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Letters from MIR: An Astronaut's Letters to His Son

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MIR has always been an anomaly. It shouldn't have been up there; it shouldn't have been up there THAT long and it is a testimony to human courage and audacity that the venerable station orbited for as long as it did.

Writing home to your son/ daughter is always a challenge for a parent. Will they understand what exactly I am trying to convey? Will the person reading this to them understand? Will they ever get to read it as I might not be alive? The book starts out fairly well, Mr Linenger's take is that he's hardly had time to be with his son. The reason to write to him becomes clearer and more focused as the book wends its way to the end.

I laughed. I cried (towards the end) and yes, I yawned at a few parts but I came away with what a beautiful book of a father's pseudo-monologue, Mr Linenger wrote and congratulations to him and the science team and all concerned, especially his wife, whose love comes through in his letters. It's a new side to the '...boldly go where no man has gone before." stuff.

I consider myself lucky to hear Jerry Linenger speak at my brokerage conference. Jerry's story changed my life. He is not only an American Hero but a brilliant man. His main story was don't let this small stuff on earth stress you out. There are many men and women that sacrifice their life daily to make our lives better. Jerry almost died three times on the russian space station. He reiterated how important family is and how we should tell our love ones how much we love them regulary. I look forward to reading his biography. I would like to thank Jerry for changing my life and others that are lucky enough to hear his story.

As a friend of Jerry's, I feel I should correct something. (Not that he or his record need defending.) We do in fact speed up to reach higher orbits. This puts energy into the orbit, resulting in a higher/larger orbit. The resulting average velocity is lower, but we got there by increasing velocity from a lower orbit. Conversely, to decrease altitude, we slow down. Again, average velocity is higher, but we got there by slowing down (taking energy out of our orbit).

Also, if the detail in Jerry's letters is too much, it seems inconsistent to then say it is a "glaring error" to use 7 million pounds of liftoff thrust instead of 6.6...

Jerry Linenger was the fourth NASA astronaut of a total of seven who served aboard the Russian space station Mir. His mission lasted from January 12, 1997, till May 24, 1997 giving him a total of 132 days in space. At the time, this was the longest duration flight of an American male. During his stay, Jerry Linenger became the first American to conduct a space walk from a foreign space station and in a non-American made spacesuit. He and his two Russian colleagues also performed a "fly around" in the Soyuz spacecraft, undocking from one docking port of the station, manually flying to and redocking at a different location. While living Mir, Linenger and his two Russian crewmembers faced numerous difficulties, the most severe fire ever aboard an orbiting spacecraft, failures of onboard systems and a near collision with a resupply cargo ship during a manual docking system test. These tales and many others are recounted in his other book, "Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir."

In his latest offering, Dr. Linenger recounts these events as well as many others, using personal letters sent, via e-mail, to his 14 month old son and a few to his wife and mission control. It is quite clear from these letters that he was very proud of his young son, missed him and his wife a great deal and that he felt extremely isolated and alone. Several of the letters I found very refreshing, such as the need to honest (especially in this day and age); however, I also found many of the letters to be rather strange. Dr. Linenger goes into a great amount of detail about the equipment on the Mir, such as heat rejection system and the carbon dioxide removal system. I doubt most high school students could understand what he was trying to say. Maybe it's me, but if I were going to write letters to my toddler son, I would keep the technical descriptions simple. I would want him to be able to read my letter say by the time he was ten. The very technical sections within the book also take away from the general tone of the book of his isolation, missing his son, wife and the planet Earth. One letter to mission details his concern about safety, almost a foreboding of things to come on the next mission with Michael Foale.

I also found two glaring errors in the book. First, the liftoff thrust of the shuttle is not 7 million lbs, but 6.6 million lbs. Second, his description of the orbital mechanics is described incorrectly. He states, "We go faster in order to get up higher. As we slow down, our orbit lowers." The exact opposite is true. The lower the orbit the higher the velocity and the higher the orbit the slower the velocity. For example, communication satellites that are essentially stationary over the Earth (one orbit per day) are at an altitude of 23,000 miles. The space station, which orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, is at an altitude of 250 miles. As an astronaut, he should know better.

In conclusion, if you want to know what happen to Jerry Linenger aboard Mir, read his other book, "Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir." If you want to know how he felt orbiting the Earth and his feelings of isolation, get this book.