Man forgotten in space: Sergei Krikalev (Sergey Krikalyov)

Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev was watching the Earth from 358 kilometers above and wondered if he could return home and what awaited him if he did. What caused this uncertainty? The answer to the question is:

When the calendars showed 1991, it was certain that America had won the space race. Despite the bottleneck it had entered, the Soviet Union continued its space programs. As you know, going into space is not something everyone can do. This requires years of training. Not everyone who gets the training gets the chance to go into space, either. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev had the chance to live on the space station for a routine mission. He had studied mechanical engineering and piloting. These skills made him ideal for cosmonauts. Sergei made his first flight to the Mir Space Station. Upon successful completion of this mission, he was asked to make another trip to the station. He trained for a year before going on his second assignment. This training was for the 5 month mission in space. However, he was not trained enough to deal with the problems he might encounter if the mission lasted longer than 5 months.

On May 18, 1991, Soviet Union cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev left Earth and went to the Soviet space station Mir. But while Krikalev was on Mir, the country that sent him into space perished; The Soviet Union collapsed. Krikalev also had to live in space, at least for a long time as the 'last Soviet citizen'.

Soon, the fate of the cosmonaut on the space station became clear. While Kazakhstan (like other union countries) was pushing for independence, the President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, announced that when his term ended, Krikalev would be replaced by a Kazakh cosmonaut. However, since no one was trained as a cosmonaut in Kazakhstan at that time, Krikalev had to stay in space a little longer.

While not much was known about the effects of a long stay in space at the time, Krikalev was aware that staying on Mir for so long posed certain risks. In October, some of their fellow countrymen on the station completed their four-month assignment and returned home. With no one else experienced enough to run the station, Krikalev remained on Mir and continued to circumnavigate the Earth for much longer than he had anticipated.

Negotiations continued for a while between the Russian Federation, which emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the USA. Agreements have been made to send more cosmonauts and astronauts into orbit. This also included bringing back the cosmonaut who was stranded in space. Finally, three months later, on March 25, Krikalev, having spent 311 consecutive days in space, returned to Earth.

However, these were not the last days he would spend in space. Upon his return, Krikalev's training continued and he later returned to the station. Krikalev spent a total of 803 days in space and broke all records.