Space station shows its age

Oxygen-generator failures latest troubles for Mir

March 8, 1997
Web posted at: 11:47 a.m. EST (1647 GMT)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- A second oxygen generator aboard the Russian space station Mir has failed, leaving two Russian cosmonauts and U.S. astronaut Jerry Linenger with a two-month supply of oxygen, NASA said Friday.

NASA and Russian officials are watching the situation closely, however, because the backup system now creating oxygen in the space station is similar to one that sparked a fire two weeks ago.

The Mir has several redundant systems to generate oxygen for the crew. Two Elektron units, which extract oxygen from the station's waste water, failed this week, forcing the crew to resort to the chemical backup, which is usually used as a supplement when more than three crew members are aboard.

"What probably happened is, in essence ... some sort of contamination or clogging process and causing the air to shut down," said NASA spokesman Edward Campion.

NASA and Russian officials say the recent problems with Mir are coincidental and unrelated.

"We obviously take these kind of issues very seriously and we're going to do what ever is prudent to keep both our astronaut as well as the cosmonauts safe, but I think this is mostly just a challenging space flight," Campion said.

Linenger is halfway through a four-month stint aboard the space station, and cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin are 23 days into a 197-day mission.

Russian officials say if the current chemical oxygen system fails, there are tanks with a five-day supply of emergency oxygen. If necessary, the crew can leave the space station in a Soyuz capsule that is attached to Mir for emergency use.

U.S. officials said Mir's latest problems, however, should not reflect badly on the station and its builders.

"The Mir had a service-life of five years when they launched it and they're in their 12th year already," said Frank Culbertson, a veteran astronaut who heads NASA's shuttle-Mir program, "so I think it demonstrates that they built a pretty robust system."

Correspondent Dan Ronan and Reuters contributed to this report.

 

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• Atlantis prepares to undock from Mir - January 19, 1997
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• Atlantis blasts off for Mir rendezvous - January 12, 1997
• Atlantis slated for pre-dawn liftoff - January 11, 1997
• Atlantis undocks from fourth Mir docking - September 23, 1996

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