Mir Crew Restores Systems Halted By Power Outage

The Mir crew on Sunday fired up systems that shut down after the trouble-plagued space station lost power as it tested a solar panel, a news agency reported.

The power loss on Friday caused the station’s motion control computer to turn off, but it was restored to service the same day and all other systems were switched back on Sunday night, the Interfax news agency said.

Interfax, quoting officials at Mission Control, said the crew fired thrusters on the Soyuz TM-26 rocket, which is attached to Mir, to keep the station in the proper orientation and the solar panels faced the sun while the computer was down.

At the Space Center in Houston, NASA spokesman Ed Campion said on Saturday that most of the major systems, including the main oxygen generator and the carbon-dioxide removal system, had remained off while the station regained power.