Sergei Krikalev was stranded in space for nearly a year before returning to Earth
An astronaut who was stranded in space for a staggering 311 days after his country ‘stopped existing’ has revealed his initial reaction to the news.
It’s definitely hard to imagine what it would be like if our home country all of a sudden vanished, but that’s exactly what happened to cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev.
Back in 1991, Krikalev left his life on Earth to embark on a space mission to the Mir station, which was in orbit from 1986 to 2001.
Very much like the two stranded astronauts who are currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) awaiting their ride home in February, this mission lasted a lot longer than it was meant to.
The mission was set to originally last five months, but as things changed drastically on the ground, so did Krikalev’s mission.
The Soviet Union – the country the astronaut was born in – dissolved while he was onboard the space station.
Boris Yeltsin became the president of the newly independent Russian state, leaving Krikalev without a country to return to.
Sergei Krikalev was stranded in space for 311 days (LEON NEAL/AFP via Getty Images)
On top of that, the spaceport and the landing area Krikalev had intended to use were both now located in the newly independent Kazakhstan.
The big world event, that impacted many millions, meant little money was available to bring Krikalev back to Earth. And leaving the space station would have left nobody there to operate it and repair it if required.
Speaking to The Guardian as part of a Q&A in 2015, the astronaut revealed his reaction to the world-changing news.
He said: “It was a long process and we were getting the news, not all at once, but we heard about the referendum, for example.
“I was doing my job and was more worried about those on the ground – our families and friends – we had everything we needed!”
The astronaut’s country, the Soviet Union, stopped existing while he was up in space (NASA via Getty Images)
Krikalev also spoke in the interview about what it was like to finally come back to Earth.
“I think I felt satisfaction that I had done my job, and done it well. The second one was a sort of relief as I had held a huge responsibility for many months,” he said.
In the end, the astronaut spent a whopping 311 days in space before he made his return to normal civilisation in March 1992.
His return came after deals were struck between the US and Russia that allowed additional funding for space missions.
While that mission didn’t go to plan, the astronaut was not put off returning to space, with him having spent more than 800 days in space in his life.
