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After a week of experiments, the crew started the module’s descent to Earth. Mission Control directed Momand not to touch anything and to let his Russian colleague plot the return. Mid-descent, the ship’s computer malfunctioned. While his partner waited for instructions, Momand noticed that the computer was preparing to jettison their fuel and batteries. He stopped the countdown, and thereby saved himself from spending the rest of his improbable life spinning around the Earth until his air ran out and the capsule burned up in the atmosphere. “He was literally one of half a dozen astronauts who thought their way out of dying,” says James Oberg, a space historian.
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