Richard Lawrence - The Mammoth Book of Space Exploration and Disaster

Finally there was an acknowledgment from the ground. “I’ve got your information,” said an unidentified voice.

“Any questions?” Korzun asked.

The comm broke up again.

“Speak, Valera!” the ground said.

“We have ten minutes left before the masks we are wearing begin to finish,” Korzun continued. The commander, in fact, had already removed his mask and taken several tentative breaths of air. “Now we are taking the masks off and checking how we feel. If we feel worse, we’ll put on a new set of masks. We have nine left. And we will go to the capsule. Then we will be waiting in the capsules, waiting for when the atmosphere will be cleaner little by little… . The next communication will be at 4:16.”

Another voice came on the line. “We approve your plan,” he said. “Everything is right.”

“Okay, I understand,” Korzun said. “We’ll be controlling the situation. The only problem is we are fighting CO 2. The capsules are ready for us to move into them. Meanwhile, I’m reporting, I have taken the mask off. Till now I feel normal.”

“Are all your filters turned on?”

“The filters, yes, the filters are switched on,” replied Korzun.

“Did anything else burn?”

“No, it’s normal now,” said Korzun. “Sasha Lazutkin is on duty [in Kvant]. When I left it fifteen minutes ago, it wasn’t burning. But the flame was so big that the metal at the end of [the SFOG] melted. All of it. And a little bit of the interior [of the module] around it. The panels were not touched, and all the rest [is fine]. The only thing that was, was the [SFOG]. We’ll get the reserve canisters and in case of loss of pressure, we’ll use reserve oxygen canisters in the base block.”

“We’ve got it,” the ground said. “Everything is all right.”

And with that, the pass was suddenly over. Korzun was nonplussed. What were they to do now? No one on the ground mentioned evacuation. For the moment the commander was unsure whether to head into the Soyuz capsules or not. The next pass, over the ground station at Petropavlovsk, on the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka, was set for 4:16, about four hours hence.

“I guess we wait,” Korzun told Tsibliyev.

No one slept. Gradually the smoke cleared, helped by the station’s five different atmosphere-cleansing systems. At first everyone lingered in base block, discussing how best to proceed. Then the oxygen masks began to run out.

“I’d like to go to a second round,” said Linenger, his voice still muffled by the bulky mask.

“We can’t,” Korzun replied. “If we use them, we won’t have any left.”

By Korzun’s count, they had used nine oxygen masks. Nine remained. Donning another six masks would leave only three. Russian guidelines mandate that the crew can remain on board only if there is at least one mask per crew member. If they got to another round, at least part of the crew would be forced to evacuate.

They decided to conserve the air in the masks as long as possible. Korzun ordered everyone to be quiet and still in an effort to save oxygen. The smoke was thinnest in Kvant 2, so everyone but Korzun gathered there. Linenger set up a first aid station, laid out tracheal tubes and a portable ventilator, and gave each crew member a thorough examination. By 2:00 all the oxygen masks had run out, and Linenger dispensed white 3M surgical masks for everyone to wear. The smoke had left a layer of grime throughout much of the station, and the crew spent most of the next two hours wiping and cleaning every surface. Around four, when everyone gathered in base block for the upcoming comm pass, Linenger dispensed soap packets he had prepared. Everyone washed up, then changed clothes and handed their T-shirts and shorts to Linenger, who stuffed them in a bag.

At 4:16 am the comm pass began: “We can hear you well.”

“Our situation is as follows,” Korzun began. He was floating in base block with everyone else. “Everything has been normalized. The smoke has disappeared. It still smells of burning. The crew is wearing masks that prevent harmful gases from penetrating. Medical examination of the crew has been conducted: pressure, pulse, lungs. The crew’s condition is normal. The oxygen pressure is one five five. In the future we will use canisters. We will use the [second SFOG] in base block, which is in reserve. We will observe the security measures while turning it on. But maybe you have some recommendations in terms of using it. Now Vasya will speak about the condition of anti-fire devices on board, and we will answer all the questions you are interested in.”

“Okay, Valera,” the TsUP replied. “Do you think that the crew feels satisfactory?”

“Yes, their condition is good. There have been no injuries. Everybody feels good. We don’t [need to] waste any time with that. The doctor has conducted a full examination. Everything is under control.”

“Also, we would like to receive from you the exact time and location of the fire.”

“22:35 was the beginning of the fire,” Korzun explained. “The canister got on fire approximately one minute after the installation. Sasha Lazutkin controlled the activation. But the fire was so big and active that even the use of the fire extinguisher did not have practically any effect in the initial stage. It’s good it was there. We used three fire extinguishers during the fire. And two were still left prepared for the future.”

“Vasily Vasilyvich, go ahead,” the TsUP said.

“We used five fire extinguishers,” reported Tsibliyev, “out of which three were used completely, and two were prepared. Now five of them are still left in the complex. Nine oxygen masks were used.”

“Okay” the TsUP replied. “How do you estimate the possibility of another fire now?”

“Right now it’s [fine],” said Korzun. “But the reason why we asked for recommendations on canisters is because we don’t understand the reaction. The fact is, there was some uncontrolled reaction during burning. The body of the canister was burned. And even the metal was melting on the circular closing device. The temperature was that high. Now, of course, while turning it on we will use fire extinguishers that are ready And if there is any sign of a fire we will use extinguishers in the foam mode.”

“Guys, we haven’t looked at this question from this point of view,” the TsUP replied. “Up until now you don’t use canisters until a special order is given.”

“Right,” said Korzun. “Here’s what Sasha thinks. If the new canisters were stored on Earth for a long time, maybe it’s better to use old ones that were stored in conditions of weightlessness.”

“What is the serial number? We have old canisters that were stored on board a long time.”

Sasha Kaleri broke in. “No, we don’t understand the reaction. Maybe it’s some kind of redistribution of the density of the charge, or something like that. We have to look into the history of the storage.”

“Okay, we’ve got that. Did we understand you correctly that the old one, the one that was stored a long time, got on fire?”

“Well,” says Kaleri, “they were from a container that’s in [Kvant]. Behind the panels.” He read off some serial numbers.

Korzun cut in. “Guys, we also have a question on the chemistry of this substance. It didn’t burn to the end, because water was put on it. Does it mean that there are no toxins there? And what happens when you put water on it?”

One of the senior Russian doctors, Igor Goncharov, get on comm. “Guys, we will give you the precise information on toxins later. And here’s another thing. Please put on masks by all means.”

“We’re using masks,” says Korzun.

“Now dairy products are recommended. Take more milk and curds.”