Russia’s Mir Making A Miracle Recovery U.S. Astronaut Praises Effort To Restore Electricity To Science Modules

Russia’s battered Mir space station is steadily responding to last week’s repair mission to restore power, U.S. astronaut Mike Foale said Thursday.

The astrophysicist said the outpost is in better shape than at any time since it was struck by a free-flying Russian cargo capsule. The near catastrophic collision June 25 cut Mir’s electrical production nearly in half and punctured its Spektr science module, Foale’s research laboratory and living quarters.

“I think this is really a great testament to the resourcefulness and the ability of the crew to hang in and keep working on a problem, even with difficulty,” Foale said during a video report transmitted to NASA’s mission control on Thursday. “I have seen the station in good condition when I arrived. I saw a low when the collision occurred, and now things are picking up again.”

Foale, 40, arrived on the Russian station in mid-May, the fifth in a succession of seven Americans who plan to live and work aboard the station through next May.

Last Friday, spacewalking cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov entered the airless Spektr for the first time since the mishap and relinked 11 power cables that were disconnected by the Mir crew in the aftermath of the collision.

The power the cables could supply to other station modules is crucial to the health of Mir’s life-support systems and future science research.

This week, the Russian/American crew succeeded in routing the electricity, reclaimed from Spektr’s solar panels, to Mir’s Kvant 2 and once-dormant Kristall modules.

“One of the most delightful things of the last few days is that Kristall is humming and running again,” Foale said. “We certainly have life in that module.”

The noises are from fans and pumps operating for the first time in nearly two months. Lights are on again in the compartment as well, and the temperature has risen to 75 degrees. Even the mustard plants in a small greenhouse - part of an experiment to determine whether crops can be raised in space - seem to have survived the ordeal.

Meanwhile, Foale is preparing to join Solovyev for a second spacewalk next week.

During the excursion, which is planned for no earlier than Wednesday, the two men plan to search for holes in the Spektr module created by the collision, damages the Russians hope to repair on future spacewalks.

The two men will emerge from an airlock at the tip of the Kvant 2 module, then take turns attaching themselves to a construction crane.

The device will swing the men about 60 feet along the exterior of the outpost to the Spektr module.

Once there, Solovyev, a veteran of 10 previous spacewalks, will cut away insulation from the outside of the stricken module in search for the punctures. Though no repairs are planned, the two men plan to install hand rails for future spacewalkers.

As the excursion draws to a close, Foale and Solovyev will return to the Kvant 2 module to install a plumbing fixture required for the activation of a second life-support system device that removes carbon dioxide from the station’s breathing air.

U.S. and Russian space agency officials plan to convene early next week to review the plan and make a final decision on whether Foale can participate.

This week, all three men passed medical exams required for the excursion and reviewed video tapes of the procedures as they were rehearsed in a Russian ground training facility.

On Monday, Foale is scheduled to don a Russian spacesuit for a dress rehearsal within the confines of the station.

“I’m starting to sense the end of my duty here on space station Mir,” Foale told ground controllers Thursday. “After the (spacewalk), I will start packing and getting ready for my replacement.”

If schedules hold, Foale will return to Earth aboard the U.S. shuttle Atlantis on Oct. 5. David Wolf, Foale’s replacement, returned to the United States on Thursday, after completing a lengthy training session in Russia.