Mir-23 Weekly Reports

Mir-23 - Week of March 7, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

As the continuous American presence in space moves past 350 days, the cast on the Russian space station Mir has changed once again. Last weekend one set of Russian cosmonauts completed their six months in space and returned to Earth, leaving American astronaut Jerry Linenger to continue his four-month tour of duty with a new set of colleagues.

Mir became home to six space travelers on February 12th, when Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev, flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin and German researcher Reinhold Ewald were welcomed onboard by Linenger and the Mir-22 crew. With the operational handover and Ewald's science program completed, he joined Mir-22 commander Valeri Korzun and flight engineer Alexander Kaleri for the ride back to Earth.

On Saturday Korzun, Kaleri and Ewald entered the Soyuz capsule which brought those two Russians to the station last August; at 9:25 p.m. Houston time their capsule undocked from the station, and it made a soft landing in central Asia a little more than three hours later - 12:44 a.m. central time on Sunday. For Ewald, his first spaceflight ended after three weeks in space; for Korzun and Kaleri, 197 days in space, and more than 194 days onboard the orbiting Russian outpost, the last seven weeks as crewmates of Jerry Linenger.

This week Tsibliev, Lazutkin and Linenger have been settling into their new routine on orbit while troubleshooting the backup oxygen generating system in the Kvant-2 module, which has been operating sporadically since early Wednesday. The system, which extracts breathing oxygen from potassium hydroxide-enriched water and vents the hydrogen overboard, automatically shut down early Wednesday due to an excessive build-up of air in the apparatus.

The Elektron system was restarted after replacement of a pressurized fluid unit, but has since shut down again. Today the crewmembers activated another oxygen-generating system in the Kvant-1 module, and they are scheduled to activate a number of oxygen-generating candles throughout the station tomorrow.

Russian flight controllers say this situation has had no impact on the health of the crewmembers nor on any station operations, and that they expect to be able to restore the system to normal operation. They also note that the Mir contains a sufficient volume of oxygen to support its three residents for about five days without the Elektron system operating, and that there is a two-month supply of oxygen-generating candles onboard. Any new parts required for repair will be sent to the Mir on the next Progress re-supply vehicle, scheduled to arrive in early April.

Meanwhile, ground controllers at Mission Control in Korolev, outside Moscow, have decided not to make another attempt to redock an empty Progress vessel to the Kvant-1 docking port. That empty supply ship was undocked and moved to a parking orbit in early February to open a docking port for the Soyuz capsule carrying Tsibliev, Lazutkin and Ewald.

The attempt to redock the Progress to the station was unsuccessful this week, and Russian mission controllers have chosen not to make another attempt in order to protect the propellant supply necessary to de-orbit the craft; that is now scheduled for next Tuesday. They had hoped to use the empty ship to shield the Kvant-1 docking port from exposure to the sun, but will maneuver the station to accomplish the same goal. The next Progress, filled with supplies, is now scheduled to arrive at the Mir around April 8th.

The three men onboard the Mir now arrived there with a range of experience in space: Tsibliev previously spent almost 200 days onboard the Mir; Linenger had 11 days of in-flight experience from his 1994 shuttle mission prior to his launch in January; this is Lazutkin's first trip to Earth orbit.

Tsibliev and Lazutkin, now 26 days into their six-month mission, are scheduled to remain onboard the station until this coming August. Today is Linenger's 55th day in space since his launch in January, and that extends the continuous American presence in space to 351 days today since the launch of the shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-76 with Shannon Lucid onboard in March 1996.

Linenger's tour is slated to run into the month of May, when he is to be succeeded by astronaut Mike Foale, who is preparing for his tour at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow. This week, Foale and his backup, Jim Voss, concentrated on Mir payloads and ham radio training along with Russian language classes. The two astronauts slated to follow Foale to the Mir, Wendy Lawrence and David Wolf, also focused on payloads and language as well as instruction in the Mir and Soyuz life support systems.

An audio-only interview with Jerry Linenger is scheduled for Thursday, March 13 at 12:59 p.m. CST (18:59 GMT); National Public Radio and NASA TV will carry the event.

Current plans call for the next Progress re-supply vessel, carrying food, clothing and other supplies for the crew of the space station Mir, to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan in central Asia on April 6. If that planned launch date is met, the Progress should dock to the Mir station on Tuesday, April 8.

Then in mid-April, Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and astronaut Jerry Linenger are tentatively scheduled to conduct their planned spacewalk, installing two experiment modules and removing two others from the outside of the Russian space station. That spacewalk by Linenger will mark the first time an American has ever conducted a spacewalk from the Russian station wearing a Russian spacesuit.

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Mir-23 - Week of March 14, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

As America's continuous presence in space nears its first anniversary, the four-month mission of American astronaut Jerry Linenger to the Russian space station Mir has reached the halfway point. Today is Linenger's 62nd day in space since his launch on the shuttle Atlantis January 12; Atlantis is targeted for launch again on May 15, to retrieve Linenger and deliver astronaut Mike Foale to continue the program of research into how the human body responds to long periods in the absence of gravity.

Linenger's crewmates, Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, are in the 33rd day of their six-month mission today; this past week all three have been busy with a variety of on-going life and microgravity science experiments while seeing to the maintenance of their orbiting home. That has included daily activity to maintain the proper oxygen content of the Mir's environment while Russian flight controllers plan their repair strategy for the station's primary oxygen-generation system, which has been offline for a week.

The Elektron system uses the process known as electrolysis to separate oxygen from onboard waste water and return it to the cabin atmosphere for the crew to breathe; the system shut itself down last week due to an excessive build-up of air within the system.

As Jerry Linenger begins the second half of his four-month tour onboard the Mir, and prepares to mark the first full year of the continuous American presence in space a week from tomorrow, the Americans training to succeed him and extend the American presence onboard the Mir into May of 1998 have been preparing for their missions at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow.

Astronaut Mike Foale is in the final few weeks of his Mir and Soyuz training in Star City before returning to the Johnson Space Center for training with his STS-84 crewmates prior to their targeted launch to the Mir in mid-May.

Astronaut Wendy Lawrence is scheduled to follow Foale to the Mir four months later, scheduled to launch on STS-86 in September. Her tour of duty would stretch into 1998, when astronaut David Wolf is targeted to launch on the shuttle Discovery next January to begin his four months onboard the Mir.

Also training in Star City is American astronaut Bill Shepherd; he is studying the Russian language and Soyuz systems as he works with two Russian crewmates preparing for the first mission to live and work on the International Space Station.

A week from tomorrow, March 22, is the first anniversary of the launch of mission STS-76, which brought astronaut Shannon Lucid to the Mir Space Station and initiated a continuous American presence in space.

The launch of the next Progress re-supply vessel, carrying food, fuel, clothing, and maintenance equipment to the Mir Space Station, is tentatively targeted for Sunday, April 6; that would mean a docking of the Progress to the orbiting Russian outpost on Tuesday, April 8.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
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Mir-23 - Week of March 21, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Fighting Fire Aboard Mir - Jerry Linenger describes the experience

One year ago NASA was set for another first for the space shuttle program--the first mission which would return to Earth with fewer astronauts onboard than it launched with. There has been at least one American astronaut in space ever since the shuttle Atlantis lifted off on mission STS-76 a year ago tomorrow, establishing a permanent American presence in space.

The anniversary will be marked tomorrow with astronaut Jerry Linenger on orbit, onboard the Russian space station Mir, ten weeks into his planned four-month mission. His Mir-23 colleagues, commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, are in the 40th day of their planned six-month mission. In an interview this week Linenger said his agenda of life and materials science work is going very well.

"We've got some great experiments I've been conducting. We're way ahead on the power curve as far as that goes. For example, we did a flame experiment inside a glovebox, a very controlled situation looking at ventilation and how it affects flamespread, and I realize that this is important work I'm doing up here. I am glad to be doing it and I am very preoccupied with my work.

"I think about pretzels now and then; that's my craving! Shannon had the M and M's - for some reason, I can't wait to get my hands on a bag of pretzels. Life in space has been very rewarding and I'm doing just fine."

Linenger was also asked about the fire onboard the Mir station last month that occurred when a lithium perchlorate canister ruptured, exposing the metal holding device to extremely high temperatures. For his firsthand account, see Fighting Fire Aboard Mir.

The Mir crew is using three of those lithium perchlorate canisters per day to generate breathing oxygen while awaiting the arrival of parts to repair the primary oxygen generating system onboard. Linenger says he feels quite safe using those oxygen candles, and that he has full confidence that the Russian flight control team will keep the 11-year-old station operating safely.

Next Wednesday is Jerry Linenger's 74th day in space on this mission; added to his previous shuttle flight experience of almost 11 full days, that means that on Wednesday Linenger will move up to fourth on the list of American astronauts with the most time in space, behind Shannon Lucid, John Blaha and Norm Thagard.

Training continues in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow, for the astronauts slated to carry the American presence on the Mir through to the spring of 1998.

Mike Foale, scheduled to relieve Linenger onboard Mir in mid-May, is nearing completion of his Russian training and is to return to the Johnson Space Center in early April to train with his STS-84 crewmates.

Astronauts Wendy Lawrence, and then David Wolf, are in line to follow Foale, and since their missions will occur during the Russian winter, they have left Star City for a week of winter survival training in Siberia. Along with backups Jim Voss and Andy Thomas, they will receive instruction in how to survive the frigid climate until help arrives should they be forced to make an emergency.

Current plans still call for the launch of the next Progress resupply vessel bound for the Mir on Sunday, April 6; if that launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan occurs on time, the load of food, fuel, clothing and other supplies for the Mir-23 crew will dock to the Russian space station on Tuesday, April 8.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of March 28, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

The continuing mission of Americans on the Mir Space Station has entered a second year, with astronaut Jerry Linenger engaged in on-going investigations of the effects of prolonged exposure to weightlessness on the human body. That continuous experiment activity began one year ago this past Monday, when astronaut Shannon Lucid became a member of the Mir crew; it extended through her six months onboard, then through the four months of John Blaha's tour of duty, and for the past 73 days with Linenger.

Today is Linenger's 76th day in space on his scheduled four-month mission; his Mir-23 crewmates, commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, are in the 47th day of their six-month mission, their 45th day onboard the Russian space station. This week they've been busy with a variety of housecleaning and maintenance chores, including the daily activation of lithium perchlorate canisters to generate oxygen for the three-man crew while Russian flight controllers formulate a repair strategy for the primary oxygen generation system on the station.

That Elektron system, which employs the process of electrolysis to extract oxygen from on-board waste water, has been inoperative for the past three weeks. A Progress re-supply vessel scheduled to arrive at the Mir on April 8th will carry replacement parts, along with food, clothing, and other supplies for the crewmembers. Included onboard will be the spacesuits Tsibliev and Linenger will wear on a spacewalk, now targeted for late April, when they will retrieve several experiments to characterize the environment of the Mir's orbit and install several new ones.

In the meantime, preparations are underway for the expected delivery of a replacement Elektron unit to the Mir on the shuttle Atlantis when it visits in May, retrieving Linenger and delivering astronaut Mike Foale. Current plans call for that system to be installed on Mir during docked operations on STS-84; the new hardware is scheduled to be loaded into the double Spacehab module in the shuttle's payload bay on May 6, while Atlantis is on the launch pad being prepared for its targeted May 15 lift-off.

In a radio interview this week, Linenger was asked if he feels lonely after more than two months away from home onboard a small space station; he acknowledged missing his wife and son, but said the Russian space station offers some unique opportunities.

"[Mir] is a small place, but space is an amazing place to be. Just today I looked out the window… and saw Hale-Bopp. It looked like a flashlight in the sky, and then I looked to the north and saw the Northern Lights flickering green explosions off the northern horizon of the Earth. Then I saw the sunrise. Moments like that lift your spirits. Loneliness and things that you might think would be very tough to bear up here get kind of mellowed out by things like that. The adventure of being in space is enough to get you through it and I really have no difficult problem with that up here."

As work proceeds onboard the Russian space station, there are Americans at work in Russia preparing to continue the Shuttle-Mir program.

Astronaut Mike Foale is concluding his training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow. He is due back here at the Johnson Space Center April 10 to train with his STS-84 crewmates prior to their targeted launch to the Mir in mid-May and the start of his tour of duty on the station.

Foale is to be followed to the Mir in September by astronaut Wendy Lawrence, and her replacement next January is to be astronaut David Wolf. Since their missions are scheduled during the harsh Russian winter, they have been on a winter survival training mission in Siberia for the past week. Along with backups Jim Voss and Andy Thomas, the group spent a week in temperatures as cold as 30-below-zero Fahrenheit to learn how to survive on their own before help arrives in the event of an emergency return to Earth.

April will be another busy month aboard Mir. Next Wednesday morning at 7:50 Central Time Linenger will conduct another audio-only interview.

A week from Sunday, April 6, a Progress resupply vehicle carrying food, fuel, clothing, other supplies and replacement parts for the Mir station is to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan in central Asia. Assuming an on-time launch, that Progress ship is due to dock to the Mir on Tuesday, April 8.

On Thursday of both that week and the following week, Linenger is scheduled to conduct television interviews. The following Monday, April 21, will mark Jerry Linenger's 100th day in space on this four-month mission. On Tuesday, April 29, Linenger and Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk, the first time ever that an American will make a spacewalk from the Mir Space Station, wearing a Russian spacesuit.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of April 4, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

onboard the space station Mir, astronaut Jerry Linenger and his Mir-23 colleagues are continuing their preparations for tomorrow's arrival of a Progress resupply vessel, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan yesterday morning. That craft, carrying the parts they will use to make repairs to several of the Mir's cooling loops as well as a new supply of the canisters they have been using to generate oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the station's environment, is scheduled to dock to the station at 12:28 CDT (17:28 GMT) tomorrow afternoon. Today is Linenger's 86th day in space on his four-month mission to the Mir.

This week aboard the Russian Space Station Mir, the crew of Vasily Tsibliev, Aleksandr Lazutkin and U.S. astronaut Jerry Linenger continued science operations, and conducted maintenance work on several station systems. The cosmonauts continue to generate oxygen by burning solid-fuel oxygen generators known as "candles." The crew has burned three "candles" each day to maintain acceptable oxygen levels aboard the station. About 130 of the "candles" remain onboard.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
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| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

Mir-23 - Week April 11, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Interview with Frank Culbertson - Frank Culbertson, NASA Shuttle-Mir Program Director, talks about the status of Mir’s Elektron system

Success...in the first round of repair activities, reported today by the crew onboard the Russian space station Mir, who’ve been focusing on station maintenance since the arrival this week of needed tools and supplies on a Progress resupply vehicle.

That resupply ship launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan last Sunday, and was successfully docked to the Mir Monday afternoon at 12:28, Houston time. Almost immediately, Mir-23 commander Vasili Ysibliev, flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, and American astronaut Jerry Linenger began unpacking the ship and putting the new supplies to use.

Using cutting blades, they removed a leaky heat exchanger from a cooling loop in the Kvant-1 module; after plugging the exposed ends of the pipes, they restarted the primary carbon dioxide removal system, the Vosdukh, and Russian flight controllers report the levels of carbon dioxide on the station have already dropped substantially. They believe the Vosdukh can operate safely for 30 days without its cooling system, which is slated to be repaired next week.

The progress also carried equipment to bypass a clogged filter in the Elektron system in the Kvant-2 module, one of the systems that uses the process of electrolysis to extract oxygen from onboard wastewater. Although that system shut itself down when it was restarted after that work, it is now believed it has a faulty sensor monitoring fluid levels; flight controllers think installing the identical part out of the inoperative Elektron in Kvant-1 will get the Kvant-2 Elektron system operating once again. Then, the Mir-23 crew will turn its attention to repairing the leaks in cooling loops in the Mir’s Kvant module and Base Block.

Those leaking cooling loops have not only led to higher-than-normal temperatures inside the station, but the ethylene glycol that has seeped from the lines has raised health concerns. In a news conference on Friday, Linenger talked about the conditions he and his crewmates have been living with onboard the Mir.

“The ethylene glycol caused the concern that I have as crew physician, inhaling ethylene glycol. We have some respirator filter masks that we wear when we’re doing the repairs in Kvant, so that lessens some of the effect. We’re having some congestion, secondary I’m sure to some of the fumes. Temperature, of course, not only affects us but also affects some of the hardware onboard and the ability to remove the moisture from the air. You need a cooling loop for the condenser to work to gather the condensate so the humidity is up also, which again is not the best thing for equipment. It gets very complex very quickly, and we need to fix our problems.”

Linenger said he feels fine physically, and that he feels safe onboard the station despite the difficulties they have had to deal with. This morning he was asked if his mission to the Mir has turned out the way he expected it would.

“Not really, although we’re out here in the frontier and I guess I expected the unexpected. We’ve been getting some of that. As far as the science return, it is what I expected. We have... More than 100 percent success, and I know it sounds funny to say that but we’ve been running more metal samples and things like that than we thought we’d be able to do. So in spite of some of the difficulties we’ve been having a very successful mission, and some of the system problems... I can't say that I expected them, but on the other hand I was trained to work on those systems and assist the crew where I could.”

Today is Jerry Linenger’s 90th day in space on his scheduled four-month mission to the Mir; for Tsibliev and Lazutkin, this is their 61st day in space and 59th onboard the orbiting Russian outpost.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of April 18, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Interview with Scott Gahring - Scott Gahring, NASA Operations Lead in Kololev, Russia, reports on the status of Mir’s systems

Last week the crew onboard the Russian Space Station Mir successfully accomplished repairs to some of the space station’s systems after the delivery of needed tools and supplies on a Progress resupply vehicle. Using cutting blades, they removed a leaky heat exchanger from a cooling loop in the Kvant-1 module; after plugging the exposed ends of the pipes, they restarted the primary carbon dioxide removal system, the Vosdukh, and Russian flight controllers report the levels of carbon dioxide on the station have already dropped substantially. They believe the Vosdukh can operate safely for 30 days without its cooling system, which is slated to be repaired next week.

The Progress also carried equipment to bypass a clogged filter in the Elektron system in the Kvant-2 module, one of the systems that uses the process of electrolysis to extract oxygen from onboard wastewater. Although that system shut itself down when it was restarted after that work, it’s now believed it has a faulty sensor monitoring fluid levels; flight controllers think installing the identical part out of the inoperative Elektron in Kvant-1 will get the Kvant-2 Elektron system operating once again. Then, the Mir-23 crew will turn its attention to repairing the leaks in cooling loops in the Mir’s Kvant module and Base Block.

In an interview, American astronaut Jerry Linenger said he feels fine physically, and that he feels safe onboard the station despite the difficulties they’ve had to deal with. When asked if his mission to the Mir has turned out the way he expected it would, he had this to say:

“Not really, although we’re out here in the frontier and I guess I expected the unexpected. We’ve been getting some of that. As far as the science return, it is what I expected. We’ve had more than 100 percent success, and I know it sounds funny to say that but we’ve been running more metal samples and things like that than we thought we’d be able to do. So in spite of some of the difficulties we’ve been having a very successful mission, and some of the system problems, I can’t say that I expected them, but on the other hand I was trained to work on those systems and assist the crew where I could.”

Friday was Jerry Linenger’s 90th day in space on his scheduled four-month mission to the Mir; Tsibliev and Lazutkin have been in space 61 days, 59 onboard the orbiting Russian outpost.

The man slated to succeed Jerry Linenger onboard the Mir Space Station next month, Mike Foale, has wrapped up the Russian portion of his training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. He’ll be back at the Johnson Space Center in Houston next week to begin the final phase of training with his ST-84 crewmates, leading to their targeted launch to the Mir on the Atlantis May 15th.

Today through next Tuesday, the Mir-23 crew will concentrate their daily efforts on completing repairs to the various cooling loops and an Elektron oxygen generation system onboard their space station. Assuming the completion of that work as scheduled, next Wednesday the crew will resume their regular operational and science activities. All three cosmonauts will be continuing preparations for the scheduled spacewalk by Tsibliev and Linenger, still targeted for April 28-29.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of April 25, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Interview with Linda Godwin - Astronaut Linda Godwin talks about the upcoming space walk

The Mir’s systems have been stabilized, and the cosmonauts onboard the Russian Space Station Mir are in the final stages of preparation for a six-hour walk in space next week that will mark a milestone on the road toward assembly of the International Space Station.

Friday was the 101st day of American astronaut Jerry Linenger’s four-month tour of duty onboard the Russian station, and it marks the 400th consecutive day that there has been in American in space, dating back to the March 1996 launch of the Shuttle Atlantis to deliver astronaut Shannon Lucid to the Mir. Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin are in their 73rd day onboard the station. On Wednesday, on his 106th day as a member of the Mir crew, Linenger’s time onboard the station will exceed the Mir mission duration of astronaut Norm Thagard, who spent more than 105 days onboard the station when he was the first American to go to the Mir in early 1995.

This week all three men have been continuing work to isolate and patch leaks in various cooling loops onboard the station. Their earlier efforts restored operation of the station’s primary carbon dioxide removal system and a system for generating oxygen. They have also been preparing for the spacewalk by Tsibliev and Linenger, scheduled to begin at 11:50 p.m. Houston time next Monday.

Tsibliev and Linenger have been going through a checkout of the spacesuits they will wear on their excursion. These are new versions of the Russian Orlan spacesuit, and they arrived at the station onboard the latest Progress resupply vessel. This will be Linenger’s first walk in space; Tsibliev, on the other hand, has conducted five spacewalks during a previous mission to the Mir in 1993.

When he leaves the Mir’s airlock, Linenger will become the first American ever to take a spacewalk from the Russian station, wearing a Russian spacesuit. Once both men have left the Mir's airlock, their first task will be installation of the Optical Properties Monitor to the station’s docking module. Linenger discussed that task during an interview this week.

“Got a space walk coming up next week, put out an Optical Properties Monitor which'll look at some materials and how they hold up in space so that we can build better satellites, better space stations, better space vehicles in the future.”

In a recent interview, Mike Foale, who will replace Linenger on Mir in May, described how Tsibliev and Linenger will use a special boom on the station, called the Strella, to move the OPM and themselves from one module to another.

“They do something rather exciting, I think, and Jerry and I practiced this in the water tank. They have this thing called the Strella, and its basically a long telescoping tube just like the antenna on a radio, and it can telescope in and out, and you can change the telescoping with your hands, and it allows one person to clamber along it using the handholds on it to the base. It has like a tank-mounted handled for elevation and another one for azimuth and Vasily’ll clamber down there and he’ll then tell Jerry to hold on, attach the big suitcase, and then Vasili cranks it and moves the whole tube over through the 90°, while Jerry’s just floating 90 feet away from the rest of the Mir, just on the end of this pole, and it kind of bounces around too, it’s pretty whippy, and he will slowly come into the Docking Module side. Jerry holds on, holds fast, ties off the crane, at which point Vasili makes his way along it to join Jerry and then he and Jerry will install the Optical Properties Monitor on the Docking Module.”

With the OPM installed, Tsibliev and Linenger will move to the Kvant-2 module and remove the Mir sample return experiment, a package similar to the OPM, which was installed by Mir-21 cosmonauts Yuri Onufriyenko and Yury Usachev during a spacewalk a year ago. Next they’ll install a device called the Benton radiation dosimeter, a passive instrument gauging radiation levels at the Mir’s orbital inclination of 51.6°, the same orbit planned for the International Space Station.

Then they’ll remove the Particle Impact Experiment from Kvant-2, which has been gathering samples of cosmic dust since its deployment by Onufriyenko and Usachev last year. Both the PIE and the Mir sample return experiment will be brought back to Earth onboard Atlantis along with Linenger next month. The spacewalk is scheduled to conclude at approximately 6 a.m. Tuesday, Houston time.

Throughout their six hours outside the Mir, both men will wear two kinds of meters to measure their own exposure to radiation, and will test a new common safety tether planned for use during assembly of the International Space Station.

Although Tsibliev and Linenger will be outside the station for more than six hours, they’re scheduled to spend half of that time--the half when the Mir is in darkness--resting and enjoying the view. That’s something Linenger discussed while finishing his training in Star City last year.

“During dark passes you basically have to stop working and just hang on and view the stars, which’ll be a great moment. You will definitely feel alone out there in the dark, so it’s going to be an interesting time out there, out in the deep space by yourself.”

There will be no live television of the spacewalk, but video clips of the spacewalk may be made available on this site on Tuesday or Wednesday.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of May 2, 1997

Interview with Dr. John Charles - Dr. John Charles, NASA Mir Mission Scientist, discusses Mir scientific experiments

Mission Status Report - Highlights of the EVA Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

The first-ever joint American-Russian spacewalk was successfully completed from the space station Mir this week, as astronaut Jerry Linenger and Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev spent five hours outside their orbiting home Tuesday morning executing a series of tasks designed to gather information to aid in the design and assembly of the International Space Station.

With the space station’s environmental systems having stabilized over the past two weeks, Linenger and his cosmonaut colleagues moved on to spacewalk preparations late last week, readying the experiment packages that would be installed on the exterior of the Mir and checking out their spacesuits--the new Russian Orlan-M spacesuit, designed to provide the wearer greater mobility and more protection from the harsh effects of the Sun while working in space. This would be its first on-orbit test, and the first time an American would make a spacewalk from the Russian station, wearing a Russian spacesuit.

With flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin assisting from inside the station, Tsibliev and Linenger opened the airlock on the Kvant-2 module at 12:10 a.m. CDT Tuesday, to begin their assignment. They attached their hardware to the end of a cargo boom called the Strella; Linenger climbed aboard, and Tsibliev swung his crewmate and their cargo across to the station’s docking module. After Linenger tied off the end of the Strella, Tsibliev translated along the boom to join him and the two began their first task: installation of the Optical Properties Monitor.

The OPM, the large box in this view, contains samples of a variety of materials intended for use on the International Space Station. The instrument will take measurements of how those materials are effected by exposure to the environment of the Mir’s orbit, the same orbit planned for the new space station; it will be retrieved in a subsequent spacewalk by another cosmonaut team. With the OPM in place, and with Tsibliev back at the controls of the Strella, Linenger rode the crane back to the Kvant-2 module where the spacewalkers would do the remainder of their work.

Those tasks included installation of an instrument called a Benton dosimeter, which will measure radiation levels around the Mir, and retrieval of two experiment packages installed by Mir-21 cosmonauts Yuri Onufriyenko and Yury Usachev during a spacewalk last year. The Particle Impact Experiment and the Mir Sample Return Experiment have been collecting data on cosmic dust and micrometeorite strikes outside the station; both will be analyzed after they’re returned to Earth on the shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-84 next month.

Their work done, Tsibliev and Linenger re-entered the Kvant-2 airlock at 5:08 a.m. CDT, Tuesday, completing a five-hour walk in space--the first-ever spacewalk for Linenger, the sixth for Tsibliev on his missions onboard the Mir. Tsibliev and Lazutkin plan two more spacewalks this summer-- one to erect an experiment platform on the Spektr Module, and another to prepare valves on the exterior of the Core Module to accommodate later work to install a second carbon dioxide removal system on the station.

The Mir-23 crewmembers then spent a day resting, and stowing their spacesuits and the articles retrieved from the exterior of the Mir, and have now resumed more routine activities, including the effort to isolate a leak in a cooling loop in the Kvant-1 module. The Russian flight control team reports the Mir’s oxygen generation and carbon dioxide removal systems are operating normally on this, Linenger’s 108th day onboard the station . . . for Tsibliev and Lazutkin, their 80th day on the orbiting Russian outpost.

Mike Foale and his STS-84 crewmates now have a firm date for launch in their final preparations for the sixth Shuttle-Mir docking mission. Wednesday the Space Shuttle Program set may 15th as the official launch date, with Atlantis set to lift off from launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:08 a.m. central time. Commander Charlie Precourt and his six-member crew completed the dress rehearsal of their countdown Tuesday, and he said everyone is ready to go.

Foale reiterated his confidence in the safety of the Mir Space Station, despite the systems problems it has experienced lately. In fact, he believes such problems actually make the American and Russian space programs learn more, more quickly.

In the meantime, astronaut Jim Voss, who is Foale’s back-up, has completed his training regime at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, and is returning to the U.S. to be available for STS-84 if need be and for future training.

Astronaut Wendy Lawrence, next in line behind Foale for a tour on the Mir, is also back in the U.S. for training at the Johnson Space Center. She’ll return to Star City in late May. Her launch on mission STS-86 is targeted for around September 18th. Late last week NASA managers decided to fly Atlantis on that seventh Mir docking mission, rather than Endeavour as had earlier been announced. Atlantis will return to Palmdale, California for its regularly scheduled orbiter maintenance and upgrade work after STS-86.

Astronaut David Wolf, slated to follow Lawrence to the Mir early next year, and his back-up, astronaut Andy Thomas, are also at JSC for training and are to return to Russia in early June.

Astronaut Bill Shepherd, who will command the first crew to occupy the International Space Station, recently completed his first detailed training in Star City, and took part in a design review of the service module the Russians are building for the new station. Shepherd and his crewmates, cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, are also in Houston for a month of training at JSC.

As Jerry Linenger starts to pack-up for his return to Earth, there are a few more milestones he’ll make before his four-month mission to the Mir comes to an end.

On Tuesday May 6th, Linenger’s 115th day in space, he’ll surpass Norm Thagard for the third-longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut. The following Tuesday, May 13th, will be Linenger’s 119th day as a member of the Mir crew, making him the foreign guest with the third-longest stay on the station, behind American astronaut Shannon Lucid and German astronaut Thomas Reiter.

One week later--on May 20th, the 129th day since his launch on STS-81 last January--Linenger’s mission duration will exceed the 128-day Mir mission of astronaut John Blaha, and Linenger will hold the mark for longest single spaceflight by an American man.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of May 9, 1997

Interview with Frank Culbertson - Frank Culbertson, NASA’s Shuttle-Mir Program Manager, talks about the progress of the program

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Astronaut Jerry Linenger’s four-month mission to the space station Mir has entered the homestretch as preparations proceed for next Thursday’s launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, carrying Linenger’s replacement and thousands of pounds of other supplies for the orbiting Russian outpost.

This past week Linenger and his Mir-23 crewmates, commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, were busy packing the material that will return to Earth with Linenger later this month while continuing work to find and repair a leak in a cooling loop in the Mir’s Core Module. Similar efforts to repair a cooling loop in the Kvant-1 module have been deferred until after the receipt of a repair kit that is being carried on Atlantis. Russian flight controllers report the station’s environmental systems continue operating in near-normal fashion.

Tsibliev and Lazutkin are in the 89th day of their six-month mission on the station; today is Linenger’s 118th day in space, and 115th as a Mir crewmember. In an audio-only interview this week, Linenger said he’s eager to get home and see his wife and son, and that last week’s five-hour spacewalk conducted with Tsibliev will be the best memory he’ll bring back to Earth.

“It’s great to do things with our Russian colleagues now, and we actually tested out a brand new suit. It was the first time that space suit was ever used in space, and we had a great spacewalk together and good cooperative spirit going. During the spacewalk, the whole time if felt like I was falling from the edge of a cliff, and not only falling from a cliff, but the cliff itself--being the space station-- was falling all the time, so it was a remarkable feeling, and you had to keep yourself under control and talk yourself into saying it’s OK to be falling, and seeing a spectacular view of the Earth, and the big space station sprawling. All that was just fantastic. So that’s probably the memory I’m going to take home the most.”

Of course, Linenger will also bring home memories of an onboard fire in February, and of mechanical difficulties that he and his crewmates have dealt with, but he said the resolution of those problems makes him comfortable about the safety of the Mir for future residents.

“There’s two sets of difficulties we’ve had. One is the human difficulty of dealing with those things, and the other one is the space station itself. We’ve overcome all the difficulties. The ultimate test is we’re still alive and well, we’re all here exploring the frontier, so I’m fairly confident. On the other hand, it takes a lot of work, it takes daily attention, and it takes a lot of work from smart people on the ground looking over our shoulders and giving some guidance along the way. But we were able to overcome about as much difficulty as you can imagine, so I’m fairly confident.”

The man slated to relieve Linenger onboard the Mir next week, astronaut Mike Foale, has a similar outlook to Linenger’s about the mechanical state of the Russian space station. During last week’s STS-84 prelaunch crew news conference, Foale said the risks of a Mir mission are not unusual, given that machines do break down with age.

“You have to make sure you have food and air and power and sufficient cooling or heating to maintain all the basic conditions of life onboard the space station, and those are provided by mechanical systems. And just like an old car that's been running for 13 years--and the Mir has been running almost that long--you're going to have some systems start to fail and you have to do continuous maintenance to maintain these systems to provide those essential ingredients that you need to live and work. And I think we're going to see episodes, not only on Mir, but one day on the International Space Station, of intense repair work and this is part of the business. All ships have it, aircraft have it regularly, except you don't see it in flight. I just think it's part of the business of going into space and it's what we're learning the most right now out of all of this. The science I'm going to do is valuable, and I'm glad to do it, and it's interesting, but actually it's the unexpected maintenance aspects that will probably be the most valuable lessons that we pull from all this.”

Foale said he has no reservations about his safety onboard the Mir, and that he feels his launch on the space shuttle will be the most dangerous part of his mission. In an earlier interview, he said he believes even the February fire on the station should be taken as a valuable learning experience.

“I think the Soyuz is really the biggest insurance ticket they have, and it’s the safest and the most proven they have, and as such, with the presence of the Soyuz descent capsule there the whole time, I will never feel particularly vulnerable. The fire is the worst case that you can imagine, I think. But, again, we’ve actually learned something rather interesting in the recent experience on the Mir. We’ve learned how to put out a fire or, at least, how it propagates and what the toxic chemicals are that remain in the atmosphere. And from all data to date, it looks like it was survivable and you could recover from it, which is a very important data point.”

onboard the Mir, astronaut Jerry Linenger and his cosmonaut colleagues are preparing their station and its cargo for next week’s arrival of the space shuttle, and five days of docked operations. During the five days of docked operations Linenger will end his tour of duty on the Mir, Mike Foale will begin his four-and- a-half months as a Mir crewmember, and the shuttle crew will move more than three tons of supplies between the orbiter and the station.

On Tuesday May 20th, the 129th day since his launch last January, Linenger’s mission duration will exceed that of John Blaha’s flight to the Mir and put Linenger in second place--behind Shannon Lucid--for the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of May 16, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

The Mir-23 crew--commander Vasily Tsibliev, flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, and astronaut Jerry Linenger--spent this day finishing their preparations for tonight’s docking. Today is Linenger’s 122nd day as a member of the Mir crew, and the 96th day in space for Tsibliev and Lazutkin, who are to remain on orbit until August.

The sixth Shuttle-Mir docking is scheduled to occur at 9:34 p.m. central time. A few hours later, Mike Foale will become the fifth American to take up residence on the Mir and Jerry Linenger will return to his role as a shuttle crewmember.

Pilot Eileen Collins spent part of her day filling a contingency water container. More than 1000 pounds of water, generated onboard Atlantis as a by-product of power production, will be transferred to the Mir during the five days of docked operations.

Along with water, three tons of other supplies will be exchanged between the two spacecraft. The largest single item is a replacement oxygen generation system for the Mir. This new Elektron unit will be installed in the Kvant-1 module, and the failed unit now in Kvant-1 will be returned to Earth.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of May 23, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

On the Mir Space Station, flight engineer Mike Foale and his cosmonaut crewmates are getting him settled in onboard the station, and unpacking the repair kits delivered by Atlantis, which they will use to finish repairs to a cooling loop in the Mir’s Kvant-1 module; those repairs could take place as early as next week. Today is Foale’s ninth day in space, and his seventh as a member of the Mir-23 crew.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of May 30, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Astronaut Mike Foale is two weeks into his four-month mission to the Russian space station Mir, settling in on his new home on orbit while setting up the hardware he’ll use to conduct the scientific investigations planned for his long- duration space flight. Today is Foale’s fourteenth day as a crewmember onboard the Russian station; Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin are in the 110th day of their six-month mission.

This week Foale’s been setting up special containment areas in which 64 black-bodied beetles will be exposed to special lighting conditions in a study of the effects of those conditions on the insects’ circadian rhythms. He’s also been preparing the greenhouse facility, which will house a biology experiment on plant growth in microgravity.

Foale’s already had an opportunity to work with his cosmonaut colleagues on station maintenance--this week the Mir crew conducted repairs to a cooling loop in the station’s Kvant-1 module, continuing a job that began back in March. Once that loop is confirmed to be operating properly, perhaps as early as Tuesday, the cosmonauts will move on to installing the new Elektron oxygen generation system brought to the Mir with Foale on the shuttle Atlantis. Once back in operation, this VGK loop will also provide cooling for the station’s carbon dioxide removal system, which has been operating normally without cooling since mid-April.

The shuttle mission that delivered Foale to the Mir two weeks ago landed at the Kennedy Space Center last Saturday morning, bringing astronaut Jerry Linenger home to Earth after 132 days in space, the second-longest single spaceflight by any American astronaut. Linenger furthered his research into the effects of long exposure to microgravity on the human body by walking off the shuttle under his own power. Linenger said he felt better than he expected he would, crediting the exercise program he maintained while onboard the Mir. Linenger will spend the next several weeks in debriefings while working closely with his flight surgeons to assist his body’s readjustment to gravity.

Foale’s tour of duty on the Mir is scheduled to continue into September, when STS-86 brings astronaut Wendy Lawrence to the Mir to take over for Foale in the next increment in the first phase of the International Space Station program. After a training session in Houston, Lawrence has returned to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow, to resume her preparations. Astronaut David Wolf, who will replace Lawrence on the Mir early next year, and his back-up, astronaut Andy Thomas, are completing a Houston training session and will be back in Star City next week.

The following activity is scheduled for the coming week onboard the Space Station Mir.

Over the weekend Mir commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineers Aleksandr Lazutkin and Mike Foale expect to complete repairs to the VGK cooling loop in the Kvant-1 module; once Russian ground controllers are satisfied the loop is holding pressure, the Mir crewmembers will begin installation of the new Elektron oxygen generation system in the Kvant-1 module. That may begin as early as Tuesday.

This week Foale will also be busy preparing the microgravity glovebox facility in the Priroda Module for a series of fluid physics and materials science experiments, setting up the containment area for the black-bodied beetles, and beginning the first round of plant growth operations in the greenhouse facility.

Throughout the week, all three crewmembers will spend time with their on- going series of Earth observations to monitor weather and geologic phenomena and observable changes to the surface of the planet.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of June 6, 1997

Interview with Mike Foale - Mike Foale describes his work and life onboard Mir

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

The scientific research mission of astronaut Mike Foale’s tour of duty on the Space Station Mir is well underway, as he completes his third week of a four-month mission to the Russian space station investigating the effects of prolonged exposure to weightlessness.

Mir23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, who are 117 days into their six-month mission on the Mir, have been occupied lately searching for and repairing leaks in some of the station’s cooling loops. Foale reported their work has been successful, and led to improved conditions on the station for the long run.

Although the cosmonauts had earlier repaired a leak to the cooling loop in the Kvant-1 module there were suspicions that another existed, and this week Tsibliev and Lazutkin isolated a leak in the portion of the loop that flows along the module’s hull to prevent condensation. After installing hardware to bypass that section of the loop and repressurizing it, the crew found a small amount of ethylene glycol coolant near a by-passed section of the loop near the Vozdukh, the station’s primary carbon dioxide removal system, which has been operating normally.

Foale has repeatedly tested the air in several of the station’s modules and found the amount of ethylene glycol present is small enough that it poses no threat to the crew’s health. On Friday he assisted Tsibliev in confirming the source of this coolant leak and they have replaced the part of the loop that was leaking. This VGK loop is now holding pressure, and the crewmembers are preparing to place cooling fluid back into the loop.

Once these repairs are complete, the Mir-23 crew will move on to the installation of the new Elektron oxygen generation system, which was delivered on the shuttle Atlantis along with Foale last month. The new Elektron will serve as a back-up to the fully operational unit in the Kvant-2 module.

During the week the Mir crewmembers have also done maintenance work on the heating loop in the station’s core module, and worked to remove a clog in the Base Block’s condensate recovery system.

This week Tsibliev, Lazutkin, and Foale will continue the ongoing work of seeing to the health of the various systems of their orbiting home. Foale will also monitor the growth of the seedlings in the greenhouse apparatus, and check on the Mir structural dynamics experiment, which is taking measurements throughout the station of the forces imparted to it by the activity of the crew onboard.

Monday through Wednesday of next week they will begin stowing used equipment in the Progress resupply vessel now docked to the station. On Friday, June 20, the Mir cosmonauts will conduct a test of a manually controlled undocking of the Progress vessel, and three days later they will perform a manually controlled redocking of the Progress to the station.

While Foale proceeds with his work on orbit, the astronauts who will continue the American mission to the Mir are all back at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, in Star City. Astronaut Wendy Lawrence has begun the final phase of her training in Russia before returning to the Johnson Space Center this summer to work with her STS-86 crewmates, who have a targeted launch on the shuttle Atlantis this September to deliver Lawrence and return Foale to Earth.

Astronaut David Wolf, and his back-up astronaut Andy Thomas, have resumed their training in Star City. Wolf is scheduled to succeed Lawrence onboard the Mir when he launches on mission STS-89, onboard the shuttle Endeavour, in January of next year, for the final increment of the Shuttle-Mir program.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of June 13, 1997

Interview with Mike Foale - Mike Foale talks about his first month on Mir

Interview with Jerry Linenger - Jerry Linenger’s first interview since returning from Mir

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Astronaut Mike Foale is wrapping up the first month of his planned four-month tour of duty on the Russian Space Station Mir, in a week highlighted by the completion of repairs to a key cooling loop in the space station’s Kvant-1 module, while moving ahead with his agenda of on-orbit science. In an interview yesterday Foale said he’s finding life onboard the Mir very comfortable due to the absence of gravity.

“. . . the view is fantastic and the work is interesting, so I’m having a good time. Mir is comfortable, mostly because you’re in zero gravity and when you sleep, in particular, that’s when I really appreciate the comfort. You just float in a slightly fetal-like position but in a sleeping bag that surrounds you. As a result of that, you sleep very, very well at night, and I’ve been sleeping better than I have done for years. As far as living conditions--eating and drinking--we have all the facilities and amenities here and it’s pleasant. We even have some treats that were sent up on the Progress supply ships like chocolates and things, so it’s a pretty good life. It’s better than most camping trips if you would want to compare it with something.”

Foale discussed his scientific research on orbit to date, particularly the fundamental biology experiment in which he’s attempting to grow three generations of mustard plants from one set of seeds. The ability to grow plants on orbit, as a source of food and oxygen, could be vital for sustaining life on future space stations and during interplanetary spaceflights.

“We expect these plants to grow and produce flowers in the next week. They’ve already been growing about two weeks. The Latin name of the plant is brassica and it will go through its full cycle where I actually fix the plants and preserve them for return to the Earth over a period of 30 days. Since I’m doing to be here for roughly four and half / five months, I will get a chance to do this three times. We hope that we will produce seeds after I have pollinated the flowers of these plants. And then replant those.”

“Overall I’ve been having a very relaxed and easy time. My ground team in Moscow in the Control Center. We have an American team that’s been working hard replanning my activies, keeping me pretty refreshed and pleasant. We’ve been working together twice a day discussing the problems and the experiments we’re going to do next. Everything’s going rather well. It’s a lot easier than I expected.”

Foale is completing one month onboard the Mir station today; his Mir-23 crewmates, commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, are in the 124th day of their six-month mission. Foale says the three of them have adapted to life on orbit together in smooth fashion.

As mentioned earlier, this past week Tsibliev, Lazutkin, and Foale completed repairs to a leaky cooling loop in the Mir’s Kvant-1 module. Last Friday a crack was located in the section of that loop that runs along the inner hull of the module to prevent condensation. That section was removed and replaced with a hose. The loop was then reactivated with all other bypasses removed and has been operating normally.

With that repair complete, the new Elektron oxygen generation unit brought to the Mir on Atlantis’ docking mission last month was set up and attached to this cooling loop. Its installation is scheduled to be completed next week with electrical connections and a hook-up to a hydrogen vent line. This new unit will serve as a back-up to the Elektron now operating without problem in the Mir’s Kvant-2 module.

During the course of repairing that cooling loop, the Mir crewmembers discovered small amounts of the ethylene glycol coolant on some surfaces in the Kvant-1 module. Monitoring of the air inside the Mir showed it is safe to breathe. But playing it safe, Russian mission managers have instructed the crewmembers to stop drinking condensate water until its purity can be assessed. Those tests will be run on samples to be brought back to Earth with Tsibliev and Lazutkin in August. Additional supplies of drinking water for the Mir-23 crew are being loaded on a Progress resupply vessel, which is now targeted for a June 29th launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan.

This morning, for the first time since he concluded the second-longest spaceflight by any American astronaut last month, Jerry Linenger met with reporters to discuss his flight to the Mir. He spent 132 days in space on that mission, but he noted that being part of the Shuttle-Mir program has been a commitment of more than two years, and that he’s not done yet. Linenger said the science work he did while onboard the space station is what he misses most about his time there, and that he feels a sense of accomplishment for the way he and his five colleagues responded to emergencies, particularly the onboard fire in February.

In the three weeks since Linenger returned to Earth onboard Atlantis May 24th, he’s been working with his flight surgeons on re-adapting to life with gravity, an adjustment he says he’s making quite well.

“It was much less difficult than I anticipated and the one thing I can tell you during my rehab, for example, I tried to do low-impact things , so I was and am swimming a lot. The water felt like jello the first three days, it felt like mercury the next three days, and now, after about two weeks, it’s started feeling like water again. There is a certain resistance that the Earth offers and that gravity offers. Driving is something that is not a big problem because I sold my truck before I left two years ago. The flight surgeons are cautious of me driving but it hasn’t been a problem yet, but I feel capable of driving. But there will be some objective tests about wheter I’m properly oriented. I think if you saw me walking down the street you’d say, “There goes Jerry,” and you would never know that I’d been in space for four or five months.

“I am very much reacclimated. I feel very normal. I can pick up my son, I can toss him around the pool. I am very normal. On the other hand, when you look at the medical tests, I do have the bone loss, I do have some muscle strength deficits, and being a sports medicine physician, I realize that you need to be very cautious until you get your strength back up, full-speed ahead objectively before you do things like running. I’m sticking very exactly to the program that the trainer has outlined for me and I’m doing mostly water work right now until my muscles get back to 100% objectively.”

On orbit, Linenger said the one food item he really missed was pretzels. Since his return, he’s received many gifts of pretzels from friends and family, and now, Linenger says he’s sick of pretzels. As for his future, linenger says he’s considering his options, which include possibly retiring from the US Navy and from the space program.

Linenger's was the fourth mission of an American to the Mir Space Station. The astronauts who will extend the permanent American presence in space beyond Mike Foale's tour of duty are all in training at sites in Russia this week.

Astronauts Wendy Lawrence, scheduled to follow Foale to the Mir this September, and David Wolf, who will relieve Lawrence onboard the station next January, spent this past week in water survival training activities on the Black Sea.

Astronaut Andy Thomas, training as Wolf’s back up, spent this week at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, continuing his Russian language studies and having practical instruction sessions on the systems of the Mir Space Station.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of June 20, 1997

Interview with John Charles - John Charles, the mission scientist for Foale's portion of the Shuttle-Mir program, talks about the science that Mike Foale is conducting

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

The environmental systems onboard the Russian Space Station Mir have been operating without trouble this week, as American astronaut Mike Foale forges ahead with his four-month agenda of science experiments to learn more about the adaptation of people and plants to long periods in microgravity.

Throughout the five weeks of Foale's tour of duty on the Mir so far, and prior to that, during astronaut Jerry Linenger's time on the station, Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin have been making repairs to various station environmental systems. Foale said that maintenance work has led to more normal conditions onboard the station.

“I would say that I've only seen the very end of all that. Sasha Lazutkin and Vasily Tsibliev, my commander, they have worked pretty hard even while I've been here fixing systems and they succeeded in doing that, especially the cooling system. Now what we're finding is the station is getting back together again and in order. So I've actually not seen any real problems. We had a small spill of ethylene glycol, which is like radiator fluid in a car, but that's been mopped up and we're monitoring that on a regular basis and it's not harmful.”

The cooling loop in the Mir's Kvant-1 module has been operating normally since its return to service last week, and the new back-up oxygen generation system delivered to the station along with Foale last month may be test- activated next week. The Mir crew has also been working on repairs to the condensate recovery system, which removes moisture from the air in the station. James Medford, a Mir systems specialist on NASA's mission operations support team in the Russian control center in Korolev, gave this report of the latest status of that system.

“What they're looking at is a unit that they call the condensate separation and feeding unit, which takes the moisture directly from the air conditioner. That moisture also has some air mixed in with it, so it first has to pass through a separator that takes the air out of the liquid and dumps it back into the environment in the cabin, and the remaining liquid is fed on to the water purification columns unit where the contaminants are removed from the water. It's that condensate separation and feeding unit that they think they're having the problem in. They think there's some kind of a blockage, potentially that the pumps just can't overcome. I'm sure they have an identical unit here on the ground that they can test and experiment with to see if they can replicate what they're seeing through their telemetry. I have a feeling they're just taking apart whatever they have here on the ground and going through all the possible places where there could be a blockage and then from there they can tell the crew what to do.”

In terms of the station's environmental systems, Medford called this past week the quietest one in months. Today is the 35th day of Mike Foale's planned four-month stay onboard the Mir Space Station. During his previous three space shuttle missions Foale logged a total of 26 days in space, and he says right now he feels better on orbit than he ever did onboard the shuttle.

“I would say this time, compared to being on shuttle, I feel very much more healthy. I've noticed that my vision, for example, is really clear. It may be because I've managed to avoid all that paperwork I used to have to do on the ground in Houston. With the three or four hours of exercise that we do each day--we work out on an ergometer and a treadmill--and along with the regular diet and all the rest, I feel very healthy. And of course we don't get colds here. No one comes by to infect us. ”

During his tour of duty on the Mir, Foale is carrying out an agenda of scientific investigation aimed at learning how people and plants respond to long periods in the absence of gravity. In one of those experiments he's been growing a variety of mustard plant in a greenhouse enclosure. He explained how he pollinated the plants so they will produce a new generation of seeds.

“We have a very interesting experiment, growing rapeseed for the first time in space, and we're trying to produce seeds from these plants that we've grown in the greenhouse. The application of that is that in the future we could grow plants that produced oxygen and food for us on spacecraft and on planets. Well, the first thing to do is to be able to make seeds in space and today I have plants that have produced flowers, and my job today is to take bee sticks, pieces of bees on sticks, and pollinate the flowers. So I go around each flower doing a sort of buzz, buzz, buzz thing, going around each flower and transferring the pollen from flower to flower. And that's my job today. That's the farm report.”

The Americans scheduled to follow Mike Foale to the Russian space station have been in training at a couple of locations in Russia during this past week.

Astronauts Wendy Lawrence and David Wolf, slated for the sixth and seventh Shuttle-Mir missions, spent this week at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, studying a variety of payloads, the Mir's life support system, and continuing their physical training.

Astronaut Andy Thomas, who is training as Wolf's back-up for the final mission of the joint Shuttle-Mir program in water survival training manuevers at the Black Sea.

Next Tuesday, Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev will send commands for the undocking of the Progress re-supply craft currently attached to the Mir station. That Progress will fly near the Mir for a day, then will use the automated docking system to redock to the Mir the following day for a test of that systems' capability.

Next Friday, a new Progress resupply craft bound for the Mir Space Station is scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan, in central Asia. Assuming an on-time launch, the progress vessel currently docked to the station will be undocked for the final time next Saturday, June 28th and the new ship, carrying a cargo of food, fuel, clothing, and other supplies, will dock to the Mir Space Station next Sunday, June 29th.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of June 27, 1997

Interview with Frank Culbertson - Frank Culbertson, NASA Shuttle-Mir Program Manager, discusses the condition of the crew and the space station

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

U.S. astronaut Mike Foale and his cosmonaut colleagues on the Russian space station Mir are still assessing the state of their orbiting home following Wednesday morning's collision of an unmanned progress resupply craft with the station's Spektr module during a test of a remote manually guided docking system. The impact left one of Spektr's four solar arrays and a radiator crumpled, and created a hole in the module's hull that forced the crew to close Spektr's hatch and seal it off from the rest of the station.

Closing that hatch meant disconnecting the lines that deliver power to the station from Spektr's three undamaged solar arrays. With half of the Mir's electrical generating capability unavailable, many station systems have been powered down to conserve electricity while the station is turned to a better attitude to generate power from the remaining solar arrays on other modules.

In early march, while astronaut Jerry Linenger was onboard Mir, a test of this same remote-controlled docking system experienced a similar kind of failure, although a collision was averted. During a news earlier this week, Linenger described that event and how the crew onboard Mir was able to see the progress vessel as it moved toward the station.

“It was a similar situation in that we were redocking an already used Progress and testing the same system. My understanding is that it was a different failure mode. I don't know what the failure mode is and I'm not sure anyone knows what the failure mode was at this point in the most recent event. During ours it was a matter of a television monitor not coming up at the command post where Vasily was standing at that time and therefore we were unable to see the camera view from the Progress and therefore unable to see the docking port and therefore unable to do a successful docking. We reacted to that by firing jet impulses to have the Progress veer away from us. It was a similar situation. We were all looking out the windows trying to spot the Progress coming and when we saw it, it was coming in quickly and at us when Vasily responded by firing jet impulses. That control worked perfectly that time. We were able control the vehicle and fire the thrusters and avoid the collision.”

Since his return from the Mir Space Station last month Linenger has been working with his flight surgeons on his readaptation to gravity, and has conducted numerous debriefings about his stint on Mir. Despite the recent trouble onboard the station, the astronauts in line to follow Mike Foale to the Mir have been preparing for their missions at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, in Star City, Russia.

Astronaut Wendy Lawrence had training sessions in the Soyuz simulator and a Mir practical session, along with payload training and physical training. Lawrence is scheduled to arrive on Mir in September.

Astronaut David Wolf joined Lawrence for physical training and attended sessions on the Mir's life support systems. Wolf's back-up, astronaut Andy Thomas, continued his physical training and Russian language instruction along with sessions on the life support systems of the Soyuz capsule, which cosmonauts use to return to Earth.

Meanwhile, commander Terry Wilcutt and his STS-89 crewmates spent this week in star city, touring the training center and joining Lawrence and Wolf for a variety of lessons on Mir systems. STS-89 is targeted for a launch to the Mir this coming January, bringing Wolf to the Russian station and returning Lawrence to Earth.

NASA's director of operations in Star City, astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria, had two spacewalk training sessions in a Russian spacesuit this week, in anticipation of his assignment on mission STS-92 in January 1999 on an International Space Station assembly flight. He's also been conducting a handover to his replacement, veteran astronaut Brent Jett, who arrived in Star City this week to assume his duties as director of operations on July 1st.

Veteran cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev has been looking at the current situation onboard the Mir. Krikalev is leading the development of possible spacewalking procedures which may be used to try to recover the Spektr module or the use of its power-generating solar arrays.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of July 4, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

onboard the Space Station Mir, American astronaut Mike Foale and his Russian cosmonaut colleagues have spent this day making preparations for the arrival of a Progress re-supply ship. That unmanned cargo craft, operating through automatically controlled systems, is scheduled to dock to the Russian station at 12:58 a.m. CDT on Monday morning.

Along with food, fuel and clothing, this cargo ship is carrying special supplies for an internal spacewalk planned for later this month to recover the use of the solar arrays on the station's Spektr module. Lines bringing power from those arrays into the station's Base Block were disconnected last week as the module was sealed following a collision with another unmanned cargo ship, which caused Spektr to depressurize. The current repair plan calls for Foale to man the Soyuz capsule docked to the station, and for commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin to don their spacesuits and depressurize the station's transfer node, then open the hatch into Spektr and install a modified hatch through which the power lines can be routed while keeping the module sealed. If successful, the orbiting outpost would recover valuable power for the rest of Mir's operations and science activities.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of July 11, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Dan Goldin Talks to Mike Foale - On Tuesday, July 8, Dan Goldin, NASA Administrator, had a conversation with Mike Foale

Press Briefing - On July 7, Frank Culbertson gave a status update and answered questions

Ham Radio Link with Columbia - On July 8 the crew of Columbia talked to Mike Foale by ham radio

Work continues onboard the Russian Space Station Mir to prepare for a planned internal spacewalk later this month. That activity is intended to recover the use of solar arrays mounted to the exterior of the station's Spektr module, power that was lost when the lines were disconnected and the module sealed two weeks ago after an unmanned cargo ship collided with the module and caused it to depressurize.

Mir-23 commander Vasily Ttsibliev, flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, and American astronaut Mike Foale have been preparing special hardware, delivered this week on a new Progress resupply ship, which the Russians will use to modify the Spektr's hatch during the spacewalk so power can be routed through the closed hatch to batteries in the station's core module. A dry-run practice session for that internal spacewalk is tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday, July 14th.

Also on that cargo craft were supplies for repair of the station's Antares communications system. Today the crew installed two transmitters that should enable Mir to make use of the Altair satellite once again to expand its range of communication with Russian ground controllers.

During preparation for that installation yesterday, the temperature of the cooling loop, which services the Antares, was raised to prevent condensation on the apparatus; that adjustment also raised the temperature in the station's Elektron system, the primary oxygen generation system, which is serviced by the same cooling loop. The Elektron was turned off yesterday to prevent its overheating; today it was restarted and is operating normally and at the proper temperature.

Today is the 150th day onboard Mir for the Russian cosmonauts, the 56th for Foale.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of July 18, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Press Briefing - On July 18, Frank Culbertson gave a status update and answered questions

Press Briefing - On July 17, Frank Culbertson gave a status update and answered questions

Conditions onboard the Russian Space Station Mir continue to stabilize this morning, and the three crewmembers have been told to rest up from the work they've done to restore the station's attitude and power supplies in the wake of this week's in-flight incident.

Wednesday afternoon, the cosmonauts were working on possible cable configurations that will be required to seal off the transfer node prior to an attempt to recover access to the power from solar arrays on the station's Spektr module. During that work a cable conveying data to the station's navigation computer was inadvertently disconnected. Although it was quickly reconnected, the computer shut down and the station went into free drift, a condition in which its jet thrusters are disabled from firing.

With the Mir's solar arrays not collecting power at acceptable levels because the station was not properly oriented to the Sun, the station's batteries were drained over the next few orbits. Virtually all station systems were shut down to conserve power, and the cosmonauts used the jets on the Soyuz capsule attached to the Mir to re-orient the station to the Sun.

John Curry, a NASA operations lead in the Russian mission control center in Korolev, outside Moscow gave this report this morning.

“Everything is doing much better than it was yesterday. The crew was able to reestablish good attitude control with the jets early this morning, so then they were able to reorient the space station into an attitude that would provide good solar charging on the batteries, and since they've been doing that, we've slowly been able to turn on various pieces of equipment and things are looking much better. All the environmental parameters are within the normal ranges. In fact, the oxygen supply is high enough that they didn't have to turn on the Elektron system this morning, which is the thing that produces oxygen on the Mir, and they won't need to do that until tomorrow. The carbon dioxide removal system, the Vozdukh system, was turned on at about 4:30 a.m. CDT, and the thermal control system has been reactivated.

“On the next pass over the Russian ground station, they're going to check out the gyrodynes and see if they can spin them up, and about six hours from then, about 4:00 p.m. CDT, they will establish full attitude control. If all proceeds as planned with that, they should have full charge on everything by noon tomorrow.

“The crew is doing pretty well, all things considered. Except for feeling a little bit snake bitten in terms of having new problems to work every day, they've been doing pretty well. Today has been dedicated completely to making sure that the station is in a good attitude to charge the solar batteries, and as the current levels on the batteries come up they've been repowering equipment. They're all in good health, and on the last pass they sounded real well and I don't foresee any problems.”

The current power-up of the station's batteries is very similar to what the Mir-23 crew went through more than three weeks ago after the collision of an unmanned Progress cargo craft with the station's Spektr module. That impact caused Spektr to lose pressure, and the crewmembers had to disconnect the cables delivering power from Spektr's solar arrays in order to seal that module from the rest of the station.

The work they were engaged in this week, when the latest incident occurred, was in preparation to recover access to that power source. On that front, NASA has given approval for Foale to begin on-orbit training to be a suited participant for an internal spacewalk. Russian mission managers requested Foale's assistance after their flight surgeons detected an irregular heartbeat in Tsibliev and decided that, although he is healthy, they did not want him to perform the spacewalk.

NASA's Shuttle-Mir program manager Frank Culbertson has given the "go" for Foale to begin training for the spacewalk along with Lazutkin; a decision on whether or not Foale will, in fact, make this spacewalk will not be made until after a joint American-Russian readiness review, which will be conducted prior to the planned spacewalk. The spacewalk has not yet been rescheduled, and Russian space officials are reviewing their options in the wake of the latest power problem on the Mir.

In a briefing this morning, Culbertson explained that delaying the spacewalk until the arrival of a new crew of cosmonauts, who are scheduled to launch on August 5th, is a possibility, and that there are several reasons to consider it.

Mir-24 commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov have been training in the Russian Hydrolab facility, a giant water tank at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside Moscow, practicing internal spacewalks as well as trips outside the station to examine the damage caused by the June 25th Progress collision.

Before the readiness review is conducted, Foale and Lazutkin will rehearse the repair procedures in a shirtsleeve environment, and again while wearing pressurized spacesuits. Despite the difficulties this crew of space travelers has encountered, Culbertson says the personal and professional relationships of the three men onboard Mir continues to be strong and supportive, and that Foale himself is enthused about his participation in this mission.

In the meantime, training continues for the Americans slated for the remaining two tours of duty in the Shuttle-Mir program. Astronaut Wendy Lawrence is in the final stages of her training in Star City. She's scheduled for a launch on the shuttle Atlantis in September to relieve Foale and begin her own four-month mission. She would be replaced onboard Mir in January by astronaut David Wolf; his four-month mission, which should conclude next May, would be the final increment in the program.

The Mir-23 crewmembers have been instructed by the Russian flight control teams to rest throughout this coming weekend; mission managers will re- assess the status of Mir systems next week and could decide on Monday on a schedule for the resumption of onboard activities.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of July 25, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Interview with Mark Severance - Mark Severance, NASA Operations Lead at Mission Control Center in Korolev talks about conditions aboard Mir and crew activities in the upcoming days and weeks

American astronaut Mike Foale and his cosmonaut colleagues have entered the final phase of their mission together onboard the Space Station Mir, as the two Russians have begun packing for their scheduled return to Earth in three weeks.

This week the Russian State Commission of Chief Designers announced that the current crew would not conduct the internal spacewalk, and assigned it to the next crew of cosmonauts, so that Tsibliev and Lazutkin can turn their full attention to maintaining station systems and getting ready for the upcoming handover to their successors.

While seeing to station maintenance, Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, now in the 166th day of their mission, are busy with preparations for the arrival of their replacements. A Soyuz capsule carrying Mir-24 commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan in central Asia on August 5, and should dock to the Mir on August 7th.

Given the reduced power capability onboard Mir due to the loss of access to the solar arrays mounted to the Spektr module, the Russian managers also decided not to launch French researcher Leopold Eyharts for his planned three- week science mission during the Mir-23 handover to Mir-24. That means the handover can be accomplished in just one week, putting Tsibliev and Lazutkin on target to return to Earth August 14 to wrap up 185 days in space.

Shortly after Tsibliev and Lazutkin return home, the Mir-24 crew will begin preparations for the internal spacewalk, a task Solovyev and Vinogradov have been practicing at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. That spacewalk, with Foale participating from inside the Soyuz capsule docked to the station's transfer node, is now scheduled for no earlier than August 20. They're also planning a spacewalk outside the station, to examine the Spektr module in hope of locating the breach in its hull, in early September.

Here is the current, and preliminary, schedule of the upcoming activities onboard the Mir Space Station.

On the morning of August 5, at 10:35 Houston time, Mir-24 commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov are to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in a Soyuz capsule for the two-day ride to Mir. Assuming that launch does take place, the next day Russian ground controllers will command the Progress resupply ship currently attached to the Mir's Kvant-1 module to undock and move into an independent orbit near the Russian station.

Early the next afternoon, at 12:23 Houston time, the Soyuz capsule carrying Solovyev and Vinogradov will dock to the Mir's Kvant-1 docking port. During the ensuing week the five residents of the Mir will conduct a handover of station operational responsibility, and then on Thursday, August 14, Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin will board the Soyuz at the Mir's transfer node, undock, and head for a soft landing in central Asia.

The following day, August 15, the remaining Soyuz capsule will be flown from the Kvant-1 docking port to the opposite end of the station, where it will be required during the internal spacewalk. Solovyev, Vinogradov, and Foale will be aboard the Soyuz for that 15-minute flyaround and redocking. Then the next day, the Progress vessel will be automatically redocked to the Kvant-1 module, placing the Mir in the same configuration it is in today.

Solovyev, Vinogradov and Foale will then conduct their final spacewalk preparations, leading to the scheduled internal spacewalk by Solovyev and Vinogradov August 20 to attempt to regain access to the power generated by the solar arrays on the Mir's Spektr module.

American astronaut Wendy Lawrence is scheduled to take over for Foale onboard Mir in September. This week Lawrence had her final medical examinations, and wrap-up training on her phase of the ongoing greenhouse experiment.

David Wolf, slated to follow Lawrence onboard Mir next January, concentrated this week on the communications systems of the Mir Space Station; he also underwent medical exams and continued his physical training.

Wolf's back-up, astronaut Andy Thomas, spent his week in Russian language classes, attending lectures on the Mir's design and layout, and being fitted for his customized Soyuz seat liner.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of August 1, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

Interview with Mike Foale - Mike Foale answers questions posed by CBS News correspondent Bill Harwood

Status Briefing - Frank Culbertson and Valery Ryumin announce plans to send David Wolf to the Mir and answer questions from the press

As American astronaut Mike Foale and his Russian crewmates onboard the space station Mir get themselves and the station ready for next week's planned arrival of a new pair of cosmonauts, NASA and the Russian space program have made a change in the assignment of the American who will succeed Foale onboard the station to extend the Shuttle-Mir program into 1998.

Astronaut David Wolf, a medical doctor and engineer who has been training in Russia since August of last year for the final scheduled increment of the American mission to the Mir, has been moved up in the rotation to fly on the next Shuttle-Mir docking mission and relieve Foale. He's replacing astronaut Wendy Lawrence, with whom he has been training as a back-up for this mission, due to changes in the desired requirements for Americans serving on Mir, which are a result of the recent on-orbit collision sustained by the Russian station.

The impact of an unmanned Progress supply ship with the Mir's Spektr module on June 25th left the station without access to power from the Spektr's solar arrays, and plans have been laid for a series of spacewalks to recover access to those arrays and to examine the exterior of Spektr to assess the damage; other excursions to the exterior of the Mir to recover U.S. science hardware were already on the flight plan for the upcoming months.

In the weeks since the collision, both space agencies have discussed the desirability of the American crewmember onboard the Mir being qualified to conduct spacewalks, in the event the astronaut is needed to lend assistance to the cosmonauts during the coming months. That was not considered a requirement at the time Lawrence was selected for the program.

In a news conference from the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow, NASA Shuttle-Mir Program Manager Frank Culbertson explained that the tough decision to replace Lawrence was based on the fact that, at 5'3", she does not fit in the Russian Orlan spacesuit and could not become qualified for spacewalking duty.

Wolf will now begin a course of training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center's Hydrolab Facility to become familiar with working in the Russian spacesuit, and if time permits he'll receive specific training on the required task for the single spacewalk he's expected to make, to retrieve hardware from the outside of the station. To ensure that he has time to finish that instruction, it is expected that the planned launch date for mission STS-86 will be delayed until late September.

Lawrence will continue training as a back-up for Wolf, and Culbertson said she will fly as a crewmember on the next shuttle-mir docking mission so she can assist in the handover from Foale to Wolf as well as in the transfer of logistics and other supplies between the two spacecraft. Culbertson said that a decision as to who will be assigned in Wolf's place for the final trip to the Mir will be made in a couple of weeks, and that astronaut Andy Thomas, currently training as the back-up for that flight, is a likely candidate and will probably start spacewalk training in Russia soon.

Meanwhile, in an interview this week Mike Foale described the crew's response to the collision, including their feeling they might have to abandon the Mir.

The station's batteries are now fully recharged, and the station's pointing attitude to the Sun is being maintained automatically by the gyrodynes. The crew has replaced a valve in the Vosdukh, the primary system for removing carbon dioxide from the air, and it is now fully operational. Oxygen is being supplied from tanks in the Progress vessel docked to the station while the crew troubleshoots the Elektron oxygen generation system, which has cycled off when activated over the last two days.

Today is Foale's 77th day as a member of the Mir crew, and it is the 171st day on the station for his crewmates, Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin. The Mir-23 commander, who continues to be closely monitored for any signs of an irregular heartbeat that showed up in a routine electrocardiograph last month, and his flight engineer are continuing a program of specialized exercise to help prepare their bodies to re-encounter the pull of gravity after more than six months in weightlessness.

Plans for scientific research onboard Mir by future visiting astronauts have been modified as a result of the Progress collision with Spektr, which has sharply reduced the power available to run experiment hardware. Mike Foale said recovering access to Spektr's solar arrays is very important to the continuation of on-board science, but he pointed out that pure science is not the only reason for Americans to keep flying on the Russian space station, noting that the recent unexpected events have provided a great opportunity for learning to work together.

This week Foale reported that many of the second set of broccoli plant seeds he'd planted in the greenhouse facility have sprouted, including some seeds that were generated from the first set of plants. This is the first time that a second generation of space-borne plants has ever been grown.

The task of conducting the internal spacewalk, now scheduled for no earlier than August 20, has been assigned to Mir-24 commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov. They will also perform an external spacewalk to determine the character of the damage to the Spektr module. They're scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Asia on Tuesday, August 5, at 10:35 a.m. CDT and dock to the station two days later 12:03 p.m. CDT.

For the next six days, the five residents of the Russian space station will hand over operational responsibility to the new crew of cosmonauts, and on Thursday, August 14, Tsibliev and Lazutkin will climb into their Soyuz capsule, undock from the station's transfer node, and conclude a 185-day mission with a landing in central Asia.

On Friday, August 15, Solovyev, Vinogradov, and Foale will board the remaining Soyuz capsule for a 15-minute flyaround, redocking at the transfer node docking port. The next day, ground controllers will redock the Progress resupply ship to the station's Kvant-1 module.

On Monday and Tuesday the 18th and 19th all three crewmembers will be busy with final preparations for the internal spacewalk, and then, if all remains on schedule, on August 20th Foale will get in the Soyuz capsule while Solovyev and Vinogradov, wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits, depressurize the transfer node, open the hatch to the Spektr module, and conduct an internal spacewalk aimed at regaining access to Spektr's solar arrays.

| 3/7/97 | 3/14/97 | 3/21/97 | 3/28/97 | 4/4/97 | 4/11/97 | 4/18/97 | 4/25/97 |
| 5/2/97 | 5/9/97 | 5/16/97 | 5/23/97 | 5/30/97 | 6/6/97 | 6/13/97 | 6/20/97 |
| 6/27/97 | 7/4/97 | 7/11/97 | 7/18/97 | 7/25/97 | 8/1/97 | 8/8/97 |

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Mir-23 - Week of August 8, 1997

Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow

On Tuesday a Soyuz capsule carrying the Mir-24 cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan, and on Thursday successfully docked to the station's Kvant-1 docking port, and Solovyev and Vinogradov entered what will be their home until early next year.

From now until next Thursday, the new cosmonaut crew will be taking over operational responsibility from Mir-23 commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, who will then return to Earth after 185 days on orbit.

Aided by American astronaut Mike Foale, Solovyev and Vinogradov will then begin preparations for a spacewalk the two Russians plan to make no earlier than August 20th. With Foale participating from inside the Soyuz capsule, Solovyev and Vinogradov will attempt to install a piece of hardware in the hatch to the Spektr module that will allow the crew to recover access to power from Spektr's solar arrays.

Power from those arrays was lost when the cables were disconnected and the hatch to Spektr closed after an unmanned cargo craft collided with Spektr in late June and breached its hull. Solovyev and Vinogradov have also been trained for a spacewalk outside the station, perhaps in early September, to assess the damage from that collision.

Astronaut David Wolf, who is now scheduled to relieve Foale onboard the Mir, spent most of this past week conducting spacewalk training, while wearing scuba gear, in the Hydrolab facility at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow. Wolf, who is qualified for spacewalk duty in an American spacesuit, could begin his underwater training in the Russian Orlan spacesuit next week.

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