The replacement commander of Soyuz 11 was Dobrovolski, a fighter pilot and accomplished parachutist. A keen artist, he did a pencil sketch of Patsayev the night before his launch, dubbing it “Patsayev’s Eyes.” It was obvious that the quiet mechanical engineer - a Renaissance man of the cosmonaut corps who loved literature and music, and whose father died defending Moscow from Nazi Germany - was visibly troubled. In his memoir Two Sides of the Moon, Leonov recalled the palpable sense of dread the astronauts felt. Yet, it must have been no easier for the backup crew, who were now faced with accomplishing the longest space mission ever attempted. The cosmonauts were mad Kolodin returned to his room and got drunk, crying in rage and frustration. Kubasov’s inflammation turned out to be due to a pollen allergy, but top brass unflinchingly stood by their decision. Fearing tuberculosis, the whole crew was replaced by their backups. That meant it was up to Alexei Leonov (the world’s first spacewalker), Valeri Kubasov, and Pyotr Kolodin to try again with Soyuz 11.īut three days before launch, during a routine exam, doctors found a swelling on Kubasov’s right lung. Salyut 1 was launched in April 1971, but it first crew failed to dock with the station during the Soyuz 10 mission. After Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the Moon, the Soviets nixed their own lunar landing plans in favor of an Earth-orbiting space station. From the outset, Soyuz 11 was an unhappy assignment.
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