Repair Supplies Reach Russian Space Station

Astronauts aboard the Russian orbiting space station Mir will begin repairing their damaged air supply systems today, after an unmanned cargo craft carrying oxygen and vital repair parts from Earth docked safely with the aging station Tuesday.

NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger and two Russian cosmonauts, Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin, have been forced for weeks to rely on only one of the orbiter’s two oxygen-producing systems.

A NASA official quoted by Reuters news agency said a recent run of problems on Mir has prompted the U.S. space agency to consider reviewing safety on the 11-year-old Russian station before sending any more astronauts to live and work there.

Linenger, the fourth American to join a Russian crew on Mir, is due to be replaced in May by Mike Foale.

Among the troubles that have plagued Mir since the 42-year-old Linenger arrived Jan. 19 on space shuttle Atlantis for his four-month stay have been a flash fire, problems with the motion-control system and a partial power outage.

The main device for removing carbon dioxide from air inside the station is also broken, and the crew is using a backup system of lithium hydroxide canisters to purge the poisonous gas. The Progress-34 cargo ship brought extra canisters to replenish the station’s supply.

News that the cargo craft had reached Mir, with none of the docking problems that have bothered the station in the past, cheered Russian space program officials, who have been scratching for money since the Soviet Union collapsed and the flow of cash from Moscow dried up.