WORLD : Cosmonauts Land With Crystals
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MOSCOW — Two cosmonauts whose mission was plagued by technical problems and a perilous spacewalk returned to Earth today with a multimillion-ruble payload of space-grown crystals.
The Soyuz TM-9 capsule carrying Anatoly Solovyev and Alexander Balandin landed on the Central Asian steppes at 11:34 a.m., one minute ahead of schedule.
The landing was not broadcast live on Soviet television. But the midday “Vremya” TV news program showed the cosmonauts waving goodby to their replacement crew before leaving the orbiting space station Mir.
“Back in the landing spaceship, we felt the slightly bitter smell of absinthe in the Kazakh steppe,” Solovyev told reporters after landing and ending his six-month stay in space. “I also dreamed that my wife would bring me fresh, delicious apples when I was back on Earth,” he said.
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