Russia Loses Contact With Mir, Announces Docking With ISSThe Russian Mission Control Center said Tuesday, December 26, that it has lost contact with the Mir space station, but declared a successful cargo ship docking with the International Space Station (ISS).The Progress cargo spaceship was smoothly docked to the ISS at 14:03 Moscow time (1103 GMT) Tuesday. It was the last space docking of the passing millennium. The docking was done in the traditional TV operation regime, and the Mir problem did not affect the link-up, "although these problems are being handled basically by the same people," said a Mission Control spokesman. The center has been unable to establish contact with the over- 14-year space station since 3:00 p.m. Moscow time (0000 GMT) Monday. Earlier, connection had been successfully done with Mir orbiting on autopilot once or twice a day, the spokesman said. The Mission Control Center has been attempting to establish communications with the station every 90 minutes since it failed to do so Monday. But all of these attempts have so far been unsuccessful, and the cause for the communication failure is still unknown. If communications with Mir cannot be resumed, an emergency crew may be sent to the station to restore control and make sure the station falls without posing a threat to inhabited areas. Usually, such a rescue can be carried out in two emergency situations: a serious failure of the control systems or a failure by an unmanned fuel ship to automatically dock with the station, the spokesman said. The emergency crew of Salizhan Sharipov and Pavel Vinogradov is now training for a possible flight planned in case the Progress ship is unable to dock with Mir automatically. The Progress is to deliver fuel to Mir in January 2001 for the station's controlled descent into the Pacific Ocean in late February. However, the source said that since Sharipov has no personal experience with manual docking of a manned craft, the back-up crew of Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin may be sent instead. The Russian government decided in the fall to shut down the aging Mir, which has been in orbit since 1986 and on autopilot since this summer, in order to focus its resources on the ISS which uses much of Mir's technology. Although the Mir station has not carried any crew for months, Russia still needs to maintain contact with the empty orbiter to prevent it from falling from space and possibly hitting a populated area. The Mir station has been the pride of Russia's space program for years, giving Moscow by far the world's greatest experience in long-term manned space flight. Russian space specialists are now preparing a summary of the incident and looking for a solution, the spokesman said. |
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