Valeri Polyakov
This cosmonaut holds the record for the longest single stay in space
Valeri Polyakov adapted well to life in space. Then again, the cosmonaut spent more than enough time away from our planet to make it feel like a second home, with not one but two lengthy stays in low-Earth orbit.
The first came in 1988 when he resided on the Soviet Union’s Mir space station for 240 days. He arrived there after launching on board Soyuz TM-6 as a doctor-cosmonaut on 29 August 1988 and ventured back on TM-7 in April 1989 after conducting many medical experiments.
But even that paled in comparison to his mammoth stint five years later. Having been on board Mir from 8 January 1994 to 22 March 1995, he set the record for the longest single stay in space – a staggering 437 days and 18 hours. Those 14 months have never been beaten since.
Polyakov’s 22-month combined stint was all the more remarkable given that the labyrinth that was the Mir space station remained active for just 15 years and had humans on board for all except two-and-a-half years. Lengthy stays were actually commonplace for cosmonauts, and yet such endurance was truly heroic.
His second stay in particular enabled Russian researchers to study the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body, particularly the mind. In that sense, it didn’t seem to matter that Polyakov spent more time helping to service the failure-prone space station than experimenting. His key aim was, in effect, to keep going, and he did so by wearing a pressure suit, which would push fluids downwards, and undergoing a strict fitness regimen.
Whether or not it helped that cosmonauts were allowed the odd tipple here and there is another matter in terms of seeing such long stays through to the end. Polyakov was allowed small amounts of cognac and vodka, and such pleasures were enjoyed to such a degree that cosmonauts would bemoan how dry the ISS was when it began hosting expeditions in 2001.
So what drove Polyakov? Born Valeri
Korshunov on 27 April 1942 in Tula, some 193 kilometres (120 miles) south of Moscow, Polyakov – who changed his name 15 years later when he was adopted by his stepfather – is said to have had an interest in space from a very early age.
He joined the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow in 1971, specialising in astronautics medicine, and he became a cosmonaut trainee the following year, graduating with a candidate of medical sciences degree in 1976.
But he also possessed qualities that simply cannot be taught. As if to prove that the lengthy second spell in space had not adversely affected him, he left the Soyuz TM-20 capsule which had carried him back to Earth and walked – unsteadily, it has to be said – the short distance to a nearby chair. There he inhaled the smoke from a cigarette and drank a small brandy. NASA astronaut Norman Thagard said he looked “like he could wrestle a bear”.
Polyakov was attempting to show that humans could survive microgravity long enough to endure a successful future trip to Mars. Studies had shown that his mental performance dipped in the first three weeks of his spaceflight, but that it had bounced back. He also had a dip in his first two weeks back on Earth, but in general his mental efficiency and emotional state was maintained at a high level.
His second trip was to be his last. He retired as a cosmonaut in June 1995, but he remains active, holding the position of deputy director of the Ministry of Public Health in Moscow. In that role he pursues a very special interest: medical care in long-term space missions. His mission to prove that humans can survive for long periods in space continues.