so long
12:36and to be added to so often
12:38the power needs of such a complex spacecraft
12:41were not fully appreciated when it was built
12:43and has often left Mir short of electricity
12:49each new module brought with it extra solar panels
12:52but channeling the power from these panels
12:59into the base block controls
13:01required cables to be laid in a haphazard way
13:04through the airlocks and hatches of the station
13:06the Spectre module was no exception
13:09the Spectre has kind of got four solar arrays on it
13:12and it's kind of got a V-like arrangement on the outside
13:15behind the panels the two drive motors for the arrays
13:19steady rotate those solar arrays
13:22you can hear them at night while you're sleeping
13:24this is a very difficult area to get used to as a room
13:28my sleeping bag is tied up in the corner there
13:31astronauts have to be particularly careful where they sleep
13:35their sleeping bags need to be positioned in a continuous flow of air
13:39so that exhaled carbon dioxide is dispersed from around their heads
13:43if it's not blown away they could suffocate in their sleep
13:47for Michael this long duration mission on Mir would be the biggest challenge of his career
13:54even the most mundane tasks have to be performed with extra care
13:59on shuttle I always tended to have bruises
14:01I would just move too fast
14:04slowly I think by anyone's standards on earth
14:06but still too fast
14:07and I would bump my shoulder as I went around a passageway
14:11I would bump something and hurt a toe knocking it
14:14after about three or four weeks on Mir I stopped moving fast at all
14:17everything I did was with finger tips
14:20and I suddenly realised I could maintain my body position in one place
14:24without really touching anything for long periods of time and do work
14:28and activities that come naturally in gravity are much more difficult in space
14:34doing your ablutions takes about twice to three times as long as it would on earth
14:38there's no gravity to help get things away from you
14:41space toilets rely on an air flow of a very strong fan
14:46pulling air into a funnel like receptacle
14:49a can basically
14:51that all of your waste goes into
14:53the waste used to be ejected
14:55but concerns over space debris put an end to that
14:58and now solid waste is packed into the Progress supply ship
15:02the craft and its contents are undocked to burn up in the atmosphere
15:06liquid waste is never thrown away
15:10all the urine produced by the crew is recycled using a remarkable invention
15:15this unit not only makes fresh water from the urine
15:18but using a unique method of electrolysis
15:21it actually produces the oxygen that the cosmonauts breathe
15:27shaving is very easy when you use an electric razor
15:31so I do wet shaves on earth
15:34but I used electric razor in space
15:36except the electric razor produces fine hairs
15:39and you don't want those in the atmosphere
15:42because you'll breathe them
15:43I see you haven't gotten your hair cut yet Michael
15:46No, I think he's going to do it today
15:48a vacuum cleaner is as important as scissors when you get your hair cut in space
15:54stray hairs can clog the ventilation system
15:57but the most serious consequence of spending a long time in space
16:03is the demineralization of bones
16:06with lack of gravity they start wasting away
16:09if you're in bed for a long period of time
16:11if you've been injured in bed rest
16:13or if you're in space
16:15on the mirror in long duration flight
16:17calcium starts to leave your bones
16:19and you get brittle bones
16:20the worst case of it would be osteoporosis
16:23you're very susceptible to falling and breaking something
16:31you're like a very old person
16:33who could just fall off at one step and break a leg
16:36and so the exercise program that's been developed for cosmonauts
16:40and the Russians have great experience in this
16:42is to keep putting stress and pounding and exercise over the bones
16:47to keep the calcium in there
16:49I spent roughly three to four hours a day
16:53in the process of exercising
16:56putting on the harness that holds me down with bungees on the treadmill
16:59then doing my run
17:01then doing all my bending exercises
17:03with these very very strong rubber bungees
17:06to try and give me some kind of resistive isometric strength
17:10you sweat very profusely
17:13it's generally been hot on mere
17:15and the cleanup involves
17:18twenty minutes of cool down
17:19and then you take off your clothes
17:21if you have no women on board it's very easy
17:23you just take them all off
17:28Cosmonauts on mere used to be permitted one shower per month
17:32but not anymore
17:33the shower broke long ago
17:35now they have to make do with a rub down
17:38all cosmonauts monitor their health while on mere
17:45getting ill in space is all too easy
17:48we know that if you go into space with a disease of any kind
17:54you can infect the people you're going to meet up there
17:56that's awful
17:57people who are already up there
17:58haven't seen germs for a long time
18:00so they don't have colds
18:01they have gotten over their colds
18:02because they are a bit like Eskimo colonies
18:05that have not seen western germs ever
18:10I mentioned the smell on mere
18:12the reason why an old library smells like that
18:13is because there's mold around
18:15and mere has a lot of mold
18:17and that mold causes some allergic reactions sometimes
18:19you sneeze for some unknown reason
18:21or you get a stuffy head
18:23if you start getting a cold
18:24you get massive congestion
18:25and you don't have the draining effect of gravity
18:28that drains mucus down the back of your throat
18:31out of your head
18:32it just builds up in your head
18:34and congestion is a big problem for us
18:38the evening of June 24th
18:4034 days into the mission
18:42the workday is over
18:44the crew could settle down to dinner
18:46to Michael Fole this seemed like any other evening on mere
18:50but commander Sibleev seemed distracted
18:53mission control had ordered him to perform a difficult and dangerous manoeuvre
18:58he knew that the exercise would threaten the safety of the ship and its crew
19:02his worst nightmare was about to come true
19:07docking of the unmanned progress supply ship Tamir
19:27is normally carried out remotely from Moscow using radar
19:30the radar transmitters inside progress which control this automatic operation
19:36are built in the Ukraine and are very expensive
19:39the cash strapped Russian space program were keen to do without them if they could
19:44so Sibleev was asked to practice the docking manually
19:48the whole rationale behind doing the manual docking was to get away from buying the box from the Ukrainians
19:55what he was being asked to do and what he was trained to do only a few times before his flight
20:04at the last minute because the decision to not buy the Ukrainian boxes and to try and do this
20:09was a hastily thought up idea
20:12he was asked to do this from a distance of kilometers
20:15which is where the system is basically doing its most effective work
20:19but a human being doesn't have that continuous range and range rate information
20:22when he's just looking at a TV image
20:25all he can judge his speed by is how much the solar rays are getting bigger
20:31when you fall in a parachute jump towards the earth for the first few minutes
20:38it doesn't seem to get big at all you know and then in the last 10 seconds the ground goes bam and hits you in the face
20:44judging your speed and doing the braking is a really tricky task
20:51at NASA we do this with two or three different cameras in reserve
20:55we use lasers from a far distance out to about a mile
20:59we have radar all of those things we do when we do a manual docking
21:03Vasily was being asked to do this with none of those aids except one camera
21:08mission control instructed Sibleev to undock the empty progress supply ship
21:15and then to attempt a manual docking
21:19both Michael Fole and Sasha Lazudkin watched anxiously from nearby portholes
21:25it was nice and smooth at first but when I saw up close I got scared
21:30it was an uncontrolled spaceship approaching us
21:33I said to Vasily it's close he was at the controls looking at the monitor
21:37he realized it was close and docking was impossible
21:41he began to steer it away
21:43I saw it was closing in still and I realized something was wrong
21:48Sibleev lost control
21:50the seven-ton supply ship as big as a minibus came in off course
21:55it smashed into the spectre module
21:59so as the impact happened I'm thinking impact pressure loss
22:04and the question is is this gonna you're thinking it's probably gonna kill you
22:10we got a major faxon saying the pressure was forming
22:14there was no immediate rush of air out of my lungs in the first seconds
22:17I thought well that's good means that there could only be a slower leak
22:21we got another alarm because the station was now tumbling out of control
22:30because of the enormous momentum transferred by the impact to the spectre solar rays
22:36at the time of the collision Michael had been on his way to the Soyuz escape craft
22:46well I look back and my crew weren't coming to the Soyuz
22:52and yet the pressure was falling
22:54so I thought well this is a serious situation
22:56when are we gonna make the decision to leave
22:58because at some point we must leave
23:00everybody had felt progress hit
23:04everybody felt the pressure drop
23:06and everybody heard the hiss
23:08if they didn't seal the leak they would have to evacuate
23:11they needed to shut the hatch to spectre before it was too late
23:27I then floated basically into the entrance way into the node again
23:30and Sasha had been busy trying to take down cables that went across the interface
23:35into the spectrum module and I said how can I help and he showed me some tubes we had to disconnect
23:39in addition to tubes carrying air
23:43unplanned cabling had been laid between the spectre module and the other modules to form a power grid
23:48linking all the solar panels on the ship together
23:51to seal off spectre they had to shut the hatch
23:58to shut the hatch they had to cut the cables running through it
24:02we disconnected the cables there was no time to secure them so I just dropped the ends on the floor
24:14I had to cut three cables because I couldn't find their connections
24:19Fole and Lazutkin first removed two ducts snaking through the entrance of spectre
24:24they then cut a further twenty-one cables
24:27a dangerous task since any one of them could have short circuited and started a fire
24:32with the cables cut energy from spectre's solar panels could no longer reach the rest of the station
24:38reducing total power by 55 percent
24:42it took eleven long minutes to close the hatch
24:45once we had the hatch closed and I realized the pressure wasn't falling into my ears
24:49I thought I would probably be there to stay a long time
24:51while we sorted all this out
24:53meanwhile mission control knew nothing of the incident
24:57MIA orbits the earth every 92 minutes
25:00its radio transmitters are in range of Moscow for only a fraction of this time
25:0545 minutes later Sibleev broke the news
25:09an amateur radio ham picked up the transmission
25:13it is heard here for the first time
25:16no systemッs that are for a minute
25:34shortly after Sibleev broke the news communications were
25:37lost an orbit later he was back on the radio asking mission control for help
25:42they still had very little idea of what had happened Mia was in darkness and the
25:48earth was shielding the Sun from the station the temperature on board was
25:52falling rapidly Mia had lost all the power that once
26:20flowed from specter solar panels and the collision and loss of power had not
26:25Mia into a role pointing the other panels away from the Sun they were losing power
26:31fast and without it they couldn't move the solar panels back into the Sun to
26:35regenerate power this was their catch-22 all that mission control could do was
26:42offer advice
26:50switching everything off would mean that they had no chance of turning the
26:54panels back into the Sun their last hope was to try and save any power left in
26:59Mia's batteries but their efforts were in vain over the next four hours the crew
27:04could only watch as Mia lost nearly all of its stored power the station and the
27:09crew were drifting helplessly through space in a desperate bid to save power even
27:15the radio was switched off the cosmonauts had no contact with Moscow they were
27:20totally alone it went very quiet so quiet we could hear the silence normally it's
27:28noisy there's equipment working and ventilators circulating and it all stopped
27:35very rapidly over the next two or three orbits we lost almost all energy on this
27:40in the station and we had almost no calm with the ground for those few hours the
27:49crew had climbed into the Soyuz escape craft in case they had to evacuate at
27:53short notice while they were there Michael full devised a novel plan to get
27:58Mia back into the Sun we were left with a task of somehow orienting the station
28:05using the Soyuz which is stuck to just a small part of the station and using its
28:09thrusters up or down left or right to start the station spinning like a
28:14catherine wheel just trying to verify what the orientation was it was a huge
28:19problem for us and we were very tired you know this is late in the evening a bad day
28:24in cramped conditions they fired the thrusters time and time again but using
28:30too much of the limited fuel in their emergency evacuation craft was risky
28:36we were scared to use Soyuz for this we regarded it as sacred our salvation our
28:44only way to get home but the crew kept up their attempts to turn the panels back
28:51into the Sun finally more than 14 hours after the collision the panels on Mia caught
28:57their first ray of Sun and the batteries began to charge
29:09an instrument panel flickered into life then a cabin light
29:13behind the walls a fan began to work and a pump started up one system at a time instrument by
29:25instrument the stricken ship recovered
29:32we stay pointed enough hours so that we could get all the batteries of the base
29:40block charged up and we had continuous power through the day and night sides of
29:45the orbit and that was the beginning of things getting better the collision had
29:50punctured the skin of Spectre if the hole had been bigger
29:53Mia would have suffered a massive depressurization like a bomb on an aircraft
29:58but the hole was only half the size of a postage stamp
30:01the strength of the walls held the module together
30:04just it took an hour for all the air inside Spectre to leak out
30:10but it was now sealed off from the rest of Mia for the time being the crew was safe
30:17Foal got on the radio to mission control as soon as possible to ask for extra supplies to be added to the next progress supply ship due in 11 days
30:25until then the crew would just have to cope as best they could
30:32we need spare lightbulbs for the flashlights we use these mag lights and they burn out the flashbulbs the bulbs very fast we need spare one all of us on the crew because we're working in the dark so much
30:44ok copy that
30:4811 days later a progress supply ship was launched
30:52it carried essential equipment needed to keep Mia operational
30:55this time it docked with the aid of the Ukrainian remote control unit
31:00the docking went smoothly
31:03but the mounting stress took its toll on commander Sibleev
31:07on the 14th of July he reported feeling chest pains
31:10mission control carried out an ECG
31:13and found that in the last day his heart muscle had had 24,000 abnormal contractions
31:19they ordered him to rest
31:20and asked Michael Foal to help Lazutkin carry out repairs
31:24I think his heart problems developed because of the collision
31:27no matter how many times we told them not to worry
31:30the cosmonautes woke up every morning and looked through a porthole at the damaged Spectre and thought
31:35mother of God what have we done
31:38Mia had become even more chaotic since the collision
31:41and the crew were busy trying to maximize the space and resources left to them since the loss of the Spectre module
31:48but Mia's design flaws would now contribute to its next crisis
31:52while reorganizing cables in the base block
31:55Lazutkin accidentally removed the plug which powered the positioning control system
32:00Mia toppled helplessly back into a roll and its solar panels fell back into darkness
32:05power was once again draining away
32:08the crew had to make a difficult decision
32:15should they risk using yet more fuel from the Soyuz escape craft to push Mia back into the sun
32:23if they wanted to save Mia they had little choice
32:39it was an agonizing few hours but with the experience they had gained the week before
32:44it was not long before they restored power again
32:47Sibleev and Lazutkin had been on Mia since February and their tour of duty was coming to an end
32:57in the three weeks that remained of their stay they were expecting to join foal in repairing the station
33:03but mission control had other ideas back in Moscow they knew how difficult it would be to fix the Spectre module
33:12and they knew that an increasingly skeptical world would be watching
33:16cosmonauts were now perfecting the techniques needed to repair Mia
33:21they had first worked out all the precise maneuvers in the water tanks of Star City on a full scale model of Mia
33:28diving in specially designed suits provides cosmonauts with the best simulation of weightlessness
33:34the crew of Mia would be working in zero gravity in the dark and hindered by cumbersome spacesuits
33:40they needed to know what techniques to use and what risks to take
33:45on the 14th of August cosmonauts Pavel Vinegradov and Anatoly Solovyov arrived on Mia
34:07they had come to replace Sibleev and Lazutkin who had shared Mia with Michael Foll for 90 days
34:14together they had been to hell and back
34:18partying with Michael was hard you know how hard it is to say goodbye to good people
34:34I saw Michael with tears in his eyes I thought I'm not going over to him
34:39because if I do I too will burst into tears
34:42we gave each other a wave and we flew off but my heart was crying
34:49to us he's a good friend a comrade a brother
34:52the troubles and problems we had on Mia brought us all closer
34:57a person saved from drowning regards the one who rescued him as a friend for life
35:03as they closed the hat I was absolutely overwhelmed with emotion
35:07I felt very sad you know tears welled out of my eyes and I couldn't believe it that they were going
35:13the unluckiest space flight in history had finally come to an end for Sibleev and Lazutkin
35:19or so they thought even their landing went wrong
35:23rockets which normally fire to soften the blow failed they hit the ground hard
35:28they should have been greeted as heroes when they landed
35:34instead they were castigated by the media and even by their president
35:39while visiting the factory where Mia was built
35:43he implied that the pilot was probably to blame for the collision in June
35:47no one mentioned the decision not to use the expensive Ukrainian radar
35:53but when an inquiry was held it revealed that five of the most experienced cosmonauts had been asked to repeat the progress manual docking in the mere simulator at Star City
36:08according to the inquiry each time they attempted the maneuver the progress crashed into Spectre in exactly the same place
36:18meanwhile pressure grew in the American media to stop sending astronauts to Mia and to bring Michael home
36:31but Michael had no intention of leaving and told his bosses in Houston that he still had a job to do
36:36Frank I can hardly hear you
36:39don't tell me you want to bring me home early
36:41I'm gonna stay here
36:43I'm gonna stay here until you come up with a real EVA for me to do
36:51Michael would get his wish for a real spacewalk
36:53but while preparations were being made for this
36:56the main computer crashed
36:58power to the computer had been erratic since the collision
37:01and it had malfunctioned twice before
37:04energy from the Spectre module had to be restored at all costs
37:08the only way to reconnect all the severed cables
37:11was to go back into the airless module and join them by hand
37:14using a new modified hatch which allowed the cables through but kept the air out
37:19the new crew would carry out the exercise
37:22all but one of the severed cables were reconnected
37:2633% of Spectre's power was restored immediately
37:32but they couldn't find the puncture in Spectre
37:36the only way to look for the leak was to venture outside
37:41Michael Fowle was to join Anatoly Solovyov on a spacewalk for the first exterior inspection of the damage
37:48he was in good company
37:51Zolovyov has walked further in space than any other human being
37:56I think it's a beautiful experience to be out there in a suit
37:59with just a face bait between you and vacuum
38:02the view is absolutely extraordinary
38:05the Earth's blue and it has this fantastic blue hue
38:08it just softens everything
38:09it's a gorgeous thing to see
38:11the three-dimensional effect of the Earth being so big and round
38:14and the speed also
38:16I get a kick out of the impression of falling
38:18other people do not
38:19because it feels like you're falling towards the Earth
38:21and also flying at very high speed over the Earth
38:24but I like it
38:25I'm always happy to let go of my tether
38:27you know my hand hold
38:28because I know I'm tethered
38:29and it's sort of a rush
38:31this spacewalk was as crucial to the mission as anything Michael had ever done
38:38within five minutes
38:40Foal's pulse doubled
38:41and both men endured vast changes in temperature
38:45in sunlight it measured 400 degrees Celsius
38:48while in the shade it dropped back to as low as minus a hundred
38:52they succeeded in pushing a malfunctioning solar pilot
38:55to the Earth
38:57and they were in the next spacewalk
38:58to the Earth
38:59the Earth
39:00this spacewalk was as crucial to the mission as anything Michael had ever done
39:03within five minutes
39:04Foal's pulse doubled
39:05and both men endured vast changes in temperature
39:07in sunlight it measured 400 degrees Celsius
39:10while in the shade it dropped back to as low as minus a hundred
39:15they succeeded in pushing a malfunctioning solar panel back into the sun with their hands
39:24but the two men became bogged down with the task of cutting away the insulation around the damaged
39:30spectre module and didn't find the puncture they were called back to Mir after six hours in space
39:45in the three weeks that followed Michael Fole and the rest of the crew continued to patch up the ship
39:55but they were hampered by yet more malfunctions on the 8th of September the main computer failed
40:02on the 15th of September they had a near miss from an orbiting US mini satellite
40:10on the 22nd of September the main computer failed again
40:21in spite of the disasters the mocking and the calls to scrap near both the Russians and NASA have fought
40:28tooth and nail for the future of the joint shuttle near program both have significant interest in
40:35developing the International Space Station due for launch and construction in June next year
40:41we're operating some equipment now on mirror in the scientific area that will be used on ISS and
40:59now it's been wrung out I mean now we've had a chance to prove it on orbit with some failures granted but
41:05that's what happens in a technical program but now we'll be able to take it to ISS with a mature
41:10piece of equipment rather than something that's still under development with a full crew the ISS is
41:16intended to operate round-the-clock it will become an orbiting space laboratory the Russians have now built a
41:23new mirror to officially known as the functional energy block and ironically given me as history of power
41:29failures this will be responsible for generating electricity on the ISS international space station
41:36represents in a very palpable evocative way how countries can work together without shooting each other
41:45that space space space flight has assumed a new ground it's one of diplomacy and example for human beings
41:53as to how things could be good it's an optimistic thing it may be a dream it may be unproductive it may
42:01be in profit unprofitable but it still is a model as to how people can work well together the cost of
42:08building the International Space Station is estimated at over 20 billion dollars NASA will be privatizing their
42:15shuttle fleet to cash flow the operation but mankind will reap the rewards the ISS or its successor will
42:23have the potential for even greater achievements than mere it will evolve into a staging post or base
42:29camp for journeys into deep space they will take man to Mars and beyond and Michael full would be keen
42:35to volunteer I would like to go to Mars but I'm not prepared to leave my children before they've grown up
42:42it's actually makes a little bit more sense for older people to go to Mars in terms of the radiation
42:47cancer risk because they have less long to live to develop the cancers as a result of those radiations a
42:54journey to Mars and back will be bad for your health on earth we are protected from radiation by the
43:01atmosphere and magnetic field there will be no such protection on a long trip to the red planet a trip to
43:09Mars we're basically giving me my lifetime dose I've had about a third of it already just being on
43:14mere with all the malfunctions mere has encountered this year Michael falls mission is considered to be
43:31a success his actions in stabilizing the tumbling space station using the Soyuz escape craft have
43:38ensured me as future until the end of the millennium and on the 27th of September after 142 days his time
43:48on mere had come to an end at 1128 Houston time Atlantis undocked from the mere space station and began
44:13making preparations for re-entry
44:19you
44:21you
44:23you
44:25you
44:31you
44:33you
44:35re-entry into the earth's atmosphere is particularly dangerous for an astronaut who has
44:52spent so long in space
44:54you
44:55you
44:56you
44:58you
45:00you
45:02you
45:03Michael was strapped horizontally for his flight home to limit the pain of a sudden
45:07reintroduction to the earth's gravity
45:09radar looks good radar looks good here
45:12yes
45:14three thousand feet
45:15on landing NASA physicians will find out how much of Michael's bone has wasted away
45:21pre-flare on the gear
45:22okay
45:23I see the pre-flare and the gears arms
45:25three thousand feet max speed was three oh five nine hundred three hundred
45:29one NASA astronaut who visited Mir for just two weeks longer than foal
45:33lost twenty percent of his bone mass
45:36his colleagues referred to him as chicken legs for some time after he returned
45:40gears down 80 70 60 looking good
45:46230 knots 25 feet keep it coming down 220
45:50210 looking good 8 6 5 4 3 2 200 touchdown
45:57nice okay down one and a half okay loaded at least nice
46:05but Michael was lucky when he was examined by doctors
46:09the only area of concern were his hips where it was found that nine percent of his bone mass had leached into his bloodstream
46:16so what are some of the first things you want to do
46:19i just want i probably want to
46:21get strong enough to be able to go outside and walk
46:24that's going to be my goal for the next day
46:27do you think want to take a vacation anywhere or go anywhere special yeah we're thinking in the sun to start with
46:31okay time
46:37but for all the damage and all the risk
46:40why is it that every astronaut dreams of returning to space
46:43when you're up there your thoughts are on earth when you're on earth you think about me when you are asleep in space
47:01you dream of the earth and back on earth only the station is in your dreams
47:13something was very special about the end of my flight was that the weather over europe was totally clear
47:19london and paris are like jewels
47:21london is a sprawling suburban system of lights
47:26both countries are beautifully lit along all of the sea walks
47:33there is probably a thousand lightning strikes every second around the earth
47:37and anytime that we're on the dark side of the earth you see lightning
47:41when they're going off
47:43they go off in synchrony even if they're a thousand miles away whenever you see a thunderstorm now in
47:48england you should be thinking well this is probably doing something over in paris or in germany
48:00on mir
48:02i tried to read one book and then never finished because every time i had the choice
48:09i had at least small free time i had the choice to go to the window and look new places or open this book
48:17i decided i could read the book back home but i would never have chance to see australia or small islands in ocean
48:40coral atolls are so beautiful i just would love to beam down like in star trek
48:45to that place at that moment that i see it and savor the sand and the wind and the sea
49:03in 1999 mere is to be dismantled and then destroyed by bringing each module back to earth
49:10any fragments that survive re-entry will be crashed into the pacific
49:16a cremation followed by a burial at sea seems appropriate for the spaceship that future generations
49:21will consider a giant leap for mankind
49:31of the sea and the sea and the sea and the sea and the sea and the sea and the sea and the sea
49:36did you know that you can see the mere space station with the naked eye as it flies over britain at night
49:42a free leaflet giving details of forthcoming viewing times is available by sending a first-class
49:47stamped addressed envelope to equinox mere sightings p.o box 4000 london w12 8 uf
49:54in last week's equinox conspiracy of science the drug cos are was incorrectly listed as a calcium
50:20channel blocker the manufacturers merc sharp and dome limited have asked us to make clear
50:25that cos are works in a different way and has none of the side effects described in the program
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