Air-Purification System on Russian Space Station Broken
The main device to remove carbon dioxide from air inside the Russian space station Mir is broken, and U.S. astronaut Jerry Linenger and his two crew mates are relying on a backup system, NASA said Friday.
The three men have an eight-day supply of lithium-hydroxide canisters to purge carbon dioxide from the air, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said. More canisters are supposed to arrive on a Russian supply ship scheduled to launch Sunday.
The primary carbon-dioxide removal system malfunctioned Thursday while Linenger and the two cosmonauts were making repairs aboard the 11-year-old station, Navias said.
He did not know when the purification system might be working again. It is the latest in a series of equipment failures aboard Mir.
In early March, two oxygen generators broke, leaving the spacemen with a two-month supply of air. The crew has been using supplemental oxygen-generating canisters.
Russian space officials plan to send up parts to fix the main oxygen generators on the supply ship leaving this weekend. And NASA is considering carrying up a spare oxygen generator aboard space shuttle Atlantis during its mission next month to pick up Linenger.
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