KOROLYOV,
Russia (Reuters) - A top Russian space official on Tuesday ruled
out a crash landing by the Mir space station after ground controllers
restored contact with the accident-prone craft after an anxious
24 hour break. Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov
said experts were studying data to work out why ground control
had lost contact with Mir around 7 a.m. EST on Monday. The incident
sparked fears of an uncontrolled return to earth by the 130-tonMir
with possible catastrophic consequences if debris struck populated
regions. Solovyov moved to quash such concerns: "There is
no threat. Mir will not fall on our heads tomorrow nor on New
Year"s." He said a sudden discharge of all batteries
aboard Mir was responsible for the communications breakdown but
what had caused the loss of power remained a mystery. The batteries
were now accumulating energy. Once they are fully charged, computers
will start checking equipment on board to identify the fault,
he said. Mir, to be dumped in the Pacific Ocean late February,
was in a safe orbit some 200 miles above earth, but Solovyov acknowledged
that the hitch was one of the most serious during the station"s
record-breaking 14-year voyage. "It was a very serious failure,
one of the most serious failures when we"ve lost communications,"
he told reporters.
SITUATION
UNDER CONTROL
Solovyov said
the situation aboard Mir was under control and that a crisis crew
would only be dispatched if experts felt there was a critical
situation on board. Cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov and Pavel Vinogradov
and a reserve crew are currently completing training for urgent
missions, Russian news agencies reported. Yuri Semyonov, head
of the Energiya corporation that runs Mir, said the station"s
solar panels could be the cause of the problem. But speaking to
Reuters he dismissed talk of a crisis. "I would not stir
up passions over this situation," he said. Mir was once the
pride of the Russian space program, with a host of endurance records.
But Moscow decided last month to dump the increasingly accident-prone
vessel in late February -- shortly after its 15th birthday. Russia
needs to maintain contact with the station, which has had no crew
for months, if it is to orchestrate a controlled re-entry into
Earth"s atmosphere. Ditching Mir into the Pacific between
900-1,200 miles off Australia requires guiding the station to
ensure the bulk of its debris avoids populated areas.
MIR DEBRIS
MIGHT HIT LAND
Even before
the current crisis, Russian space officials had warned that on
re-entry some Mir debris could strike land. Chunks weighing some
1,500 pounds would hurtle back to Earth with enough force to smash
through two meters six feet of reinforced concrete, Yuri Koptev,
head of Russia"s space agency, said in November. The loss
of contact with Mir highlighted the safety fears which prompted
Russia to pull the plug on the craft that made Moscow a world
leader in long-term manned space flight. After a spate of incidents,
including a near-catastrophic crash with a cargo craft, an on-board
fire and computer failures which temporarily left Mir spinning
aimlessly, U.S. politicians called for U.S. astronauts to be banned
from the vessel. Under intense U.S. pressure, Russia"s cash-strapped
space program agreed to focus on the $60 billion International
Space Station, a 16-nation venture which uses much of Mir"s
technology. But the state-of-the-art project has itself suffered
a series of delays and glitches since its launch in 1998. On Tuesday,
cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko had to manually dock a cargo vessel for
the second time in less than two months. A blurry camera forced
him to guide in another Progress cargo craft through a window
on November 18.
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