MIRNEWS.411    3 MARCH 1998

Spacewalk (EVA) cancelled:

After the EVA preparations in the P.N.O. (Instrument- and Scientific
Compartment) the cosmonauts entered the Sh.S.O. (the unserviceable airlock) and
tried to open the locks of the outer hatch. The opening of the hatch, so the
beginning of the EVA, was planned for 0130UTC. At this moment MIR was out of my
range. Traffic via Altair-2 began at 0232 and lasted until 0246UTC, so not the
full window for MIR-Altair-2 was used. At 0232UTC Musabayev and Budarin (M. and
B.) were still in the Sh.S.O. as their attempts to open the airlock had failed.
To open the hatch they had to unlock 10 locks. They unlocked 9 of them, but the
last one had been fixed so tightly that B. had to use extreme strength to do
that. Doing this he broke all 3 available spanners. Immediately after getting
in touch with TsUP M. reported that they last of the 10 locks hampered the
continuation of the operation and that B. had broken all 3 spanners. The heads
of the spanners broke off and floated away. M. told that the started
repressurizing the P.N.O. to enable them to take off their spacesuits. He added
that this day was not a festive day at all. During the next communication
session M. and B. were in the P.N.O. and had taken off their spacesuits. They
did not immediately react on calls from TsUP and so Andy Thomas spoke with
TsUP. He did this in reasonable and certainly comprehensible Russian. A few
minutes later M. and B. were back in the Base Block and they asked when they
could make the next EVA. They said that it was possible to do that successfully
if they had the right tools. If necessary they were prepared to do this
immediately. TsUP did not give permission to do that and stated that the next
EVA could be made after the delivery of new spanners with the Progress-M38, the
start of which is scheduled for 15 March (UTC 14.03.98 at 2240UTC).

TsUP ordered M. to prepare a video session during the next window via Altair-2.
M. asked whether TsUP wished to see the hatch and that this was difficult to
perform. TsUP wished to see the broken spanners. During the session in orbit
68748 (0545-0557UTC) Budarin showed the broken spanners and explained what
happened. During this TV session the crew congratulated the TV-organisation of
Kazakhstan with the 40th anniversary. Due the limited use of the Altair-2
windows during vacuuming I was not able to determine the period during which
the cosmonauts were in vacuum.

MIR-routine:

On 26.02.1998 during a pass in which MIR used the trackingstation Wallops they
reported a smoke incident. More about this incident Musabayev reported after
coming in range off the first Russian trackingstation. There was not an
emergency situation for the smoke was not caused by a fire. It was just an
overheated ventilator in het BMP, a detector and/or scrubber for 'noxious
micro particles in the MIR-atmosphere'. The instrument or device had been
switched off and a purification process had been started. Offically the
incident was evaluated as a 'non issue' for there had been no
danger for the crew and it did not harm the health of the crew. Later on there
have been reports about a slightly higher percentage of carbon monoxyde in
MIR's air. During the next day TsUP told Musabayev that they had got
information that Andy Thomas did not feel well. Musabayev stated that Andy said
that he felt well. Nevertheless TsUP ordered M. to look for a so called
'oxygen profylactic mask which' Andy had to put on for a certain
period.

When the smoke started Andy was training on the tredmill in the module
Kristall. He went from there to the Priroda and could see the smoke in the Base
Block.

Preparations EVA:

The working hours on 27 and 28.02.1998 were used for checking EVA equipment and
spacesuits and for the training for the EVA itself.

Future spacewalks:

The EVA's for this month and for next April have been put back until
further notice. It is clear that the present situation is very problematic: it
is not possible to do EVA's even if this, in case of calamaties outside
the complex, might be necessary. All ports of the old airlock (the P.Kh.O., or
transition section) are occupied (4 modules and the S-TM27).

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.