SPACE.com -- Would-Be Mir Actor Enthralled With Mission Events

Mir Crew: Two Cosmonauts, No Actor

Crew Bios for 28th Mission to Mir

Russian Actor May Not Fly to Mir

Cosmonauts Oppose Actor Aboard Mir For Movie


	Would-Be Mir Actor Enthralled With Mission Events By Yuri Karash Moscow Contributing Correspondent posted: 05:09 pm ET 06 April 2000

Mir Got a Second Wind

Though he might have been the first actor in orbit, Vladimir Steklov viewed the docking of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts to Mir Thursday earthbound -- at Mission Control Center near Moscow.

The actor, who had trained as a third crew member for this trip to Mir, was cut from the mission a week before lift-off.

Steklov lost his chance to fly on this 28^th mission to Mir because the production company making the movie in which he plans to appear failed to make payments to RKK Energia, the company that operates the space station.

Standing in the Mission Control Center this week, cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin (left), a flight engineer who survived the most harrowing accident in Mir's history -- the 1997 collision of a Progress resupply spacecraft with the station. He is talking with actor Vladimir Steklov, who was cut from the crew of Mir's 28th mission.

Nonetheless, Steklov said he remained keenly interested in mission events. He recently returned from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch complex where he watched from a special bunker located 492 feet (150 meters) away from the launch pad where a Soyuz lifted off carrying the cosmonauts toward Mir on Tuesday, April 4.

Steklov said Thursday he was happy to witness, from a distance, the successful docking of Soyuz to Mir, not to mention the entire sequence of events in the past few days.

"It is hard to express my feelings," he said. "An indescribable excitement started rising inside me when I saw the Soyuz lift off; and that excitement reached its peak when I saw the docking. This was a true triumph of[the]human mind."

"Mir is certainly one of the wonders of the world, which belongs not only to Russia but to all mankind," he said. "For me, just asking the question, To deorbit or not to deorbit Mir? is already a sacrilege. There were so many horrors in the history of mankind, but space exploration is something thathumanity could be proud of."

"When I got involved in the space program and started my cosmonauts training, I became really proud of being a human creature."

Attending a launch and docking should be an indispensable part of the cosmonauts psychological and emotional training, he said.

Steklov said he was sorry not to be part of the crew. "I would like to think of myself as a backup crew member for the 28^th main mission," he said, "whose turn to fly will come with the 29^th mission to Mir."

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