Cosmonaut Valeriy V. Polyakov, who boarded Russia's Mir space station on January 8, 1994, observes rendezvous operations with the Space Shuttle Discovery on its STS-63 mission through a window on the Mir Core Module on February 6, 1995. Polyakov's second spaceflight, the longest human spaceflight in history, began on January 8, 1994 with the launch of the Soyuz TM-18 mission. He spent approximately 437 days (most of that time alone) aboard Mir conducting experiments and performing scientific research. During this flight, he completed just over 7,000 orbits of the Earth. On January 9, 1995, after 366 days in space, Polyakov formally broke the spaceflight duration record previously set by Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov six years earlier. He returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-20 on March 22, 1995. Upon landing, Polyakov opted not to be carried the few feet between the Soyuz capsule and a nearby lawn chair, instead walking the short distance. In doing so, he wished to prove that humans could be physically capable of working on the surface of Mars after a long-duration transit phase. Polyakov volunteered for his 437 day flight to learn how the human body would respond to the micro-gravity environment on long-duration missions to Mars.
View of the crescent moon through the top of the earth's atmosphere. Photographed from International Space Station by Expedition 13 crew over the South China Sea, just south of Macau.
"Earthrise" is the name given to a photograph of the Earth that was taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, showing the Earth seemingly rising above the lunar surface. Note that this phenomenon is only visible from someone in orbit around the Moon. Because of the Moon's synchronous rotation about the Earth (i.e., the same side of the Moon is always facing the Earth), no Earthrise can be observed by a stationary observer on the surface of the Moon.
A satellite picture of the Dasht-e Kavir desert in Iran. October 2000.
