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Soviets Launching Relief Crew to Mir Space Station : Romanenko, Who Set Record for Space Travel, and Companion Alexandrov Will Return to Earth

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Times Staff Writer

A replacement crew for the orbiting Soviet spaceship Mir (Peace) will be launched this afternoon from the cosmodrome at Baikonur, the official news agency Tass reported Sunday.

The transfer in space is part of the Soviet plan to man the Mir space laboratory continuously, the first time it will have done so, according to program officials.

One of the cosmonauts now aboard the Mir, Yuri Romanenko, set a record for space travel in October, having been launched from Earth last Feb. 6. He passed his 316th day in space on Sunday.

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His companion, Alexander Alexandrov, joined him in the Mir several months later.

Central Asia Facility

Today’s launch of the Soyuz TM-4 spaceship is scheduled for 2:18 p.m. Moscow time at the Central Asia space facility and will carry three cosmonauts, led by Col. Vladimir Titov, 40, to replace those aboard the Mir, officials said.

Lt. Gen. Kerim Kerimov, space chief at the cosmodrome, told Tass that the changeover in space is expected to take about a week, and then the current orbiting pilots will return to Earth.

A “research cosmonaut” accompanying today’s space flight will return to Earth with the veterans of the Mir, while Titov and his two-man crew will be left aboard the space laboratory.

Research Experiments

In the past few days, the orbiting cosmonauts have been engaged in astrophysical and medico-biological research, a Tass correspondent reported.

Experiments are also being carried out to obtain new data on the chemical and physical influence of open space on various types of materials.

One reason for the extended flights in orbit, space officials said, is to determine whether pilots can survive the long space voyage to reach the planet Mars and return--possibly 30 months’ duration.

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Romanenko has reported that he is subject to occasional feelings of depression and homesickness and that he finds it difficult to exercise his leg muscles properly.

An article in Sunday’s armed forces paper, Red Star, revealed for the first time that Col. Titov was one of two cosmonauts aboard a launch rocket that exploded in September, 1983.

Crew Ejects Safely

The crew was ejected inside the return capsule, which then parachuted safely to Earth.

“What took place may seem unbelievable,” the paper said. “Seconds before liftoff, an emergency situation arose. Fire broke out in the booster rockets, and the accident rescue system went into operation. History never before knew such trials of technology, will power and people’s nerves.”

Red Star also disclosed that Titov was aboard a Soyuz T-8 spacecraft when the electronics system failed, preventing its mission of docking in space with an unmanned Salyut 7 station.

The cosmonaut tried to dock visually but nearly collided with the Salyut and had to maneuver sharply to keep from striking the other space vehicle.

Titov asked for permission to try again to dock visually, but the request was refused and he returned to Earth with two crew mates.

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Because of his experiences, the newspaper said, senior officers declared that no cosmonaut was better suited for the current mission than Titov.

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