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| S P E C I A L | Repairing Mir |
Shuttle crew unloads space supplies for Mir
September 28, 1997
Web posted at: 12:20 p.m. EDT (1620 GMT)MOSCOW (CNN) -- The first full day of work following the docking of U.S. space shuttle Atlantis began aboard the troubled space station Mir Sunday.
The shuttle crew, which includes 41-year-old David Wolf -- who will replace Astronaut Michael Foale for a four-month mission aboard Mir -- began unloading Atlantis' 5,000-pound cargo.
A key instrument pushed through the connecting hatch immediately after docking was a new computer. It will replace the old motion-control computer which crashed three times in as many weeks, prompting the station to rotate out of control and causing power supply problems.
The crew will also unload repair equipment, scientific experiments, fresh drinking water, electrical batteries, tanks of air, and a cap designed to plug a leak in Mir's damaged Spektr science module.
That damage occurred when an unmanned supply ship collided with Mir during a re-docking maneuver in June. It was part of a string of serious problems aboard the 11-year-old space station. Other mishaps included a serious fire and repeated life-support breakdowns and computer glitches.
Later on Sunday, Wolf was to officially begin his mission by replacing Foale's specially molded seat for the station's Soyuz escape ship with his own.
After vociferous criticism in the U.S. Congress over Mir's safety record, NASA officials waited until the last minute to decide to not change plans to put Wolf aboard Mir.
"There was a lot of discussion about the risk," shuttle commander Jim Wetherbee said after the docking. "We are here to tell you, all 10 of us, the benefits far outweigh the risks."
The Atlantis crew includes two would-be U.S. Mir residents, Scott Parazynski and Wendy Lawrence, ruled out because they were too tall and too short, French astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien, and Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Titov.
They will return on Atlantis on Friday with Foale, who has spent four months on the Russian station.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
· MIR MAIN PAGE · RELATED SITES · HISTORY ·
· TIMELINE · GALLERY · SOYUZ · CREW · REPAIR MISSION ·
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- Russians, Americans embrace in space - September 27, 1997
- Shuttle Atlantis links up with Mir - September 27, 1997
- Atlantis up and away to Mir - September 25, 1997
Related sites:
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- NASA Shuttle-Mir Web- official NASA site for U.S. astronauts and their activities aboard the Russian Mir Space Station
- NASA Office of Inspector General
- 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
- Russian Space Research Institute (IKI)
- MIR Space Station - news, research, history, images and links from Maximov Online
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