Cosmonauts set for Friday spacewalk

Mir

May 12, 2000
Web posted at: 5:03 a.m. EDT (0903 GMT)

MOSCOW -- Two cosmonauts are scheduled to make the first privately funded spacewalk Friday, from the aging Mir space station.

Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander Kaleri have been orbiting the Earth in Russia's Mir. They returned to turn the lights back on after the space station was left empty for 223 days.

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In a five-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, they will attempt an experiment on sealing minute cracks in the hull with specially designed glue, according to a spokesman for mission control.

The cracks, which appeared when the station collided with a cargo craft in June 1997, have caused constant air leakage from the cabin, forcing the crew to use more precious energy to maintain normal pressure inside.

Mir was to have been scrapped earlier this year, but a $30 million cash injection from international backers kept it aloft. Russia has said Mir will now stay in orbit until at least August.

The accident-prone, 14-year-old station was originally designed to serve for just five years.

Several teams of cosmonauts have tried to locate the puncture in the hull but have failed. Friday's attempt was also unlikely to stop the pressure drop, but mission control said experts believed the experience could be useful.

"The results of the experiment could come in handy during work at the International Space Station," the spokesman said, referring to a $60 billion project in which Moscow is one of the main contractors after the United States.

Washington wants Russia to dump Mir to concentrate on building the new station, which is already way behind schedule. U.S. officials suspect Moscow's meager resources are being depleted by attempts to keep Mir alive.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Cargo ship docks to Russian Mir space lab
April 28, 2000
Cosmonauts back on board Mir
April 6, 2000
Mir to stay aloft with International Space Station hardware
January 20, 2000

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