Mir

MOSCOW (AP) -- Two Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station successfully deployed a French-made device for catching and studying small meteorite particles during a six-hour spacewalk that ended early Wednesday.

Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev installed the "meteorite trap," which should collect data on a barrage of particles expected to peak around the Mir in mid-November, said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for mission control.

The device will stay attached to the Mir until 1999, when it will be taken back to Earth for analysis by a French astronaut who will fly to the station early next year.

A 1996 meteor shower as videotaped by the Japan Planetarium Lab

The "meteorite rain" doesn't pose a serious threat to the Mir because it consists of tiny remnants, not full meteorites. To be safe, however, the two cosmonauts will board the Soyuz escape capsule when the shower reaches its peak.

At the start of the spacewalk, Padalka and Avdeyev released a satellite model made by schoolchildren from several countries.

"Toss it gently toward the moon," Padalka told Avdeyev.

The two also mounted other scientific hardware on the outside of the 12-year-old Mir.

In all, the two cosmonauts completed nine of 10 operations they set out to handle, said Lyndin. The spacewalk lasted just under six hours and ended at 4:17 a.m. (0117 GMT) Wednesday, Lyndin said.

It was this crew's second spacewalk. The first was in August.

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