The initial plan was for the Russian contingent to gather in Los Angeles a few days before the flight to the deorbiting area.
The observation aircraft then would have to fly to Tahiti, and from there it would proceed to the area of Mir reentry.
The six Russians are:
- Sergei Avdeyev, a cosmonaut who flew three missions to Mir, one of which lasted over a year;
- Vladimir Titov, who spent a total of 387 days in space and has logged over 18 hours on spacewalks;
- Elena Kondakova, a flight engineer aboard Soyuz and Mir. She was in space from Oct. 4, 1994 through March 22, 1995;
- Musa Manarov, Titov's crewmate in their yearlong mission to Mir in 1988;
- Leonid Gorshkov, one of Russia's premier space station designers and one of the chief architects of Mir;
- Myself, aerospace advisor to the governor of the Moscow Region industrial area, and amateur cosmonaut trainee. I'm also SPACE.com's contributing correspondent in Moscow.
Sergei Zaletin, the commander of the last mission to Mir, had also been slated to go on this mission, but was unable to because of bureaucratic difficulties. Russian citizens have three types of passports: green (diplomatic), blue (business) and red (regular). Cosmonaut Zaletin, like all members of the Russian military, has a blue passport. Blue passport holders can only get visas through the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs -- a lengthy and complicated process. Musa Manarov replaced Zaletin on the Mir tracking mission.
The plan to stage the mission in Los Angeles was scrapped, however, due to logistical problems -- the Russians would have needed to get both U.S. and French visas. In order to come to Los Angeles and then fly to Tahiti, the Russians would have had to apply for two visas: one U.S. and another French. That requirement was put in force just a year ago. Before that, Russians connecting in Los Angeles for other destinations did not have to apply for U.S. visas.
"I cant believe that it is so hard," Bob Citron told SPACE.com. "I thought the Cold War ended 10 years ago."
The Russian team is being helped by the VARITI travel agency. This is a major Russian agency that organizes business meetings and exhibitions in Russia and abroad. It also organizes tours of Russias space facilities. VARITI is very well connected with foreign embassies in Moscow, particularly with the French embassy.
"In the beginning we decided to send the Russians to Tahiti like regular tourists," said Yulia Zhiltsova, VARITI executive director. "It turned out, however, that it would take up to two weeks for the French embassy to issue visas to the Russian participants in Citrons mission, meaning that they would miss the deorbiting. The only way was to find a French citizen who could invite them to come to French Polynesia. In this case the embassy could issue [a] visa faster." A highly decorated French astronaut, Jean-Loup Chretien, France's first space traveler who flew to the Salyut 7 space station in 1982, agreed to invite the Russians to come to Tahiti.
However, having a formal invitation from a French citizen did not turn out to be enough to get French visas. The embassy issues such documents to Russians only if they have flight reservations to France and hotel reservations there (or in a French territory like French Polynesia).
Fortunately, because of the delays that have pushed the date of Mir's deorbit back to late March, we've had enough breathing room to get these issues straightened out. After another round of adjustments, reservations were arranged with the help of Bob Citrons travel agent and my fellow Russians and I are set to arrive -- not in Tahiti, but in Nadi, Fiji -- on Friday March 16.
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