Russian cosmonaut Anatoli Solovyov has been replaced by cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko. Solovyov had been named as the commander of the first Soyuz TM flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 1988, flying with Russian flight engineer Sergei Krikalev and US astronaut William Shepherd.
Solovyov had featured in a behind-the-scenes argument between NASA and the Russian Space Agency over who would command the first shift aboard the ISS, which will, at this stage, be largely Russian.
Shepherd was appointed as ISS commander and Solovyov "module commander", as well as the leader of the TM flight in which Shepherd will fly principally as a passenger (Flight International, 27 November-3 December, P47).
The Progress M33 supply v vehicle docked to the Mir 1 space station on 22 November after its delayed launch to deliver food, water, propellant, personal items, and equipment necessary to repair a balky waste-management system.
Cosmonauts Valeri Korzun and Yuri Usachev, with NASA astronaut John Blaha, are scheduled to be joined by the Space Shuttle STS81/Atlantis crew flying the fourth Shuttle Mir Mission after a launch in January 1997.
Blaha will be replaced by astronaut Jerry Linenger, while Korzun and Usachev will have to wait until February for their Soyuz TM replacement crew. This will also carry a German astronaut, Reinhold Ewald, on a commercial 18 day mission, which is now scheduled for a February launch, after booster production delays.
Source: Flight International
