Moscow, 21 August 1997 (RFE/RL) - The three-man crew aboard the space station Mir is spending today resting ahead of a spacewalk and repairs scheduled for tomorrow.
Cosmonauts Anatoli Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov will enter the depressurised Spektr module where they are due to spend four hours, reconnecting electric cables running from Spektr's solar panels to the mother ship.
Mir has run on partial power since Spektr was punctured after colliding with a cargo ship on June 25. If the repairs prove successful, the crew will be able to power up many areas of the station shut down after the collision in a bid to save energy.
While the Russian cosmonauts are working in Spektr, their U.S. colleague Michael Foale will for safety reasons move to the Soyuz TM-26 spaceship docked to Mir. In the event of an emergency, Solovyev and Vinogradov would leave the orbital station and join Foale.
Cosmonauts Anatoli Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov will enter the depressurised Spektr module where they are due to spend four hours, reconnecting electric cables running from Spektr's solar panels to the mother ship.
Mir has run on partial power since Spektr was punctured after colliding with a cargo ship on June 25. If the repairs prove successful, the crew will be able to power up many areas of the station shut down after the collision in a bid to save energy.
While the Russian cosmonauts are working in Spektr, their U.S. colleague Michael Foale will for safety reasons move to the Soyuz TM-26 spaceship docked to Mir. In the event of an emergency, Solovyev and Vinogradov would leave the orbital station and join Foale.