Diary of a Cosmonaut: 211 Days in Space

by Valentin Vital Evich Lebedev

Describes life aboard the Solyut-7 space station, discussing the problems and the joys of living in space

Genres: Space, Nonfiction, Memoir

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1988

Reviews

[Chris Tschirhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the more unique space books in my collection. This is an edited--and I would naturally assume censored--diary from the first crewed mission to the USSR's Salyut 7 space station. Valentin Lebedev and crew-mate Anatoly Berezovoy spent 211 days aboard Salyut 7 in the second half of 1982. At the time, this was the longest crewed spaceflight in history.

I read this book twice in the last 20 years. It came out just at the time Perestroika was on the horizon, however the Soviet system was a very closed system. I found some of the candid revelations about the personal hurdles (technical and emotional) and technical problems with the space station. For the time it was very open and intimate, although others feel that the book was heavily edited by the system.

I found an admiration for the cosmonaut's point of view about long-term endurance in space and even some of the physiological toll on the individuals. At a time we were in the cold war you came away understanding that these were just people surmounting technical and personal obstacles just as the west's astronauts where.

Some of the plodding sections of the book are worth grinding through if you want to find out what it's like to spend more than six months in a space station. I only ever saw it when it came out. It is worth digging up a comp out of the Falcon Air and Space series.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more unique space books in my collection. This is an edited--and I would naturally assume censored--diary from the first crewed mission to the USSR's Salyut 7 space station. Valentin Lebedev and crewmate Anatoly Berezovoy spent 211 days aboard Salyut 7 in the second half of 1982. At the time, this was the longest crewed spaceflight in history.

The book provides a rare and intimate look at how the Soviets ran their Salyut crews, and it offers a lot of insight from the cosmonaut's point of view about long-term endurance in space. There aren't many books available that describe long missions in this kind of detail, and as far as I know this is the first of its kind. There are earlier books on the American Skylab missions, but none of those books get into the kind of crew's-eye perspective found here.

It's not for everyone, but it's worth reading if you want to find out what it's like to spend more than six months in earth orbit. I consider myself lucky to have found my copy right when it was first published many years ago, because I have yet to see another copy.