Mir’s Computer Starts New Year With A Glitch

New year, same old problems. The Mir’s main computer failed again on Friday, an all-too-common breakdown that has temporarily reduced the space station’s power supply.

A computer breakdown, something that occurred seven times in 1997, poses no immediate threat to the lives of the two Russians and one American on the space station. But the problem can make life uncomfortable on the Mir.

The failure of the main computer brought down the gyroscope system that orients the Mir’s solar panels toward the sun, the ITAR-Tass news agency said, citing officials at Mission Control just outside Moscow.

That meant the Mir was not receiving its normal power supply, and the crew responded by shutting off all nonessential systems outside the Mir’s core module, Russia’s NTV reported.

The sprawling space station has six modules, though one was punctured in a space collision in June and has been sealed off.

The crew, which has gained considerable experience in fixing balky computers, had located the problem by Friday night and was working to replace one of the main computer blocks, ITAR-Tass said.

The crew - Russians Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov and American David Wolf - has patched a variety of problems that plagued the space station last year.

After the collision with the cargo ship, the Mir was running on reduced power for months. The Mir was back at nearly full power before Friday’s breakdown, the first computer crash since mid-November.

The Mir, the longest-lived space station in history, will mark its 12th anniversary in space next month.