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| S P E C I A L | Repairing Mir |
Mir spacewalk resumes after initial problems
August 22, 1997
Web posted at: 9:58 a.m. EDT (1358 GMT)(CNN) -- The long-awaited Mir spacewalk was proceeding Friday despite two early problems, including a difficulty with a hatch door seal and a leaking spacesuit.
The problems had threatened the mission to reconnect power cables inside the Russian spacestation.
Moments before he was to enter the damaged Spektr science module, Russian flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov detected a leak in his left spacesuit glove.
Russian officials described the situation as serious, although the cosmonauts were said to be safe. The transfer node where Vinogradov and Flight Commander Anatoly Solovyov were standing was repressurized, and Vinogradov put on a new spacesuit glove.
Russian officials had considered cancelling the spacewalk after the spacesuit problem, in part because the cosmonauts had a limited supply of oxygen. The cosmonauts began the mission with a seven-hour supply, which they began using at approximately 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 GMT) .
Earlier Friday Solovyov had to get out of his suit to re-seal a leaky hatchway leading to another module. The leak was sealed, but the problem delayed the spacewalk about an hour.
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Diagram of the spacewalk plan
Dr. Norm Thagard, the first American astronaut to work on Mir, describes the first problem that delayed the start of the spacewalk Friday. 
288K/25 sec. AIFF or WAV sound
The repair mission was expected to last about four hours, but officials said it could be expanded to seven hours if necessary.
No one knows what conditions Solovyev and Vinogradov were to encounter inside the darkened Spektr. But space officials said broken equipment could tear the cosmonauts spacesuits and that body fluids from experiments, like blood and urine, might be floating in the weightless interior of the module.
A cargo ship slammed into the space station in June, the worst accident in Mir's 11-year history. The ship punctured Spektr, leaking oxygen into space and forcing the crew to seal off the module and its vital solar panels. Since then, Mir has operated on about half power.
NASA said the cosmonauts face three main mission priorities:
- Restore power from Spektr.
- Reclaim some hardware if possible.
- Make brief inspections for the leak source in the punctured module.
Russian and U.S. space officials have said that if the Russians fail to restore power, the mission could be Mir's last.
That would leave Earth with no working space station and no laboratory for testing aspects of the planned international space station. It would also hurt the cash-strapped Russian Space Agency, which relies on funding from the United States and other nations that send their astronauts to Mir.
If the crew succeeds, the Russian Space Agency could keep the venerable space station aloft for two more years, barring further problems.
Assessing the damage
During the spacewalk about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth, Vinogradov -- wearing a 300-pound spacesuit -- will enter the depressurized Spektr while Solovyov waits just outside in the transfer node. While in Spektr, NASA officials said, Solovyov may take a quick look around to assess interior damage but will focus on retrieving the power cables.
The cosmonauts also will install a new hatch door between Spektr and the transfer node. The door is fitted with hermetic connections allowing the cables to pass from Spektr's three working solar panels to the rest of the space station.
In case something goes wrong, U.S. astronaut Michael Foale, who rounds out the three-man crew, will be waiting in the nearby Soyuz-TM craft, poised to spirit his Russian colleagues to Earth if necessary.
The spacewalk is the first of several scheduled for the Mir crew. Foale is scheduled to make an exterior spacewalk in early September to survey damage to Spektr.
· MIR MAIN PAGE · RELATED SITES · HISTORY ·
· TIMELINE · GALLERY · SOYUZ · CREW · REPAIR MISSION ·
- CNN In-Depth: Space
- Video Almanac: 1996 - Mir and Atlantis dock
- Video Almanac: 1986 - Soviets launch Mir
- Message Board: Repairing Mir
Related stories:
- Mir crew rests ahead of Friday's spacewalk - August 21, 1997
- Mir crew ready for unprecedented repair mission - August 20, 1997
- Mir crew prepares for risky spacewalk - August 20, 1997
- Spacewalk to repair damaged Mir set for Friday - August 19, 1997
- Crew rights tumbling Mir after main computer fails - August 18, 1997
Related sites:
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- American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology
- Russian Space Science Internet
- Russian Space Research Insstitute (IKI)
- NASA Shuttle-Mir Web
- Keith's MIR Page
- ISS Phase I - Space Station Mir
- Russian Space Agency
- MIR Space Station - Maximov Online
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