Cosmonaut’s Logbook

MISSION DAY 47

Sergei: November 12. Orbit 734. All nominal.

Sergei: Sergei Volkov, flight engineer. Starting personal log as a supplement to the official Expedition 71 record.

Sergei: Crew: Commander Yuri Petrov, Dr. Natasha Orlova, Engineer Viktor Zhuk, and me. Four Russians.

Sergei: Today: maintenance on Zvezda. Replaced CO2 filters. Same old.

Sergei: Call with TsUP at 16:00 UTC. Next EVA scheduled for Day 50.

Sergei: Yuri cracked his usual joke about borscht rations. Viktor laughed. Natasha rolled her eyes.

Sergei: Night orbit. Earth is beautiful from up here. Never gets old.

MISSION DAY 48

Sergei: November 13. EVA prep.

Sergei: Yuri and Viktor will go outside. Degraded solar panel on the P6 segment.

Sergei: Checked the Orlan suits three times. Pressure nominal. Oxygen at 100%.

Sergei: Viktor's excited. His first EVA. You can hear it in his voice.

Sergei: Yuri, cool as always. Veteran of six spacewalks. "Like stepping into the backyard," he says.

Sergei: Had dinner together. Yuri made a toast with apple juice. "To coming back with all fingers attached."

MISSION DAY 50 - EVA

Sergei: November 15. Spacewalk day.

Sergei: 08:15 UTC. Hatch open. Yuri went out first. Then Viktor.

Sergei: "Bozhe moi... it's endless," Viktor said. His first time outside.

Sergei: Yuri: "Tovarich, we've got work to do."

Sergei: They disconnected the degraded panel, installed the replacement. TsUP confirmed nominal telemetry.

Sergei: At 3 hours in, Viktor reported a flash in his right visual field. TsUP said: "Solar glare. Continue."

Sergei: At hour 4, Yuri stopped for 47 seconds. Didn't respond to comms.

Sergei: "Yuri Petrov, please respond."

Sergei: "... Da. Sorry. Got distracted looking at something. Moving on."