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I survived the worst fire in the history of space exploration and had to keep it a secret
BBC Science Focus
|December 2025
Astronaut Jerry Linenger opens up about one of the worst accidents in space, and the cover-up that followed
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On 24 February 1997, Jerry Linenger and his five crewmates aboard the Mir space station faced a danger they hoped they’d never encounter: a fire. It remains the worst fire to have ever broken out inside a crewed vessel in orbit.
The story unfolds in the new BBC docu-series
This story is from the December 2025 edition of BBC Science Focus.
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I survived the worst fire in the history of space exploration and had to keep it a secret
Astronaut Jerry Linenger opens up about one of the worst accidents in space, and the cover-up that followed
1 mins
December 2025
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