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| S P E C I A L | Mission Mir |
Mir spacewalk ends with new engine installed
April 22, 1998
Russian cosmonaut floating outside of space station Mir Wednesday
Web posted at: 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT)In this story:
- 'All the connections are working'
- Fifth spacewalk this month
- Related stories and sites
MOSCOW (CNN) -- Two Russian cosmonauts ventured into open space Wednesday and installed a new engine on the outside of the Mir space station. It was the final spacewalk devoted to replacing an orientation engine that keeps the station's solar panels aimed at the sun.
Cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin began then spacewalk at 9:34 a.m. (0534 GMT), six minutes ahead of schedule. As the two wrapped their mission 6 hours and 21 minutes later, a ground controller gave the cosmonauts some welcome news.
"Guys, we've got some good news ... All the connections are working properly," the controller said.
Scenes from the spacewalk 1.9 MB / 19 sec. / 240x180
723 K / 19 sec. / 160x120
QuickTime movieThe new orientation engine replaced one that ran out of fuel earlier this month, after more than five years of service. Orientation engines adjust Mir's position so that its solar panels always face the sun and can absorb the maximum amount of energy. The engines are not rechargeable and need to be replaced when fuel runs out.
About five hours into the spacewalk, the cosmonauts completed the engine installation, then unfolded the 46-foot girder to which it was attached, space officials said.
"It's in working position," Musabayev reported.
Ground controllers will fire up the new engine in two or three days, said Viktor Blagov, deputy Mission Control chief.
Fifth spacewalk this month
This is the fifth spacewalk this month for the team of cosmonauts. They have had an unusually hectic schedule, prompting ground controllers and doctors to insist repeatedly that they get enough rest between missions.
The old engine ran out of fuel during a spacewalk on April 6, forcing the cosmonauts to rush back to the station and switch on another engine to restore the orbiter's orientation.
Wednesday's mission completed a three-stage engine replacement process. During the previous two spacewalks, Musabayev and Budarin discarded the old engine, then moved some of the equipment on the outside of Mir to make room for the work necessary to install a new engine.
As the cosmonauts were discarding used tools and equipment, Blagov joked about Musabayev's Kazak origins, telling him: "You pass over Russia, approach Kazakstan and then go ahead and drop them."
The third man on Mir, NASA astronaut Andrew Thomas, remained inside the station during the spacewalk, filming his colleagues as he has done in the past.
"Did you take the camera?" Musabayev asked Thomas at the start of the spacewalk. "Then film us, don't just look."
Thomas then joked that after the flight, he could work as a cameraman in Hollywood.
After a series of accidents and breakdowns last year, the 12-year-old Mir has experienced no major troubles in recent months.
Russian space officials hope to keep the station manned at least until next year, when a new international space station should be ready. Russia and the United States are among 15 countries involved in the project.
The Russian cosmonauts are expected to make another spacewalk next month, to retrieve scientific experiments from outside the station.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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· MIR MAIN PAGE · RELATED SITES · HISTORY · TIMELINE |
· GALLERY · SOYUZ · CREW · REPAIR MISSION |
Related stories:
- Cosmonauts return to Mir after stabilizing solar panel - April 6, 1998
- Shuttle-Mir: an experiment in science and politics - April 2, 1998
- Mir spacewalk finished, but repairs aren't - April 1, 1998
- New Mir troubles: overworked crew, sweltering heat - March 19, 1998
- Supply ship carrying needed tools docks with Mir - March 16, 1998
Related sites:
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- NASA Shuttle-Mir Web
- ISS Phase I - Space Station Mir
- Mir Status Report
- Mir Space Station
- How to See Mir in Space
- SpaceViews: Mir Interactive Display
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
Watch Science & Technology Week on CNN for more sci-tech stories.
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