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Mir commander Anatoly Solovyov celebrated his 50th birthday in space.
Solovyov was congratulated by Russian President Boris Yelstin, who said in a message that Solovyov’s work helped prove that “Russia was, is and will be a great space power.”
But there was no birthday cake–which would have gone stale even if it had made the latest cargo ship flight last month–and no candles, banned because they would set off the space station’s fire alarm, Alexander Agureyev, the cosmonauts’ nutrition chief, told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
But the birthday wasn’t without celebrations.
Solovyov was getting a one-gulp dose of cognac–the only alcoholic drink “semi-officially” allowed aboard the space station, ITAR-Tass said.
