Russian cargo craft collides with MIR. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cosmonauts on board Russia,s MIR spacestation were reporting power problems after their ageing vessel collided with a cargo craft during a docking test. Mission control chief Vladimir Lobachyov said the collision was "the most serious of recent times" and may have involved a technical malfunction. But there are no plans as yet to bring home crew, including UK-born Michael Foale, in the Soyuz spacecraft kept docked at MIR for emergencies. CNN's Moscow correspondent Betsy Aeron reported that Russian Mission control was taking the MIR collision as serious and weithing the options. They had clear communication with MIR and were discussing saving energy in the space station as a whole after damage to a module's solar panel. Options are: 1. turn solar panel to the sun 2. turn off some electrics 3. move to MIR's central area to save power No decision has yet been made! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- VideoCosmos News Report Igor A. Marinin Deputy Director General, VideoCosmos Co. Chief Editor, Novosti Kosmonavtiki Igor A. Lissov Manager, Foreign Information, Novosti Kosmonavtiki June 25, 1997 -- Moscow, Russia -- Progress M-34 cargo vehicle collided with the Spektr module of Mir space station earlier today but the crew survived. The collision occured before 09:18 UTC during Progress' flyaround in remote control mode before scheduled re-docking. The crew haven't had communications with Russian ground stations at the time. The cargo spacecraft sheared a half of Spektr solar panel and made damage to the module itself. Depressurization of the station had begun but the crew succeeded in fast closing the hatch to Spektr. The rest of the station is being re-pressurized. Also, thermal control radiators on Spektr were damaged. There is no immediate danger to the crew but emergency landing is a possible decision. This report is not copyrighted. If you plan to use or publish the report please keep reference to VideoCosmos Co. of Moscow, Russia, and Novosti Kosmonavtiki Magazine. Bye bye 73's de Maico 様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様僕様 Packet : HB9OAE @ HB9TT 藩様 internet: hb9oae@bluewin.ch ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * MIR NEWS * ============ Ham-astronaut and former Mir crew member Jerry Linenger, KC5HBR, told reporters during an interview on 25-Jun-97 that the crew aboard the Russian space station has had to "power everything down that's possible," including some life-support systems, in the wake of a collision with an unmanned cargo rocket. The crash, which damaged a solar array and punctured one module, resulted in a loss of as much as 50 percent of the Mir's electrical power. Speaking at a NASA press briefing, Linenger characterized the Mir as "darkened ship", and said the crew would operate "in a slowdown mode" until the effects of the mishap are corrected. The accident caused the space station to depressurize. The situation prompted quick action by the crew to seal off the affected Spektr module. The accident has cut off US ham-astronaut Mike Foale, KB5UAC, from his sleeping quarters and personal items in the Spektr module. NASA Shuttle-Mir Program Manager Frank Culbertson said there was "no indication of health and safety problems" among the crew members, but that some of the experiments in the Spektr module may have been ruined. Culbertson said the collision with the Progress supply rocket happened as the crew was "testing a new rendezvous technique" to be used if automatic docking systems failed. In addition to Foale, the Mir is staffed by Russian cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin. Foale has been aboard Mir since mid-May when he replaced Linenger. Linenger told the press conference that it was too early to comment on what the latest problem aboard Mir might mean for the future of the 11-year-old space station, which already has outlasted its anticipated life span by six years. Linenger said fire and decompression are the two most dangerous things aboard a spacecraft "and we've had both of those." During Linenger's four months aboard Mir early this year, the crew experienced a fire, a near collision with another cargo rocket, and coolant system leaks. Culbertson said repairs likely would require a space walk by the Mir crew. He also did not rule out the possible termination of the mission. As part of its response to the emergency, the crew prepared the Soyuz escape vehicle for possible evacuation. Culbertson said the crew would have to orient the station for optimal exposure to the sun to make the best possible use of the solar panels that remain on-line. For news updates, see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/NewsRoom/today.html. [Info via ARRL bulletin ARLS021] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA Office of Space Flight (Prof. J.v. Puttkamer) 25-Jun-1997 Progress M-34 Crashes Into Mir Spektr Module Damaged On Wednesday, June 25, at 5:18 a.m. EDT, Progress M-34 crashed into the Mir Space Station Spektr Module during a test of the TORU, a newly installed Progress guidance system. The Spektr module, which houses many U.S. experiments and all of American astronaut Michael Foale's personal effects, sprung a leak and had to be sealed off completely with its power shut down. When the Spektr was punctured, air pressure in the Mir complex dropped from its normal 750 mm Hg down to 675 mm Hg. It has now risen back to 692 mm Hg (nominal range: 660-850 mm Hg) and has stabilized. Because the Russian communications satellite Altair is also out of service, information on this event is only available during the station's passes over Russian communication sites. The Russian news agency Novosti reported on June 25 that the crew is safe and in no danger, but the return of the crew aboard the Soyuz escape craft is a possible option. Spektr is the primary electricity generating module for the entire Mir complex. It is estimated by American sources that the loss of power to the overall Mir complex currently is in the neighborhood of 50%. The potential for effecting repairs to Spektr is being evaluated by the Russian Mir team; unless its power generating capacity can be restored, almost all scientific experimentation aboard Mir will have to be curtailed. Progress M-34 has moved several kilometers away from the Mir complex and is now under Russian ground control. The Progress M-34 resupply vessel, which was launched on April 6, 1997 and had delivered (along with other cargo) the parts used to repair the malfunctioning Elektron oxygen generator, was loaded with garbage and was only being used to test the new docking equipment before being jettisoned on Saturday to burn up in the atmosphere. To view with your naked eyes the now crippled Mir Space Station as it passes overhead in your town, please see our Mir Viewing Tables. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FLORIDA TODAY Space Online For June 26, 1997 Space station crew dims lights, shuts down equipment after collision MOSCOW (AP) - Desperate to conserve power, the three men on Russia's crippled space station Mir worked in the dark today with all non-essential equipment turned off after the worst orbital collision ever. An unmanned cargo ship crashed into Mir on Wednesday, leaving a gash about the size of a postage stamp in the pressurized vessel, knocking out half the power and raising questions again about how long the decrepit spacecraft can function before someone gets killed. "It's a serious situation," said astronaut Jerry Linenger, who returned from Mir in May after battling a blaze and other life-threatening problems aboard the aging, 11-year-old outpost. "Fire aboard a space- craft and decompression are the two most dangerous things that can happen on an orbiting vehicle." It was unclear how much longer the American and two Russians on Mir could remain on board, but they were said to be in no immediate danger. Mir has an attached Soyuz capsule that can bring the crewmen home in an emergency. The men were forced to work in darkness with much of their equipment turned off to save energy. Unless more power is restored soon - how soon, NASA couldn't say - they may not be able to operate their life- support systems, such as the primary oxygen generators and the carbon dioxide removal system. They also were urged to move slowly to conserve oxygen. Meanwhile, the Itar-Tass news service reported these developments today: - The Progress M-34 spaceship, which collided with Mir, will splash down on June 27 and will sink "in a calculated area of the world ocean," a spokesman for Russian Mission Control said. Progress is currently being controlled from Earth. - The launch of the Progress M-35 cargo spaceship, scheduled for June 27, has been postponed. If Mir's power supply system is brought back to normal, the cargo ship will be launched, probably in 10 days. It will carry supplies, including power cables, needed to make repairs on Mir. - The termination of Mir's mission is out of the question, and its flight will be continued, Yuri Koptev, director general of the Russian Space Agency, said in a news conference today. Four of the space station's solar panels weren't working after the accident, which knocked the station away from the ideal sun angle for the remaining solar panels to keep charging. This morning, the crew used precious fuel to fire thrusters to turn the station so its solar batteries could recharge, said Vera Medvedkova, a spokeswoman for Russian Mission Control. The crew's priority is to restore power," said Kathleen Maliga, a NASA spokeswoman at Russia's Mission Control center just outside Moscow. "But so far no additional power has been recovered." While still trying to determine the extent of the damage, NASA said it will rethink its program of sending astronauts to Mir. "Once we get the situation stabilized and understand what the long- term potential for operation on the Mir is and what it's capabilities remaining are, then we will evaluate with the Russians where we go next," said Frank Culbertson, director of NASA's shuttle-Mir program. "We might at some point want to terminate the mission." Even before the latest accident, some experts and Washington officials had argued that Mir was too old to fly safely. In February, a defective oxygen generator sparked a 14-minute fire that sent chunks of molten metal flying. In the weeks afterward, the cooling system leaked, oxygen generators failed and the carbon dioxide removal system broke down. The collision happened as the Russian cosmonauts practiced docking the Progress supply ship by remote control. Commander Vasily Tsibliyev could not slow the ship, and it slammed into Spektr, a Mir laboratory module, Culbertson said. The supply ship bumped into a solar panel which juts out from Spektr, then struck the laboratory module. The collision put an estimated 1-inch gash in Spektr. When the crew heard the hissing of oxygen seeping through the hole and felt pressure dropping throughout Mir, they immediately shut the hatch, sealing Spektr off from the rest of the space station but exposing it to the deadly vacuum of space. Pressure aboard the rest of the space station soon stabilized. By afternoon, eight hours after the accident, the pressure was a little low and the temperature about normal, Culbertson said. Through their quick action, the cosmonauts saved the station from worse damage and possible abandonment, both countries' space programs said. The crash also punctured one of the solar panels on Spektr and dented a radiator, Culbertson said. Spacewalks almost certainly would be required to repair the hole, if it can be fixed, he said. The laboratory module is equipped with four electricity-producing solar panels and contains much of American astronaut Michael Foale's belongings, including his bed, clothes and half his science research. Many of his experiments were probably ruined. The Progress supply ship, filled with garbage, orbited at a safe distance from Mir and was expected to plunge through the atmosphere and burn up in a day or so. Russian space officials said they do not know what went wrong; the Progress ship wasn't even close to its docking port when it slammed into Mir. Another Progress almost hit the station three months ago, during a similar docking test while Linenger was aboard. Viktor Blagov, a deputy director of the Russian Mission Control near Moscow, said the modular structure of Mir saved it this time. The 100-ton-plus station resembles a giant cross: six large modules and one small shuttle docking port are linked, each with its own hatch. "It worked like a ship, which can keep afloat if one compartment is damaged," Blagov said. Culbertson stressed that the accident was unrelated to Mir's age. The station is 11 years old, six years beyond its original expected lifetime. "This decompression that occurred could have happened on Day 1 of the Mir's life," he said. Foale, who replaced Linenger in May, is the fifth of seven Americans who are supposed to live on Mir to help NASA gain experience for the future international space station. Space shuttle Atlantis isn't due back at Mir until September. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mir 23 / NASA 5 Status Report Mission Control Center, Korolev June 26, 1997 12:45 p.m. CDT (16:45 GMT) The Russian Space Station Mir continues to orbit the Earth in stable condition after the collision Wednesday between the unmanned Progress resupply ship and the Mir's Spektr module solar array. In the meantime, top Russian space officials conferred with NASA operations officials at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow to evaluate current conditions on the Mir along with possible options for the recovery of power from Spektr. The Mir 23 cosmonauts, Commander Vasily Tsibliev, Flight Engineer Alexander Lazutkin and U.S. astronaut Mike Foale, are in good condition as they work with Russian flight controllers to develop methods for possible repairs of damaged Mir hardware. Environmental conditions in the station are normal. The atmospheric pressure in the Core Module has remained stable overnight and through the day today. Oxygen levels onboard are good and the removal of carbon dioxide is being handled by U.S.-supplied lithium hydroxide canisters. The Vozdukh carbon dioxide scrubber has been shut off to conserve electricity, but may be reactivated Friday, once on-board batteries are recharged. The atmosphere in Spektr is not yet at vacuum, but is close to being depleted through a hole or gash in the module. The exact location of the leak is not yet known. The Mir's orientation is not providing the best electricity-generating capability for the station through the five solar arrays available, but power generation through the arrays is expected to improve once the Mir regains full attitude control capability. Flight controllers and the crew are working to reorient the station to a better sun angle which will increase available power and allow the batteries on Mir to be recharged. Flight controllers hope to accomplish the attitude change by sometime tomorrow. Once the batteries are recharged, the gyrodynes on the station will be activated to restore automatic attitude control. Russian flight controllers continue to deveop tools and procedures which may be used by Tsibliev and Lazutkin to recover the use of the Spektr's solar power. The options include a possible procedure to hook cables from the Spektr to the Mir's base block to route power from the disabled module to operational batteries. Tsibliev and Lazutkin would wear spacesuits to perform any such procedure, which would not occur earlier than mid-July, following the arrival of hardware and new cables on the next Progress ship. The launch of the new Progress is planned for early July. Russian flight controllers reported that the cosmonauts are in good spirits as they press ahead with their work on board as power margin permit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 325 Date: 26-Jun-97 at 06:04 From: INTERNET:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu Jonathan's Space Report No. 325 Draft 1997 Jun 25 Cambridge, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- The robot cargo ship Progress M-34 undocked from Mir at 1022 UTC on Jun 24 to perform a redocking test using recently developed remote-control procedures which are replacing the old automatic systems that Russia can no longer afford to buy from Ukraine. At around 0918 UTC on Jun 25, Mir commander Tsibliev was remotely commanding the approach of Progress to the Kvant (37KE) module when, for reasons that remain unclear, the Progress went off course and collided with a solar array on the Spektr module and then the module itself. A large hole was made in the solar panel, and one of Spektr's radiators was badly buckled. A small breach in Spektr's hull appears to have been made and the module began to depressurize. This was not a slow leak - apparently the crew heard a hissing sound and felt their ears pop. They closed the hatch on the core= module transfer section that leads to Spektr. The Spektr module is now fully depressurized. It remains docked to Mir with its docking hatch open. The electrical connection between Spektr's solar panels and the main station was broken off, also cutting off the power supply from the solar panels on the Kristall module. The crew of Mir are Vasiliy Tsibliev, Aleksandr Lazutkin, and Mike Foale (It has been noted that Tsibliev was also driving on the only previous documented orbital fender-bender, when he banged Soyuz TM-17 into Mir in Jan 1994). The Progress M-34 cargo ship is at a safe distance and is under control. It will be deorbited on Jun 26. Many details of this incident are thanks= to Igor Lissov of Videocosmos Inc/Novosti Kosmoavtiki...