In the Memory of Another Space Docking

Watching Crew Dragon's successful berthing at the ISS on May 31 2020, and laughing at Musk's "Trampoline is working" joke I remembered another event happening a quarter of a century ago: In June 1995 the Shuttle moored to the Mir Station and during 3 years 7 American missions to the Russian space station were accomplished. It was a time of hope that Russia, which has become free of communistic dictatorship several years ago, will be so forever and the largest by area in the world country is on its way to the globalizing world of modern states. However, this essay is not about political issues and what happened with Russia and the Russian space exploration program during the last 20 years but about my very modest participation in this Russian-American cooperation in space 25 years ago. And the story itself is below.