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Thursday January 18 10:31 AM ET Glitch Delays Last Mission to Mir Space Station

By Oleg Akhmetov

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A new glitch on Russia's Mir space station (news - web sites) Thursday delayed the launch of a cargo rocket to guide the aged craft back to earth, officials said Thursday.

The launch of the Progress M1-5 rocket had been scheduled for Thursday at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, but Nikolai Zelenshchikov, first deputy head of the Energiya corporation which runs Mir, said it would now take place no earlier than January 21.

A computer problem had knocked the station away from its intended orientation, which would have made it impossible for the cargo rocket to dock if it had been launched, he said.

``Everything now depends on how the problems with Mir's orientation are resolved,'' he said, after a meeting at the Cosmodrome to set a new launch date.

Vladimir Solovyov, in charge of the Mir flight at mission control near Moscow, told RTR state television that power levels had fallen unexpectedly. But he said scientists would guide Mir's return: ``We will not allow Mir to fall to Earth in uncontrolled fashion.''

BLAST OFF ON JANUARY 24?

Zelenshchikov said the unmanned Progress M1-5, to take fuel to Mir, push it out of orbit and ensure it falls into the sea, could blast off on January 24 if earlier launch is impossible.

A mission control official said the fault behind the delay was fixed, but no new launch date was set. An officer said it was too soon to say if Mir's March landing date would change.

``We've managed to switch on the central on-board computer responsible for the orientation of the complex. That was the fault which delayed the launch,'' he told Reuters.

The problems on the station became apparent about seven hours before the scheduled launch time.

The first part of Mir went into orbit on February 20, 1986. The station has survived 15 years despite an initial planned life span of just three years.

Russia has said it expects Mir to hit Earth on March 5-6, but the precise time will depend on solar activity and the success of the Progress mission.

If necessary, a Russian crew is ready to take off at 12 days' notice to guide the station out of orbit manually.

No Russian Funds

Russia, unable to find $200 million needed to maintain Mir, decided in November to dump the station into the ocean on or near its 15th birthday next month. Space officials said there was little point in maintaining an outpost where cosmonauts spent 80 percent of their time on repairs.

Russians, who face such infrastructure problems as regular power cuts, see Mir as an example of technical genius. The station, visited by 28 long-term expeditions with a total of 106 cosmonauts, has set many records.

Kazakh cosmonaut Talbat Musabayev spent more than 30 hours in one month working outside Mir to secure a world record. Russian Sergei Avdeyev, with 747 days in space, is the only space traveler who toasted the New Year three times in orbit.

Mir has also seen frustrating glitches.

In February 1997, fire broke out during an attempt to change an air filter. A few months later a Progress cargo craft damaged its solar batteries during docking.

A computer failed in September 1997, leaving Mir spinning aimlessly. Two years later, the station went into hibernation after Mission Control shut down its main computer by accident.

After dumping Mir, Russia will focus on the $60 billion, 16-nation venture to build the International Space Station

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 18, 2001

Answers

A computer problem had knocked the station
away from its intended orientation

I was just reading this story in Russia Today.
They made no mention of any computer problem.
I wonder if it went out on January 1st :-§

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), January 18, 2001.