INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. – As Jerry Linenger looked out from his porthole window on the space station Mir, his eyes were searching for that familiar, turquoise landmark tucked inside the snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevadas below.

“[Lake Tahoe] is a very special place on the planet,” Linenger, retired U.S. Navy flight surgeon and former astronaut, told the Tribune. “I think people that live up here realize that. It’s hard to miss it.” 

Linenger, now an Incline Village resident, first became acquainted with the Lake Tahoe region during a formative summer between his junior and senior years through a National Science Foundation scholarship where he studied Environmental Science at the Foresta Institute.  

From Franktown Road in Washoe Valley to Lake Tahoe, Little Valley and Pyramid Lake, Linenger spent his summer backpacking for 12 weeks straight, studying limnology, aquatic ecology, and local watershed. 

“We had horses. So sometimes we’d ride horses up, we’d unsaddle, we would sleep under the stars and get on the horse in the morning and go further,” Linenger recalled. “It was a heck of an experience.” 

The program proved to be a pivotal time of self-discovery for him as he realized all the possibilities waiting outside of his hometown in Michigan, including pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. All the while, Lake Tahoe was making a permanent mark on his heart.

“That really changed my life,” Linenger said. “It gave me this confidence that, ‘Hey, I don’t have to stay in this Detroit suburb, blue-collar neighborhood, and I can do big things.'”

Little did Linenger know at the time, those ‘big things’ would consist of joining NASA and making history during his five-month mission aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1997.

In a four-part documentary series called “Once Upon a Time in Space” from acclaimed director, James Bluemel, the harrowing tale of life on Mir for Linenger and two Russian cosmonauts is examined while loved ones are left to watch from the ground, blending archival footage with raw accounts that tug on your heart strings.

From the worst fire ever recorded aboard an orbiting spacecraft to a failed docking test collision from an uncrewed supply cargo ship, the space station suffered a series of severe crises while Linenger was onboard, eventually leading to the inception of his praised book “Letters from MIR: An Astronaut’s Letters to His Son”. 

As the documentary unravels the chaos, viewers get to see astronauts as more than just heroes, but as vulnerable human beings adapting to the circumstances around them.

“I’ve been on Navy ships, been in the middle of the Indian Ocean, out there by myself – lots of different places, but I have never been so cut off, isolated and stuck with myself as I was during those five months,” he said. “I think the documentary tries to bring out some of that reflection that I had, some of the way it changed my life, the way I look at things differently, a shift in perspective.”

Between the turmoil of working around the clock, Linenger wrote letters to his son and found brief moments to gaze upon Earth at altitudes ranging from 184 to 262 miles. He even took a unique approach to shopping for real estate as he considered which regions of the country he thought looked the most appealing from space. 

While the Traverse City area became his top pick, his second was Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevadas, saying he had already spent time here and knew just how beautiful it was from the ground. 

“When we’d be flying over it, the computer would tell me, ‘Hey, the trajectory’s going over the top of Lake Tahoe.’ I’d set my little alarm and I’d go to a window no matter what I’m doing and I’d take a few photos of Lake Tahoe while I’m going over the top,” Linenger said.

After 132 days and a variety of obstacles, Linenger landed back on Earth, bringing his fresh perspective on life with him. 

“What a life we have on the planet – a carefree existence. The air is all around us. We don’t have to make it. We don’t have to measure the oxygen content every day, don’t have to worry about it rushing out in a rapid decompression and suffocating me,” he said as he touched on reacclimating to gravity during his first shower back on Earth, and how the color green and the rustling of leaves in his backyard left him in awe. 

Now, Linenger enjoys his time in Tahoe, embracing its winters by skiing at Northstar and Diamond Peak.

“I like high places, I guess,” he joked. “I get up on the top of Diamond Peak there looking out over the lake and it gives me a little bit of feeling of being back in space looking down at the planet.”

His advice for others is to take a step back and look at the big picture. If you’re having a bad day, take a deep breath and count the blessings around you.

“We’re in Lake Tahoe, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. If you’re not smiling every day of your life, something’s wrong.”

BBC and PBS’s “Once Upon a Time in Space” four-part docuseries premieres on Tuesday, July 14. You can watch by visiting pbs.org.