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Progress Spacecraft Collides with Mir, Depressurizes Module

An unmanned Progress supply module flew off course during a docking maneuver and struck the Mir space station on June 25, depressurizing the Spektr module and resulting in a 50 percent power loss for the station.
     Progress M-34, loaded with garbage from the station, was being used to test remote docking procedures when it flew off course at around 5:20am EDT (0920 UT). The crew was unable to stop the module before it struck a solar panel attached to Spektr, tearing a hole 30-40 cm across in it.
     The Progress then bounced off the module itself, creating a hull breach about 2-3 cm in diameter. The hole in the module allowed air to escape from inside Spektr.
     The three-man crew on Mir, including American astronaut Michael Foale, closed the hatch to Spektr, sealing it off from the rest of the station to prevent further loss of air pressure on the station. None of the crew was injured in the accident.
     However, to seal the hatch to Spektr required disconnecting power cables that linked the solar panels attached to Mir to the rest of the station. This loss of electrical power from Spektr's panels cut the station's total power in half.
     The loss of power forced the shutdown of a number of key systems on the station, including the oxygen generators and carbon dioxide scrubbers and the gyrodynes, used to keep Mir in the proper attitude. As the situation came under control later by the weekend, though, those systems were gradually restored.
     "The situation on Mir is completely under the control of mission control and the crew," said mission controller Vladimir Solovyov.
     The Progress was moved to a safe distance from the station. Although mission controllers planned to deorbit the spacecraft late last week, the vehicle remains in orbit as additional tests are conducted with it. At last report, engineers believed that the spacecraft may have been overloaded with garbage, making the spacecraft more difficult to control and contributing to the accident.
     The loss of Spektr was a major setback for Foale, who conducted a number of experiments in the module and used it as his living quarters. He left behind a number of personal items, from clothing to toothbrushes, in the module when it was sealed off.
     When asked by a NASA official at Russian mission control how he was doing after the accident, Foale said, "Great... as great as you can be without all of your stuff."
     "It's all over now and I'm glad we're getting it all together again," he said.

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