Tim Furniss/LONDON
The chiefs of the US/ Russian Shuttle Mir Mission (SMM) programme plan to fly to the Russian space station on the ninth and final SMM, the STS91/Discovery, due in June 1998.
Former cosmonaut Valeri Ryumin, deputy director of the Energia company and the Russian chief of the SMM programme, and his US counterpart, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, will fly the STS91 as payload specialist and commander respectively.
Ryumin is a veteran of three Soyuz missions to the Salyut 6 station between 1977 and 1980, with 361 days' spaceflight experience, while Culbertson flew two Shuttle missions during 1991-3.
NASA has refused to confirm the plan, which will depend on the ability of the Mir to continue operating. Two other missions, the SMM7 (the STS86/Atlantis, due on 26 September) and the SMM8 (the STS89/Endeavour, January 1998), are due before the SMM9.
Meanwhile, on board the Mir, a 6h spacewalk by station commander Anatoli Solovyov and US resident astronaut Michael Foale on 5 September failed to find any visible signs of a hole in the hull of the Spektr module, damaged and depressurised during a collision with a Progress tanker on 25 June (Flight International, 6-12 August).
The spacewalkers report bent and broken struts around the crumpled radiator of the module, and distortion at the base of the damaged solar array, where Solovyov believes the puncture is located. He also repositioned two of the Spektr's undamaged arrays.
A further spacewalk will be undertaken, to remove the damaged solar panel in the hope of revealing the puncture and repairing it. This is scheduled for after the arrival of the Progress M36 tanker on 6 October, with new equipment and tools, and also after the STS86 has departed with Foale, having delivered his replacement, David Wolf, who has been trained for spacewalking, if required.
Source: Flight International