MIRNEWS.394 6 NOVEMBER 1997 5th Spacewalk (EVA) crew 24th Main Expedition MIR: After the return in the Sh.S.O. (airlock Module-D) during the 4th EVA it lasted a very long time before the cosmonauts could put off their spacesuits. A failure made it impossible to pressurize the airlock. The cosmonauts opened the hatch again to see whether something was wrong with the gasket of the outer ring of the hatch. This did not help and they decided to use the nearest compartment (the P.N.O., instrument- and scientific compartment) as airlock. Solovyov did this before: in 1990 due to a damage of the hatch. The Russians decided not to put back the 5th EVA, but to use the P.N.O. as airlock. The crew had to work hard during the days between the EVA's: they had to study and train for the new scenario, to repair the telemetry unit of Solovyov's spacesuit , to install a valve inside the Base Block for the installation of a second Vozdukh CO2 scrubber and to prepare themselves for the EVA. During the depress of the P.N.O. and the Sh.S.O. the crew tried to discover the cause of the pressure failure. The EVA-hatch swung open on 6.11.97 at 00.12.39UTC and closed behind the cosmonauts at 06.24.46UTC. These moments could be monitored due to the extensive use of the geostationairy Altair-2 during this EVA. Wolf stayed inside and he took care for the camera work and the communications. He gave the commands to establish a video-link via Altair-2 and he pushed the buttons of the electric remote control during the deployment of the new installed solar panel. The first activity of Solovyov and Vingradov was to transfer the new solar panel from the SO (docking compartment Kristall) to the Kvant-1. They installed the solar panel over there and connected the cables. They tried to unfold the panel, but part of the clamps between the sectors of it did not react on the commands given by Wolf. So Solovyov and Vinogradov had to do some push and pull work and this helped. So the new solar battery can be inserted into the structure of the S.E.P. -the Power Supply System- of the station. After removing the cap from the outlet for the Vozdukh valve, which they had installed during the 4th EVA, they returned to the airlock. Back in the airlock Vinogradov inspected the rubber gasket on the outer ring of the hatch and he discovered some minor iniquities. While closing the hatch he stated that the mechanism did not react smoothly. The indicator 'hatch closed' was positive. The crew closed the hatch between the Sh.S.O. and the P.N.O. and used the last compartment as airlock. The pressure in the Sh.S.O. was 209 mm mercury. In 2 days the crew will check whether this pressure decreased or not. After the EVA the pressure in the rest of the complex was 637 mm mercury. Communications: Altair-2 was in use during all windows. During direct VHF passes the frequency 143.618 mc was used simultanuously with strong interference by cross-modulation by an airtraffic control station. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.