Chapter 19 - Undiscovered Shadows in Unimagined Forms
Glorious Dawn: The Two Paths of Spaceflight
March 25, 1971 - 12:18 pm - Low Earth Orbit
PLUTON “We see you on the camera, Archangel.”
Titov “Range is 10 metres, safe for docking?”
PLUTON “Docking approved.”
Titov “Khrunov, set beacons to full brightness, Leonov, prepare to engage latches.”
Khrunov “Beacons to full.”
Leonov “Understood.”
Gherman Titov carefully fires the RCS, delicately drifting towards the hulking Archangel Transport Assembly just ahead. With this docking, Titov, Leonov, and Khrunov, will be in space for the next 7 weeks - Longer than anyone else before.
Titov “Two metres, slowing to 5cm/s.”
Outside the window, Earth’s surface slowly floats by, the ATA’s solar panels slicing across the view.
Titov “12cm out.”
The entire spacecraft complex jostles, the docking ports firmly connecting, locked into place.
Leonov “Contact.”
Titov “In just a few hours, we’ll be on our way.”
PLUTON “Good job Archangel, enjoy your lunch before the burn.”
Khrunov “What do we have?”
Titov “Fresh sandwiches! Still warm- or, somewhat warm.”
Leonov looks out the window, seeing the swirling clouds of Earth fading into the dark of night, littered with sparkling city lights, knowing this will be the closest he sees of Earth for the next month.
March 27, 1971 - 7:47 pm - Low Earth Orbit
PLUTON “Tank pressure nominal, power consumption nominal, Archangel, you’re within engine start parameters.”
Titov “Understood! Leonov, Turbopump startup”
Leonov “Turbopump active, ignition in 3 seconds”
Khrunov “Ignition callout”
The engine flares to life, the crew’s hearts beating with excitement and the force of acceleration. Their apogee raises, callouts from PLUTON saying the altitude with every 50m/s increase, a callout coming about once every 15 seconds. After a few minutes, they only call out the much sparser 250m/s intervals. 21 minutes of burning passes, and the engine shuts off, Archangel now on its path to Laika. The crew all looks outside, watching as the delicate world of theirs begins to recede.
April 4, 1971 - Laika Transfer Orbit, Apogee
Day after day, Archangel flies further from the Earth, daring to fly beyond the domain of the Moon, entering territories uncharted by mortal man. The sky, if it can be called that, shines brighter this far from Earth, its reflected light fading to a dull glow. When Titov stares out the windows for hours at a time, away from the infernal glare of the Sun, he can see the stars and galaxies so clearly. The beauty of Alpha Centauri diffracting and scattering within his eye, straddled between thousands of other stars, visible through the small porthole. As the complex rolls, evening the heat distribution across all structures, the Milky Way drifts into view, more beautiful than anything ever seen before. Most of the transfer time was left empty of tasks, the promise of Laika taking up all the scheduling, in just those few hectic days nearly a week from now. It was thought this was the best plan for the mission, plenty of leisure time before the stress, but the crew was not taking it well. The incredible isolation, nothing to do, Earth just a small orb in the distance. Ground psychologists began to grow worried for the crew, especially Leonov, who had grown quiet in the last few days.
April 10, 1971 - 6:27pm - Approaching Laika
For just a short minute, nearing that nomadic world, Dragonfly’s engines fire up again, refining their trajectory and slowing them down. 15 hours until Laika truly cements itself in the history books. After dinner, Leonov, Titov, and Khrunov, all take turns looking through the telescope. It’s hard to tell, appearing as just a dot, even now, but they can see it. Laika is right there, hours away.
April 11, 1971 - 4:12 am - Approaching Laika
The steady hum of the machinery fills the cramped interior of the Soyuz’s cabin, a calming white noise, though the crew is fast asleep. Except for Khrunov. Plenty of sleep was scheduled for these final hours pre-encounter, but Khrunov just couldn’t sleep. How could he? They were about to be the first humans to truly lay eyes upon an asteroid, a small visitor from across the solar system, shooting past Earth by pure chance. Silently, without much fanfare, Laika slips within the Moon’s orbit. Its closest approach puts it over the daylight side of Earth, making observation difficult; a few telescopes across the Eastern seaboard capture images low in the horizon, but of course unable to resolve anything. Laika just appears as another star, subtly moving, slightly elongated? Khrunov pushes himself out from his strapped down sleeping bag, floating through the orbital module, and to the end of the habitat module, finding the station telescope. It was a decently powerful telescope, Mare Imbrium filling the view from Earthside testing. It could only operate in a thin window of orientations without the whole station being spun. Khrunov, yearning to see Laika, swung the station towards its expected position, and looked through the eyepiece.
Titov “K- Khrunov? Why are you awake?”
Khrunov “I couldn’t wait, I had to see it.”
Titov “Oh. How is it?”
Khrunov “Laika is sort of... diamond shaped? There’s what looks like a large crater on the side, but it’s hard to tell from this distance.”
Titov “Diamond shaped? Let me-”
Khrunov “-Wait wait, there’s a moon!”
Titov “A moon?!?”
Khrunov “Look! It’s right to the left of it, it’s egg shaped?!”
Titov “Leonov! Wake up! Come look!”
More people begin to see Laika, identifications across the US from many telescopes, even CSPO turning its gaze to the tiny world now closer than our own orbital companion. It's difficult to resolve it as much, being only half a kilometre across, but CSPO begins to resolve the shape, that quickly iconic diamond, watching as something small appears off the side. Is it rotating? Is that a large boulder? Growing more detached, the observatory workers watch in amazement as Laika’s moon comes into view. News stations across the world cover the event as it's taking place, families in the US staying up to listen and try to catch a glimpse, though impossible without binoculars. American observers can watch it to within 30,000km from Earth before it goes too low in the horizon. New Zealand can see it as they rotate into night, but lose sight as Laika nears, too far North to be visible. It never gets bright enough to see with the unaided eye, just with binoculars.
9:12 am - Approaching Laika
PLUTON “A bit of warning, a small solar storm started hitting about 2 hours ago[1]. Your suits provide enough protection for now, but once departing Laika and Earth’s magnetic field, you should remain in the Habitat, it is shielded better.”
Titov “Understood, PLUTON.”
PLUTON “How’s it look out there?”
Titov “Beautiful sight, a lot different than we thought.”
Khrunov “This list of pre-chosen names for surface features. What do we do about the moon?”
PLUTON “The name Albina has been chosen. Laika’s backup.”
Leonov “That’s sweet. Can see Uglyok crater out the window now.”
Khrunov “Such interesting terrain! Excited to get down there, yes?”
Titov “Very excited!”
PLUTON “And on that note, Belka is ready for deployment.”
Khrunov “Ah! Who’s deploying it?”
PLUTON “You, Khrunov."
9:38 am - Stationkeeping 200m above Laika
Titov feels himself stop moving, a light shaking covers his body, a tinge of anxiety along with it. He looks down, seeing the incredibly powdery and gravelly surface of Laika, watching as a small cloud forms from his touchdown. He stares towards the gargantuan Earth on the horizon. That hulking behemoth of incomprehensible beauty, swirling clouds and verdant forests, so large in the sky. This was nothing like the Moon. This is a more tortured world, brought so close to these impossibly beautiful sights, only to be cast back out into the barren abyss of space. Shakily, he utters the eternal words
“This world has much peace in its insignificance... beauty in its desolation… It is an honor to be here, our world’s envoy as we reach to the infinity of the stars.”
He detaches the flag pole from his belt, carefully inserting it into the gravelly, sandy surface, releasing a small spray of dust. He extends the Soviet flag, and salutes to the camera. Tens of millions of people around the world watch in awe, their own planet providing the backdrop for the scene. The alien surface of this world increased the awe tenfold, the already familiar rockiness of the Moon was burned into the public’s mind. Mars’ surface too, began to be a known sight, thanks to the fleets of spacecraft in recent years. But this, this desaturated sandy world, with sparse boulders and the horizon visibly curving away. Titov became a household name, among the likes of Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn, Karol Bobko, Alexei Leonov, Gus Grissom. He was one of /the/ astronauts now.
9:49 am - Uglyok Crater, Laika
Alexei Leonov was already on his way down to Laika’s surface, with Khrunov getting ready to exit the spacecraft in a few minutes. Titov, after capturing the first sample, an unassuming vaguely shiny pebble, floated around the asteroid with his propulsive backpack. Collecting more samples, taking photos, admiring the beauty. Leonov gently drifts onto the surface, Khrunov and Titov both filming the moment the first man on the Moon landed on an asteroid. Khrunov lands several minutes after, beginning his own tasks. Collecting samples, images, everything. To simplify the sample process, instead of hauling around tens of kilograms of rocks and samples for the entirety of their EVA, they would deliver their samples to a large holder, brought to the surface by Khrunov. When the EVA was completed, they were to return the holder to Dragonfly. And to make the most of the limited volume of the complex, additional O2 and EVA fuel canisters were attached on the descent. The used canisters would not be returned afterwards.
10:36 am - ZIB Peak, Laika
Khrunov never got to have much accurate EVA training for this, surprisingly. He’d flown thrice before, once on Voskhod 7, experiencing artificial gravity as the spacecraft and upper stage spun in tandem. Later, he was among the crew of Archangel 1, the first crewed mission to the Moon, performing spacewalks high above the barren expanses of the far side of the Moon. These spacewalks are often performed on Soviet Moon missions, retrieving experiments and small probes mounted on the exterior of the lumbering LOK assembly. Again, on Soyuz 18, A unique mission laying groundwork for Fletcher style space stations, with the traditional Orbital module replaced with a powerful camera for surface observation. No spacewalks were planned for the mission, but an issue with the lens cap’s opening mechanism, or rather accidental lack thereof, required one. Leonov, Titov, and Khrunov all got plenty of time in Star City’s newly expanded Neutral Buoyancy training lab, trying to train for their impending time at Laika, but there was one issue that made itself constantly apparent. First of all, free-flying EVA is a nightmare to handle, and second, Nobody is entirely sure what Laika looks like. Seafarer 4 had helped a bit by showing the surface of Lutetia, but only to blurry 1 meter resolutions, and Laika was a fraction the size of Lutetia. Some of the finest planetary scientists in the union came together to design a sufficiently varied and interesting asteroid surface to train at.
Now that they’re here, it's nothing like they thought. They expected metallic rocks and a mostly smooth surface, but they got a heap of asphalt-dark gravel. They trained to jam sticks into the ground for stability, and found that the slightest prod of the surface resulted in a spray of debris and dust, more aggravating than the moon’s already horrendously dirty surface. At least, on most of the surface. Climbing a boulder on the northern hemisphere of Laika, noticeably free of the high amount of debris, more reminiscent of the lunar surface. The poles worked well for mobility here, and Albina was high in the sky.
Khrunov, through the stiffness of his suit, removes the Strelka lander strapped to his back, placing it on the solid ground of the megalithic stone. PLUTON sends the deployment confirmation signal to Strelka, and its harpoon legs shoot out, burying themselves into the rock. This lander will perform long term experiments over the next few days, or as long as it gets solar power within communications range.
Khrunov stares up at Albina, wondering. After a brief conversation with PLUTON and Korolev, Khrunov gains a new task, at the repeated begging of numerous earthside planetary scientists. He carefully orients himself towards Albina, firmly pushing his RCS propulsion lever, as he begins the 6,000 foot trek to the final new world of the trip.
10:41 am - Terminator Line, Laika
To accomplish as much work as possible, the crewmates took separate journeys across the small world. Leonov was tasked with taking deep samples and seismic measuring of the asteroid. Khrunov was, after placing the Strelka lander, surveying the surface and taking careful, methodical samples, at least, before the addition of Albina to the checklist. Titov was tasked with active experiments in the asteroidal environment, and of course, with collecting more samples. Now continuing his experiments, Titov “walks” across the terminator of Laika, a usually
impossible opportunity made possible by the glaring face of Earth. Radar telescopes added to the Tien Shan Astronomical Complex fire radio waves at Laika, collecting detailed images of the two worlds, with Archangel 7 and Khrunov spacewalking visible as a bonus - though Khrunov was only identified as a small dot between Laika and Albina.
The sights are more beautiful than anything dreamt of before. Titov stares at the massive Earth in front of him, taking some of the most spectacular photos the space program of any country has produced so far. Above him, he can see the Tibetan plateau, tens of thousands of people in Lhasa listening to radio broadcasts of Titov’s description of the view. Thousands more stare into the turquoise daylight sky, unable to see, but knowing that somewhere up there, a man is walking on an asteroid. Whilst walking across the surface, Titov notices something very odd - a persistent mist across the surface. Very faint wisps of what look like smoke, occasionally spraying from the surface. Is this from him walking? Are these micrometeorites? As he ponders this, he hears a small [clink!] as he walks into a single pebble, no larger than a centimeter. Unusual, considering nothing should’ve disturbed it.
10:46 am - Baikonur Plain, Albina
Khrunov “Alright, PLUTON. I’m seconds away from Albina.”
PLUTON “Received.”
Khrunov “...I had hoped to have some idea of something poignant to say, but I have nothing. I just wish to experience this.”
Admiring every step, he collects samples, noticing the same oddities that Titov has begun to report. Small pebbles floating haphazardly near the moon. He makes his way across the surface, reporting it to be much more powdery than Laika, like sand, with sparse pebbles. This terrain breaks up in the distance, a ridge of boulders present, seemingly around the entire circumference of the moon. Over thousands of years, Albina has been distorted by its close orbit around Laika, and its tidally locked rotation. The lightest particles drifted to either side of the moon, with a slight preference towards Laika, leaving the heavier particles and rocks around the midpoint. Khrunov continues on, nearing the ridge, making note of the changing surface qualities. The uniformly grey sand fades to gravel, gravel fades to cobble. Some sand is still prevalent, noticeably shinier than at the “poles” as Khrunov calls it. He takes a sample, believing it to be metallic in nature. Continuing his voyage, the cobble gives way to boulders, the largest ones as wide as 10 metres. Some display a faint twinkling when seen closely, others are cracked and crumbled, and all of them show signs of impact gardening on their surface. Khrunov uses his sample drill to obtain some cores of these boulders, collecting from several of them across the ridge.
10:51 am - Uglyok Crater, Laika
Alexei Leonov stood on the interior slant of Uglyok Crater, the massive impact on the northern hemisphere, inarguably the most iconic feature of Laika, besides its unprecedented shape. It was a geological treasure trove. The crater showed clear signs of landslides, even despite the pathetic gravity, with long white tendrils scraping down the dust. Leonov is, unsurprisingly so, glad to be back in space again. Every time he lands leaves him with a dismal sense of melancholy. He felt it on Voskhod 2, the excitement and joy of the spacewalk still prevailing over the emotions of returning to Earth. He felt it again on Archangel 3, the impossible thrill of being the first member of your species to walk upon another world, the majesty of the cosmos, an intoxicating feeling. Upon landing, it felt like he had lost a loved one. He missed the moon, the contours of those distant mountains, that off-white surface, the friendly visage of Lunokhod. He dreaded that he would never see them again. Now, working away at his tasks on this miraculous world, he couldn’t help but think about the tragedy of returning to Earth. It was a beautiful planet, everyone he loved was there, and he by no means hated it. But the glory of being in space, the thrill of knowing that hard vacuum lay just inches away at all times. It was mystifying, a feeling without words. He tried to distract himself, to focus on his task, but his mind kept drifting. Small pebbles bounced off his suit, unfelt. His sample bag was harpooned to the surface beside him. And as he gently hammered away at the rocks, something caught his eye. A small sparkle of white, nestled within an otherwise boring rock. This was why he was here. This thrill of discovery, of getting to know the unknown. He hammered at the sparkling rock, seeing more and more of it as he incessantly struck the boulder. It’s beautiful. Veins of this mysterious shiny material. He grabs a core of it, finding more and more within, and leans over to grab his film camera. The rock, previously in shadow, is revealed to the might of the Sun.
It was ice.
Now, it is steam.
Leonov turns back around, failing to stop as steam clouds his vision, sticking to his visor and effectively blinding him. This violent rush of sublimated steam continues to flow, carrying a shower of gravel with it, some hitting his spacesuit, and one unlucky speck of dust is propelled at baseball pitch velocities, striking his sun visor, cracking it. Believing it to be his main helmet visor, he screams in horror over the radio, flailing to reach his EVA Propulsion controls as he continues to spin around. Dust covers every inch the growing sublimation area’s plume reaches, dirtying Alexei’s suit. He pushes the RCS lever forwards by mistake, propelling him into the region of volatiles.
Leonov “KHRUNOV! TITOV! SVETLANA! HELP! MY SUIT! DEBRIS!! HELP!”
PLUTON “Repeat, Leonov, Are-”
Leonov “MY HELMET IS CRACKED! THERE IS A CLOUD OF DEBRIS! HELP! MY UPMK IS-”
Leonov’s RCS lever continues to push him into the steam, flaring up in a violent explosion of sublimated ice and projectile gravel. A second volatile patch is revealed by an unfortunate jostling, and this patch propels another cloud of gravel and cobble towards Leonov. He cries for help one more time, before he goes silent. This secondary cloud jostles more rocks and debris, Leonov tries to turn around, unable to mutter a single word in his state of complete fight or flight. The spray pushes him back, and before he can process what happened, the back of his helmet lands on a boulder, knocking him out.
10:58 am - Sub-Earth Point, Laika
Laika seems to be falling apart. Her weak gravity is no match for the Earth’s aggressive tidal forces. Titov stops to turn around, planning to go over the North of the asteroid to get to Leonov quicker. As he walks, he notices another burst of steam - much more violent than the previous ones. The ground slips away beneath him, revealing a small void under the surface, something alien. It’s no more than 10m across, and as Titov descends into it, he sees and photographs the most beautiful sight ever seen in space. This void was a water-ice hotspot, almost entirely depleted. Laika was an active asteroid all along. The surface of Laika above this area was only loosely held together, stopped from completely collapsing by a thin layer of frozen water ice, holding the powdery surface together from beneath. Titov’s footstep disturbed this precarious balance, opening a small hole into the “cavern”. Ice adorns every wall like the finest curtains, pierced by small collections of crystals. Such an environment had never been expected, it’s beauty, hypnotic. Thinking quickly, Titov breaks off one of the ice crystals, and uses a spare empty canister to capture some of the “cavern’s” internal atmosphere. Unknown to Titov, or any human alive, the ice of the cavern is composed of Ice XI. A phase completely different to Earth’s traditional ice, only forming at incredibly cold temperatures. He leaves the cavern, covering up the entrance with several nearby pieces of cobble, and rushes over to find Leonov. While flying over the North pole, he sees Khrunov far off in the distance, still at least 500 metres and a few minutes away.
11:01 am - Uglyok Crater, Laika
Khrunov lands on the surface at jogging speed, kicking up a cloud of gravel, punching trails through the mist. Titov is already present, searching the numerous new landslide scars for Leonov. The two cosmonauts are mortified thinking of what may have happened to him. He clearly hasn’t been kicked off into space, he has to be in here somewhere. Minutes pass as they plead for Alexei’s safety, shovelling dust and debris out of the way with their hands, finding nothing. They grow more and more desperate, searching areas unaffected by the landslides, and still, finding nothing. Khrunov walks around, trying to hear something, anything, with his radio, desperately digging anywhere that even has a chance of being an artificial transmission. Nothing. Titov indiscriminately brushes debris around, hoping for anything. Then, at the center of one of the smaller debris flows, Khrunov’s hand hits something solid and smooth. His chest pounds, and his heart sinks. A massive crack, devastating spider web trails sprawled across the entirety of Leonov’s visor.
Titov rushes over, trying to hold back his tears, worried that he may drown from the surface tension if he does. The two of them lift Leonov out of the debris, laying him flat on the surface. Khrunov lifts up Alexei’s visor, hoping to get a look at his face, and they realise their error. His helmet’s true glass protection is perfectly intact, if a bit foggy. His solar visor was all that took any damage! They urgently look to see if they can spot any bleeding, relieved when they see no signs of injury besides his persistent unconsciousness. Dejectedly, Titov declares, reasonably, that the EVA is over. They have to get him back inside Archangel. Khrunov and Titov link arms with their limp cosmonaut, using their spare arms to fire their UPMK thrusters towards the orbiting complex, returning a few minutes later. Almost as soon as the airlock closes and Leonov is pulled out of his suit, he wakes up. The shift at PLUTON is overjoyed to hear that he’s alive and well, ordering him to rest for the remainder of the Laika phase of the mission. An order which he readily accepts.
12:12 pm - Stationkeeping near Laika
Leonov watches out the window as the Uskoritel’ booster arrives in position, carefully manoeuvring itself above Gagarin Flat - A small, mostly boulder-less region just west of Uglyok Crater. The Cosmonauts must only work through a few inches of dust to get to a solid boulder surface, as opposed to the nightmarish gravel of almost everywhere else on the surface. Alexei is sealed inside the Habitat module of the complex, Khrunov and Titov already outside, preparing to secure the booster. Leonov struggles to grasp what happened to him, such an utterly alien, unpredictable moment, it feels like just another dream. As he stares outside the window at his receding friends, he can’t help but feel sad. They were there for him, and he wishes he could be there to help them. He decides that now is as good a time as any to draw. He retrieves his coloured pencils and notepad from his personal storage bundle, and sets himself up against several more bundles, a comfortable seat. Glancing back and forth between Laika and his page, he sketches his view, emphasising the stark contrast between the bright asteroid and the starless sky behind it.
12:32 pm - Gagarin Flat, Laika
Khrunov turns his lights on, attempting to work in the shadow of the massive 6 meter wide booster. He opens the booster harpoon storage hatch the same as the previous two, delicately pulling out the spool of metal rope. He places the guides along the surface, ensuring the harpoon doesn’t bounce off of anything and potentially shatter someone’s helmet, or pierce the fuel tank. And then, like twice before, he activates the harpoon. It shoots out, thanks to a miniscule solid motor, plowing through the thin layer of powder and dust, embedding itself deep into the megalithic boulder they stand upon. A few seconds later, Titov, on the other side, does the same thing. All 6 securing harpoons are deployed and tensed, the booster is now just as much a part of the asteroid as the oldest stones upon its surface. For good measure, Khrunov walks around the perimeter, using an additional spool of metal rope to tie all 6 harpoons together. Everything checks out, and the final item of the Laika phase checklist is complete, with half an hour to spare! With this spare time, Titov decides to show Khrunov the ice. The two of them float their way around the asteroid, Titov playfully concealing what he would reveal to him. He moved aside the carefully placed boulder, and went in without a word. Khrunov followed behind him, helmet light still on, and saw the beauty. He ran out of words. Titov reached over, turning Khrunov’s lights off, and the sight was indescribable. The faint earthshine through the entrance gave the cave a mystifying blue glow. It felt more like Pluto than anything near Earth. This is a sight that can taunt through dreams for someone’s entire life. The two of them just stood there, floated in the center of the incredible cave for several minutes, losing track of time. The few minutes felt like hours, doing nothing but staring, trying to comprehend. Khrunov snaps out of it as Titov grabs his shoulder and begins to pull him out of there, covering up the entrance with the small boulder once again, and the two of them return to Archangel.
2:25 pm - 10 km from Laika
10 kilometres away, Laika floats, the booster casting its alien shadow like a deep scar across its surface. PLUTON transmits the authorization, and Archangel sends the signal to ignite its engine. It uses a brand new engine, planned to be used for future interplanetary spacecraft, a small version of the NK-33 called NK-33MB. A version with four small nozzles, running at a reduced total thrust of 700kN, but with a rated burn time of 2200 seconds, a feat of engineering. This will push the engine to its limits, actually running overtime to 2350 seconds, applying a total force of ~1.645 Giganewtons. All this force, untold amounts of energy, pushes the relatively small asteroid by only a few millimeters per second. Venus, 13 years from now, will force her trajectory much more.
The crew of Archangel 7 watch as Laika is lit up by the booster, causing no visible velocity change, a mere millimetre per second. They conduct their deorbiting burn.
4:41 pm - 15km from Laika
After an early dinner, and some secret dessert cake and alcohol that Titov had smuggled aboard, the crew initiates their departure burn. A relatively short, retrograde burn, using as little fuel as possible while safely ensuring the crew’s non-escape from Earth.
April 27, 1971 - Apogee
PLUTON “Archangel, you are ready for the spacewalk. Affirmative?”
Khrunov “We’re ready, hatch is open.”
...
...
PLUTON “Understood. Go to proceed.”
Khrunov “This speed of light we speak at keeps feeling slower and slower.”
Titov “Alright Leonov, you get to have this record. Are you-”
PLUTON “We couldn’t agree more, Khrunov, we-”
Leonov “Oh my god...”
PLUTON “Archangel, we will stop the constant communications. Notify us of any events.”
Leonov “Thank you.”
Titov “Now then, Alexei, are you-”
PLUTON “No problem.”
Khrunov “...”
Titov “...Ready to head outside?”
Leonov “Ready.”
The hatch opens with a silent thud, the faint wisps of air left in the airlock flying out into the abyss. All Alexei can hear is his radio crackling and his breath. He grabs onto the EVA rails, lifting himself up out of the capsule as he looks around, seeing nothing but the millions of stars beyond his reach, then, turning to face towards Dragonfly, Earth is there. Astronauts often speak of the overview effect, that seeing Earth from space is a changing experience. “You can’t see any borders from up there” and similar sentiments. This effect grows more and more pronounced the further you are, with Archangel and Apollo astronauts remarking on the size of the Earth, how fragile it is, how thin the area we can live is. Now, over 900,000km away from home, twice the distance to the Moon, Leonov experiences a new type of this effect.
The milky way is clearly visible, a vast dappling of watercolour arching across the sky, stars and sparkles throughout. On one side of Leonov is the Sun, its infernal light washing away all the stars and galaxies, a mortifying ember, alone in a desolate sky. On the other side, the Earth. This is different to seeing it from the Moon, feelings of admiration and love for the Earth are replaced with a deep, almost primal despair. Everyone you’ve ever known, will ever know, has ever been, all confined on that one tiny dot, able to be hidden by the width of Leonov’s pinky finger at arm’s length. And just off to the side, the Moon stares out into the cosmos. Alexei expected some sort of clarity, and certainly received some. Earth is a miniscule, fragile speck of dust, caught in the persistent grasp of an inescapable luminescence, this too a speck of dust, among millions of others. A devastating realisation of the reality Copernican principle.
He stays still, over two minutes staring at the miniscule world in the distance. Leonov always wished for just another minute in space. Now, he wishes for nothing more than to never leave the Earth again. His crewmates in the capsule grow worried for him through the lack of response, Khrunov exiting Soyuz to reach him, startling Leonov as he appears in sight.
Khrunov “Leonov!”
Leonov “...”
Khrunov “Alexei!!!”
Leonov “Ah!!”
Alexei flinches, slamming his arm into Khrunov’s chest
Khrunov “AGH- What the fuck!?”
Leonov “Sorry!! I-”
Khrunov “Get back inside. Now.”
Leonov “No, no, I’ll do the-”
Khrunov “You had your EVA.”
Leonov “I have to get the-”
Khrunov “I’ll get the dust cartridge back from the boom.”
Leonov “No, you-”
Khrunov “I trained for it too. We’ll say you did it, just. Get inside. Go to the habitat and get some rest. Please.”
Leonov “...”
As carefully and coordinated as planned, Khrunov makes his way down the complex, retrieving a cartridge of micrometeoroids collected around Laika and particles collected over the last few days in extra-lunar space. While tethered to the end of the boom, he understood just what Leonov went through. Cautious to not get distracted, Khrunov retrieved his camera and photographed the sight on film, the fragile Earth and Moon in the distance. With the metallic boom on the left side of the photograph. He returned to the capsule, closed the hatch, and got to work analysing some of the samples with the on-board microscope. The next two weeks were slow and painful. Those on Earth watched as Laika left the vicinity of their home, shooting off into space, alone for the next 13 years. PLUTON kept listening to the twin spacecraft planted by Archangel, taking images of the surface and probing every boulder and pebble they could see. Laika’s rotation began to bob and wobble from the mass of the booster, causing some to worry about the asteroid breaking apart, or Albina being kicked out of the system. These fears had no time to manifest, as the booster, rushed to construction, failed not long after its task was done. Its tethers degraded and its hull ruptured, sending it tumbling away from Laika. This event, not publicised by Soviet state media, was found by Arecibo, still able to decently resolve Laika with its powerful radar imaging capabilities.
On May 9, Archangel 7 neared the atmosphere, and re-entry procedures began in earnest. First, Soyuz and the Habitat detached from the tug. Then, as fast as possible, the crew was to transfer the samples into the Soyuz, which was, quite honestly, a dreadful task. Soyuz was very limited in volume, and as such, all non-essential items were removed, making room for numerous kilograms of samples and equipment. Following this, Soyuz separated from the habitat, service module, and orbital module. Having spent over a month with them, it was a bitter farewell. Now, Soyuz realigns for atmospheric entry, jostling and shaking with violence as the atmosphere strikes. The detached segments are shredded and melted without any sympathy from the all-consuming plasma. Once more, Soyuz’s defenses overcome the might of hypervelocity, and the dreadful silence of the past 5 weeks is now filled with the refreshing sound of air, and that familiar blue sky paints the window. The parachutes unfurl, the retrorockets fire, and Soyuz is on the ground. Meeting them at the recovery site, Dmitri Ustinov, along with Grigory Lazarev and Anatoly Ivanov, the discoverers of Laika, shake hands with the cosmonauts. Beyond an initial thanks, the crew is speechless, simply wanting to savour the wonder of a natural atmosphere. A celebratory dinner follows that night, and, after a week at home, their celebration tour begins.
[1] Yes.https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1973Obs....93..240L