Welcome | History | Science | Spacecraft | People | References | Multimedia | Home | Search | Tours | Site Map


People

Shuttle-Mir Stories - Foale on Fire and "Near Miss"

In his Oral History, U.S. Mir astronaut Michael Foale discusses the fire and the "near miss" of a Progress vehicle, which had occurred during Jerry Linenger's increment.

Foale says, "I learned a little bit about the troubles they've had, especially with the fire. Vasily [Tsibliev] talked about it quite a bit, and [so did] Sasha [Lazutkin].

"At some point Sasha explained [it] to me--and he actually took me to where the fire occurred -- and showed me what he was doing and how the fire happened. And he gave me a long hour's description of everything that happened during the fire.

"It was very amusing. We were enjoying it. It was a good story, with serious undertones. But he wasn't making a big deal out of this; he was telling me a story, because I wanted to learn.

"And other times Vasily would talk about the near miss of the Progress docking, that Jerry [Linenger] has since then talked about a lot in the press, as being a near miss. And it was. A very close call."

Related Links:

The Fire
Foale Increment

Linenger Increment
Profile: Michael Foale
Michael Foale Oral History (PDF)

 

Tours | Timeline | Shuttle-Mir Background | Shuttle Flights & Mir Increments | Mir Expeditions

 


Graphic version available

This page is best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher or Netscape 4.0 or higher.
Other viewing suggestions.

NASA Web Policy

Curator: Kim Dismukes
Responsible NASA Official: John Ira Petty