The World - News from April 13, 1989

The orbiting Soviet space station Mir will stay in mothballs for three months because of delays in preparing equipment that cosmonauts need to perform experiments aboard the spacecraft, Soviet news reports said. Cosmonauts Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev and Valery Polyakov will return to Earth on April 27, leaving the Mir station unmanned for only the second time since it was launched in February, 1986. “The facility will be left unmanned . . . due to delays with the preparation of two research modules” that will be attached to the main craft, Deputy Flight Director Viktor Blagov told the Tass news agency. This was the first explanation of why the project was being suspended.