American May Help With Repairs

A fresh cosmonaut crew reached Russia’s power-depleted Mir space station Thursday amid new reports that American visitor Mike Foale may join one of the two men for an early September spacewalk.

Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov, launched two days earlier aboard a Soyuz rocket, plan a difficult six-month mission that will feature at least a half-dozen spacewalks to repair damage from a June 25 collision between Mir and a cargo capsule.

Shortly after the link-up, Vladimir Solovyov, Russia’s chief flight director, told reporters in suburban Moscow that Foale has been picked to join one of the newcomers for a spacewalk. During the excursion, tentatively planned for Sept. 3, Foale and his partner would survey external damage to Mir’s Spektr science module.

A spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s cooperative human spaceflight program with the Russians said Foale’s participation is being considered.

Solovyev, a 49-year-old spaceflight veteran, and Vinogradov, 43-year-old rookie, hope to remove a solar array mangled by the impact of the collision and patch punctures in Spektr’s aluminum hull so the laboratory can be repressurized.

Such a task is unprecedented by humans in space and will require a number of still unscripted spacewalks, according to Russian and U.S. space officials.