U.S., Russia Fliers Ok’d For Spacewalk

U.S. and Russian space agency officials on Tuesday approved a four-hour spacewalk by American astronaut David Wolf and cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev to assess wear and tear on the exterior of the 12-year-old Mir space station.

The excursion, which has been postponed several times since late November, was scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m. today.

Wolf, a 41-year-old physician and engineer, received clearance from NASA following a lengthy discussion among engineers from the two countries over the still undetermined cause of a small leak in Mir’s primary airlock for spacewalks. It has leaked since a Nov. 3 excursion, and at least one of 10 primary latches on the hatch will not fully engage.

“I think we have put those safety concerns adequately to bed,” said Greg Harbaugh, who heads NASA’s spacewalk planning office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Harbaugh said a secondary latching mechanism on the primary hatch, as well as two hatches in the compartment of the Mir module, which houses the airlock, could be used to seal the station if the difficulty persists.

Wolf, who is to conclude a 128-day visit to Mir late this month, would become the third American to conduct a spacewalk from the Russian outpost.