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Former Mir Crew Lashes Out at "Scapegoat" Claims
The two Russian cosmonauts who spent six often-harrowing months on board the Russian space station Mir lashed out at those who wished to turn the crew into "scapegoats" by pinning the blame for the aging station's problems on them.
![[image of old mir crew]](../970815/images2/miroldcrew.jpg)
Former Mir commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Alexander Lazutkin spoke at a press conference August 16, two days after they returned to Earth in a Soyuz capsule after six months on Mir.
"Attempts are being made to blame us for this unlucky voyage," Tsibliev said. "It's easy to pin the blame on the crew. As always in Russia, people are looking for a scapegoat."
"I consider that our mission was very successful," Tsibliev said, explaining that the mission was successful because "we returned alive and in good health."
Tsibliev was responding to reports in the Russian press as well as comments by Russian President Boris Yeltsin which seemed to pin the blame for the June collision of the Progress spacecraft with Mir's Spektr module on "human error."
An irritated Tsibliev placed the blame on funding problems for the Russian space program. "A significant number of mishaps befell our crew," he said. "In my view, they originate on Earth, from the state of our economy, the problems afflicting our life, the cutbacks."
Despite the problems on Mir, Tsibliev agreed with Russian officials who believe Mir can continue to be used until 1999. "I think Mir will keep flying for more than another year," he said.
Tsibliev and Lazutkin returned to Earth August 14. Ironically, as another sign of problems with the Russian space program, braking rockets intended to fire just before touchdown failed, giving the returning cosmonauts a much stronger jolt than intended. Neither cosmonaut was injured, though.
During their six months on Mir Tsibliev and Lazutkin had to deal with a flash fire that broke out from an oxygen-generating canister, problems with the oxygen generator and carbon dioxide removal systems, leaking antifreeze from a balky coolant system, and the multitude of problems from the Progress-Spektr collision.
In the weeks that followed the collision, Tsibliev developed an irregular heartbeat, believed to be caused by the stress following the accident. Tsibliev's heart problems forced Russian planners to eventually delay a planned repair spacewalk until after a new crew took over the station.