Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev was already an experienced cosmonaut when he visited the Mir station for the second time in May 1991. However, no training could prepare him for the high-impact political changes that unfolded in the following months. The Soviet Union formally dissolved in December of that year, leaving Krikalev in a very strange situation. Having been sent into space by a country that no longer existed, his only option was to extend his residence at the station…
The Soyuz TM-12 Mission
The Soyuz TM-12 expedition to the Mir station was launched on May 18, 1991. Some remember it well because of a very special passenger: Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut, and the first woman to visit the station. Sharman was accompanied by commander Anatoly Artsebarsky and engineer Sergei Krikalev.
Everything seemed to indicate that Mir would continue its activities normally (Sharman returned to Earth eight days later). However, on August 19, 1991, a group of elements from the hardest lines of the Communist Party initiated a coup d'état seeking to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviet Union was in check, and it had two cosmonauts in space…
A Seat Lost in the Chaos
One source suggests that Krikalev agreed to remain as engineer for the next crew, since the two following flights had been compressed into one (Soyuz TM-13), scheduled for October 2. But there is also another version: the government of Kazakhstan (whose independence was imminent) demanded from Moscow a real fortune for the use of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and the 'deal' to get an important discount was sending the first Kazakh cosmonaut, Toktar Aubakirov, on Soyuz TM-13. Aubakirov's return eight days later, his general lack of experience, and the brutal budget crisis had left Krikalev without a seat. They couldn't bring him back.
The Last Citizens of the Soviet Union
And that is how Sergei Krikalev ended up accompanied by the Soyuz TM-13 commander, Aleksandr Volkov. The definitive collapse of the state during Christmas 1991 transformed both cosmonauts into "the last citizens of the Soviet Union". Sending provisions became a real headache (they couldn't even get quality honey for Krikalev), but they still continued with experiments and even carried out a spacewalk.
Return and Later Flights
Krikalev returned home on March 25, 1992, and found a country completely different from the one he had left, although his space adventure did not end there. In October 1992, NASA announced it was very interested in allowing an experienced cosmonaut to fly on the Space Shuttle. Krikalev was chosen, traveling aboard the Discovery on STS-60 in early February 1994. In December 1998 he was part of STS-88 (the first Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station), and received the privilege of becoming one of the "first 3", the crew members of the historic Expedition 1.
Sergei Krikalev's total time in space during his career was 803 days, 9 hours, and 39 minutes.
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