Current Issues:
SpaceViews
SpaceViews Update
Breaking News
Back Issues
Search
Subscriptions
Submissions
Forum
Space Sites of the Week
Home
Mars Pathfinder
Comet Hale-Bopp
Top Ten Stories of '96
Life on Mars?
Progress Arrives with Repair Equipment for Mir
A Progress resupply spacecraft loaded with repair equipment and other supplies docked with the Russian space station Mir July 7, setting the stage for a critical repair spacewalk later this month.
![[image of Mir from Progress]](../970715/images2/mir-progress.jpg)
The Progress M-35 spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan shortly after 12 midnight (0400 UT) July 5. The spacecraft docked with Mir two days later, at approximately 2am EDT (0600 UT) July 7.
The Progress docking was performed automatically and took place without problems. Attempts to try and manually dock the Progress M-34 spacecraft during a set of tests last month resulted in the collision of that unmanned spacecraft with Mir's Spektr module.
Unlike previous Progress dockings, where the crew opens up the hatch to the module just after docking, the crew rested and waited until Tuesday the 8th to start unloading the module. Mission controllers in Russia said the delay was necessary to give the crew a chance to rest.
Included in the 2.5 tons of supplies sent to the station is a replacement hatch for the Spektr module. During the internal spacewalk, cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin will replace the current hatch to Spektr with the new one. The new hatch includes connections on each side so power cables from the solar panels attached to Spektr can be connected to the power supply for the rest of the station.
Also on board the Progress module was food, water, oxygen, and other supplies. American astronaut Michael Foale, whose personal belongings were left behind in the Spektr module when it was sealed off, also got new clothes, a razor, and a toothbrush.