Fresh crew may step in for Mir spacewalk

Latest developments:

• Power restored to space station
• New team set for August arrival

July 18, 1997
Web posted at: 3:02 p.m. EDT (1902 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- A planned July 24 repair spacewalk for the space station Mir has been canceled, and Russian Mission Control is seriously questioning whether the current crew should do the spacewalk at all, Russian space officials said Friday.

The Mir crew may be too exhausted to carry out repairs to the station's damaged module Spektr, officials said. A new crew, currently in training near Moscow, may be called upon to perform the repair instead.

The new crew of the Russian space station Mir trains under water. 650 K/18 sec. QuickTime movie

In an evening briefing, Mission Control Deputy Flight Director Viktor Blagov said it's almost certain the current Mir crew will not be asked to carry out a repair spacewalk. A final determination on the spacewalk will be made Monday.

Earlier, Flight Director Vladimir Solovyov pointed out a string of mishaps the current crew has had to endure, including the June 25 collision with a cargo ship during docking that caused the damage to Spektr, and this week, the mistaken disconnection of a cable that caused the station to lose power.

Since February, the ship has also been through a fire, a cooling system breakdown and an oxygen generator failure. Mir Commander Vasily Tsibliyev and his Russian crewmate Alexander Lazutkin have been on board for all of it.

"We have no confidence at all that this crew will conduct the repair work," Solovyov said.

However, officials brushed off a suggestion that fatigue and stress are causing the crew to make mistakes. "It's been an uneasy flight, and the crew has had enough stressful moments," said Igor Goncharov, Mir's medical director. "But their working ability and psychological condition are normal."

Power restored to space station

While Russian officials debate who will do the repair work, the three-man crew has been given the day off to rest. Lazutkin worked through the night to restore power to the ship, while Tsibliyev had his first good night's sleep since the power disconnection mishap.

Tsibliyev's irregular heartbeat, discovered last week, continues but has not gotten worse. He will take medication for the next two days and officials hope his condition will normalize.

Meanwhile, Solovyov said, the orientation of the Mir station toward the sun -- critical for the functioning of its solar panels -- has been fully re-established, and almost all its batteries were functioning. He said the crew used 2 to 3 kg of fuel firing thrusters on the Soyuz rescue vehicle Thursday to reorient the station.

Should they need to make a hasty departure from the station, there is still more than enough fuel left for them to do so safely. They have 526 kg of fuel aboard, and need only 200 to make an emergency return to Earth.

New team set for August arrival

The next Mir crew, scheduled to leave for Mir August 5, is training at Star City near Moscow. As plans stand now, the two Russian cosmonauts and one French cosmonaut will work alongside the current three-man Mir crew for three weeks. Then the old Russian crew and the French cosmonaut will return to Earth.

NASA's crew contribution to Mir, U.S. astronaut Michael Foale, is scheduled to remain on Mir until the space shuttle Atlantis picks him up in mid-September. U.S. astronaut Wendy Lawrence is slated to switch places with Foale on that mission. Although NASA has questioned whether it would be productive for her to spend time on Mir right now, she is in training at the Star City complex as well.

Russian and NASA space officials stressed, however, that the dates are likely to be pushed back because of the recent problems on Mir.

Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty and Producer Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this story.

 

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Related stories:

• Mir commander declared unfit for repairs - July 16, 1997
• Mir spacewalk delayed - July 15, 1997
• Mir, cargo ship successfully dock - July 7, 1997
• NASA: No more astronauts on Mir until it is safe, productive - July 6, 1997
• Mir crew fixes gyroscopes, prepares for Monday docking - July 6, 1997
• Supply ship blasts off toward Mir - July 5, 1997
• Crucial Mir repairs delayed - July 4, 1997
• How Mir's gyrodynes work - July 3, 1997

Related sites:

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• NASA Shuttle-Mir Web
  information about the Mir Space station is provided by NASA
  • Spektr - section of the space station that was hit
• MIR Space Station - Radio Transmit Info
  includes information about how to transmit and receive communications with MIR through amateur radio
• ISS Phase I - Space Station Mir
  contains graphics and specifications of the diferent areas of MIR
• Russian Space Agency
  homepage of the Russian Space Agency through the NASA site
  • Pictures and Movies
    contains pictures of MIR and MIR missions as released by the Russian Space Agency

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