National Geographic: Destination Space Page #6

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Russian-speaking specialists

will work on one side

English-speaking Americans

on the other.

Coordination must be seamless

for the launch to succeed.

A similar collaboration was put to

a sharper test onboard Mir.

With air pressure dropping

because of a collision,

the two Russians and

one American have only minutes

to close off a punctured module

or abandon ship.

But cables block a hatchway

that must be sealed.

These cables now that were

being disconnected,

there's about 18 of them,

were like big snakes,

and they just kind of got in the way.

So Sasha'd pass the cable to me

and I'd tie it off.

With the passageway finally cleared,

the two struggle to seal the hatch.

As soon as it went into place,

without doing any latches,

it kind of went "pfffp" and sucked in.

And at that point I really felt

the pressure stop falling.

They've closed off the leaking module,

but Mir is now crippled as they

approach the dark side of earth.

Now the station, which was tumbling,

hadn't been able to orient

its solar arrays to the sun

and we had basically used up

all the battery power that was left.

And so all of the lights

started to go off,

the fans went off

that moved the air around,

and we lost communications

with the ground.

Foale and his crewmates face

a desperate situation.

Without power they have no heaters,

no computers, no oxygen generators.

For the first time,

Mir becomes deathly quiet.

Really, ironically,

it was some of the most beautiful,

memorable experience I ever had

on the Mir,

because we were passing over

the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego,

towards Antarctica and there were

extraordinary curtains of green and red

shimmering across the curve

of the earth

and we kind of would just float there

in front of the window,

mostly saying nothing.

Russians and Americans at Sea Launch

are preoccupied with safety.

Already fueled, the satellite payload

is added to the rocket.

Then, the Sea Launch crew

Cautiously transfers the rocket

to the launch platform.

The Russians insisted on

the twin ship plan

because of its extra margin of safety.

All personnel will evacuate the

launch platform for lift-off.

The rocket is safely cradled

in the launch platform hangar.

Sea Launch is now ready for the

In the age-old sea-faring tradition,

Sea Launch's voyage to the equator

begins with a farewell party

on the dock.

Future rocket scientist!

Friends and loved ones come to see

the Sea Launch crew off.

Steve Thelin will be away from

his family for almost a month.

The two Sea Launch vessels set out

for the equator.

At sea, Russians, Norwegians, and

Americans tend to live and play apart.

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