Soviets Dock Craft in Space Walk

The new Soviet space research module Kvant has been successfully docked with the orbiting station Mir during a space walk by cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Laveikin, Soviet news media reported today.

Tass, the official Soviet news agency, said the cosmonauts discovered that an alien object inside Kvant’s docking unit had prevented it from sealing with Mir. Tass did not identify the object.

The cosmonauts carried out work to allow the tightening of the seal, and the two spacecraft were docked by ground control under their visual supervision, Tass said.

“This process . . . proceeded smoothly and resulted in the full joining of the module with the station,” Tass said.

The space walk lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes, the news agency said. It said both cosmonauts were in good health afterward.

Radio Moscow said Romanenko and Laveikin “went into raw space to determine the cause of its (the space station’s) incomplete docking with the astrophysical module Kvant,” the broadcast said.

The module, which is carrying a new-generation Soviet space laboratory, on Thursday made contact with the Mir, but technical problems prevented completion of the docking maneuver.

By making the seal between the two vessels airtight, the cosmonauts will now be able to enter Kvant from Mir to begin the scientific experiments for which the module was conceived.

The radio said that Romanenko is an experienced space walker.

It said that almost 10 years ago, while aboard another orbital station, “he performed a similar operation to control its docking units and the instruments installed on the outer surface.”

It was Laveikin’s first space walk, Radio Moscow said.

The first docking attempt took place last Sunday.

Mir, launched in February last year, is due to become the heart of the world’s first permanently manned space station. Kvant was launched on March 31.