Astronaut Saved Mir Station With 23 Minutes of Oxygen Left

With just 23 minutes of breathable air remaining, astronaut Michael Foale faced a choice that would determine whether he and his crewmates lived or died in space.

On May 25, 1997, an unmanned cargo ship slammed into Russia's Mir space station during a failed docking test, ripping a massive hole in one of the modules. Air began rushing out into the vacuum of space while the station started tumbling wildly out of control.

Foale, a British-American NASA astronaut, worked alongside Russian cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander "Sasha" Lazutkin to seal off the damaged Spektr module and stop the leak. The crew succeeded with minutes to spare, saving both their lives and the station itself.

Now retired after six space missions and 30 years with NASA, Foale shares the full story in PBS's new documentary series "Once Upon a Time in Space." The second episode reveals details never widely known about that terrifying day and the events that led to the accident.

The collision happened because Russian managers wanted to save two million dollars by skipping a radar system built in Ukraine. They asked the crew to attempt a manual docking from six kilometers away without the critical equipment, a distance far beyond normal procedures.

Commander Tsibliev couldn't accurately judge the cargo ship's closing speed without the radar. The Progress vessel came in too fast, bounced off the station, crumpled part of the Spektr module, and bent a solar array before floating away into orbit.

Why This Inspires

What stands out most to Foale isn't the technical heroism but the human cost. Tsibliev blamed himself entirely for the crash, even though the real fault lay with cost-cutting decisions made on the ground. When medical tests showed the commander was too stressed to perform a follow-up repair spacewalk, Foale was asked to take his place.

"I just knew that was going to create a huge issue with me and Vasily because it was so humiliating for him," Foale recalls in the documentary. "And he took all the blame of the collision on his shoulders, which was unfair."

The documentary features rare footage of the astronauts in training and personal interviews that reveal the emotional weight of space exploration. Director James Bluemel uncovered clips of a young Foale with a surfer haircut, using them to spark deeper reflections about risk, responsibility, and what it means to trust your life to others in the most extreme environment humans have ever worked.

Three people turned 23 minutes into a lifetime, proving that even in the void of space, human courage and teamwork can overcome seemingly impossible odds.