Soviet Space Docking Fails

The Soviet Union failed today in a second attempt to securely dock the 21-ton Kvant laboratory with the orbiting space station Mir, and Western diplomats said official reports indicated that the spacecraft might have been damaged in the effort.

Radio Moscow said the unmanned astrophysical laboratory as large as the Mir station itself linked with the station this morning--but apparently not securely enough to allow two cosmonauts aboard Mir to cross over and activate its life-support systems.