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| S P E C I A L | Repairing Mir |
Mir spacewalk to fix leaking hatch
January 8, 1998
Mir
Web posted at: 3:56 p.m. EST (2056 GMT)MOSCOW (CNN) -- The Mir crew took a long nap on Thursday, resting in advance of a six-hour spacewalk to find the reason why the space station's exit hatch was losing pressure.
Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov were scheduled to start their venture at 1:45 a.m. Friday Moscow time (2245 GMT/6:45 p.m. EST Thursday).
While his colleagues are outside, U.S. astronaut Dave Wolf will supervise operations from inside the main module.
Since they arrived on Mir on August 7, Solovyov and Vinogradov have had their hands full. Mir was still reeling from a June collision with a cargo ship and they've done several spacewalks to bring the nearly 12-year-old Russian space station back to normal operating condition.
But opening and closing the external hatch for all those spacewalks has apparently damaged the rubber-like seal on the final door between Mir and space.
Wolf The main goal of the latest spacewalk is to replace that seal with a new one that arrived several weeks ago.
Russian controllers have allocated five hours for the walk, and if the cosmonauts fix the seal quickly there may be time to examine the Spektr module punctured in the June collision and prepare for their next journey outside to unhook a broken solar array.
The Russians still believe they can seal the leak in Spektr to make it habitable again, but NASA officials say they won't ever feel comfortable having an astronaut live there in the future.
Wolf, who is completing his four months on Mir. will most likely conduct a spacewalk before a U.S. space shuttle arrives to bring him back to Earth in two weeks.
Correspondent John Holliman contributed to this report
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· MIR MAIN PAGE · RELATED SITES · HISTORY · TIMELINE |
· GALLERY · SOYUZ · CREW · REPAIR MISSION |
Related stories:
- Mir back to normal - January 3, 1998
- Mir on the mend after power loss - January 2, 1998
- Mir's troubles overshadow plans for new station - October 13, 1997
- Mir crew builds computer unit from spare parts - September 15, 1997
- Mir's main computer fails, station begins to tumble - August 18, 1997
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