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Even if all this succeeds, Spektr can't be used until the cosmonauts patch up the damage to its skin. On Sept. 3 Solovyev and Vinogradov are booked for a second walk--this one outside Mir--during which they'll crawl around the module looking for any punctures, which they hope to seal with rubbery "hermetic patches." Spektr can then be repressurized...
That would relieve NASA of a big headache. Ever since the 11-year-old Mir was hit by its current plague of mishaps--onboard fires, oxygen shutdowns, a leaking cooling system, dangerous spins, power brownouts--U.S. space officials have been under pressure to stop putting astronauts aboard, a privilege costing NASA about $472 million over five years. These funds have helped bail out the strapped Russian Space Agency, which NASA wants to keep as a major player in the upcoming International Space Station. But the Russian-American partnership is in trouble on Capitol Hill, and only last week presidential science...
Understandably, Foale's original crewmates, Vasili Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin, probably won't be too sad about leaving Mir later this week. But even on Earth, their mission may continue to haunt them. Russian President Boris Yeltsin last week raised "the human factor" as the likely source of Mir's troubles. And adding to Tsibliyev's public embarrassment, Russian officials disclosed that because he was guiding Progress when it plowed into Spektr, he may not get his full flight bonus for his difficult six months in space...
...MIR ON A SHOESTRING...
...stunned by the crass reference to the Russian space station Mir as a "Rube Goldberg contraption" [NOTEBOOK, July 28]. Mir was built and has operated on a virtual shoestring for more than twice as long as intended by its original design specifications. While it is not sophisticated by U.S. standards, it has made valuable contributions to the body of scientific knowledge. By comparison, America's aerospace program has been historically bloated, redundant and rife with its own spectacular failures, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Apollo 13, failed Vanguard launches and, yes, the unfortunate deaths in the Challenger disaster. I applaud...