NASA: No more astronauts on Mir until it is safe, productive

July 6, 1997
Web posted at: 8:24 p.m. EDT (0024 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- NASA will not send another astronaut to the troubled Russian Mir space station unless it is proven safe and the ability to conduct scientific research is restored, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said Sunday.

Goldin, speaking on CNN's "Late Edition with Frank Sesno," said no commitment has been made to send American astronaut Wendy Lawrence to Mir in September, as originally planned.

Three teams at NASA are looking at safety issues and Mir's capacity for scientific study, Goldin said. He said no decision will be made on future missions until those teams have issued their reports, which NASA expects to be well in advance of Lawrence's scheduled departure.

"Safety is the most important issue on board that station," he said. "At the present time, we believe it is safe."

But Goldin said another prerequisite for Lawrence's trip to Mir would be the determination that her trip would be scientifically productive.

"Right now, it cannot be productive because we have to get the Mir space station back into shape," he said. "But we will be looking at this and we will not send Wendy up unless it is appropriate."

"We must have a productive set of data because just sending someone to sit on the Mir station would not be appropriate."

The Mir station has been beset with a host of problems in recent months, including a collision with a supply ship June 25 that forced the crew to seal off part of the damaged station.

Science experiments conducted by Michael Foale, the American astronaut currently on board Mir, were interrupted after the collision because his instruments were housed in Mir's Spektr module, now off limits.

An internal space walk, set for later this month, is aimed at restoring use of the solar arrays that were also damaged. But it is expected to take months before the damage in the Spektr module could be repaired.

Congressional critics of the joint U.S.-Russian space program on Mir want NASA to end the trips because of a recent string of technical problems. NASA gives the Russians about $400 million for each American foray on Mir, part of a project to build an international space station.

 

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• NASA: No more astronauts on Mir until it is safe, productive - July 6, 1997
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• Supply ship blasts off toward Mir - July 5, 1997
• Crucial Mir repairs delayed - July 4, 1997
• How Mir's gyrodynes work - July 3, 1997
• Mir gyros fail again; crew safe, officials say - July 3, 1997
• Mir crew cleaning house in preparation for spacewalk - June 30, 1997
• Conditions improving aboard Mir - June 29, 1997
• Mir repair may involve 'internal spacewalk' - June 26, 1997
• Debate brews: Should Mir project continue? - June 26, 1997
• Mir -- repair it or abandon it? - June 26, 1997
• Crippled Mir turns to sun for needed solar energy - June 26, 1997
• Mir has 3-man 'lifeboat' ready - June 25, 1997
• Mir's woes raise doubts about U.S.-Russian cooperation - June 25, 1997
• Mir at half power after collision - June 25, 1997
• No plans to abandon Mir - June 25, 1997
• Russian supply ship collides with space station Mir - June 25, 1997

Related sites:

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

• NASA Shuttle-Mir Web
  information about the Mir Space station is provided by NASA
  • Spektr - section of the space station that was hit
• MIR Space Station - Radio Transmit Info
  includes information about how to transmit and receive communications with MIR through amateur radio
• ISS Phase I - Space Station Mir
  contains graphics and specifications of the diferent areas of MIR
• Russian Space Agency
  homepage of the Russian Space Agency through the NASA site
  • Pictures and Movies
    contains pictures of MIR and MIR missions as released by the Russian Space Agency

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