Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov is having a really bad year (annus horribilis). I am a bit confused about the sequence of events: in June he had to be resuscitated after having unspecified surgery. In August he developed pneumonia and this worsened, causing him to have a heart attack. He was given drug treatment in the clinic as the specialists were reluctant to operate because of his age (74), but his condition contined to worsen and he was operated on, in a procedure called a coronarography. One cause of his deterioration was his accidentally learning of the death of his 87-year-old sister, Raisa (his parents and 9 other siblings are deceased). Then to add insult to injury, his house near Star City was recently robbed! Details at the CollectSPACE forum here and here, and the Orbiter Forum.
“The Politics Of Shenzhou”, Space Daily, 8/9. The launch of the third Chinese manned space mission is due to take place between 25-30 September, carrying a crew of three.
