The World - News from Dec. 30, 1985

A Soviet cosmonaut lost his appetite and sleep and became “a bundle of nerves” before an undisclosed illness forced the early return of a mission to the Salyut 7 space station, according to a fellow cosmonaut. In diary excerpts published in the Communist Party newspaper Pravda, Viktor Savinykh described the sickness that struck flight commander Vladimir Vasyutin during his 65 days in space. “We tried to support him with jokes and advice but pain appeared,” Savinykh wrote. The flight returned to Earth on Nov. 21.