Mir Commander Has Irregular Heartbeat
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MOSCOW — The commander of the crippled space station Mir complained of an irregular heartbeat Monday and asked nervously whether he was healthy enough to take part in a vital mission to repair the damaged Russian spacecraft.
“For crying out loud!” cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev exclaimed after reporting his symptoms. “This is bad timing.”
“You have to calm down!” a doctor from Russian Mission Control told him repeatedly, urging the 43-year-old crew leader to get more sleep.
“Will I be able to make the trip?” Tsibliyev asked, referring to the repair mission.
“Let us think and see,” the doctor replied.
In coming days, either Tsibliyev or crew mate Alexander Lazutkin needs to make a trek into the airless, ruptured Spektr module on a mission to restore full power to the space station.
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