Valery Kubasov was one of them. Twenty-two years ago, he was on board Soyuz 19, that made history by docking with an Apollo spacecraft. The first joint docking between the USA and the USSR, it set the trend for future superpower cooperation in orbit. Two decades later, Kubasov says many Russians now have different ideals. Today in Russia there are processes going on which have made life for people very difficult and complicated.
People are more interested in profits, business, and income than our achievements in space.
They re ready to give everything away for money. It s a very sad outlook. The lack of interest in space comes at a time of crisis for Russia s space program. And, yet, even some senior Russian officials were unaware of all the developments. Last Thursday, the deputy director general of the Russian space agency, the country s equivalent of NASA, knew nothing of the power failure on Mir until we broke the news to him.