Cosmonauts to Join Private American MirReentry.com Observation Expedition
Four senior Mir
Cosmonauts, one of the preeminent designers of the Mir Space Station,
and a noted Russian space journalist and historian will be joining
MirReentry.com, a private American airborne expedition to witness
Mir’s spectacular plunge through the Earth’s atmosphere between
March 13-18.
“We are very excited that our Russian colleagues are dispatching
such a distinguished team of Mir cosmonauts and Russian space experts
to join our reentry observation”, states expedition organizer and Los
Angeles Attorney Rick Citron. He adds, “Having our Russian friends on
board will not only make this a more historic expedition but it will
add a dimension of poignancy and drama to our experience.”
The list reads like a who’s who of Russian Mir space pioneers:
Sergey Avdeyev, one of the world’s most well-traveled cosmonauts
who flew three missions to Mir, one of which lasted over a year
Vladimir Titov, has spent a total of 387 days, 52 minutes, 18
seconds in space, and has logged a total of 18 hours, 48 minutes of
Exterior Vehicular Activity in open space
Elena Kondakova, From October 4, 1994 through March 22, 1995,
fulfilled her first flight on board the spacecraft “Soyuz TM-17” and
the Mir orbital complex as a flight engineer
Sergey Zaletin, the cosmonaut commander of the final mission to
Mir Leonid Gorshkov, one of Russia’s premier space station designers
and one of the chief architects of Mir
Yuri Karash, aerospace advisor to the Governor of Moscow, who has
himself gone through cosmonaut training and is an expert on the
Russian space program as well as a leading space historian and
journalist
The Russian cosmonauts on board the MirReentry.com observation
plane will be in direct communications with the Korylov Mission
Control Center in Moscow during the final phase of the Mir deorbit.
“It is our expectation,” states expedition leader Bob Citron, founder
of SPACEHAB and Kistler Aerospace Corp, “that our observation aircraft
will be directed to the best safe location to observe the most
spectacular reentry phenomena.”
The esteemed cosmonauts join American astronomers, scientists, and
space enthusiasts will fly approximately 30,000 feet above a remote
area of the South Pacific Ocean to observe the historic reentry. The
organizers encourage anyone interested in joining the expedition to
apply for seats aboard the aircraft at www.MirReentry.com.
Cosmonaut bios and photos available upon request.
