For Astronaut, Mir Damage Is Personal

For 132 days, the Spektr module on Russia’s Mir space station was Jerry Linenger’s home. He slept in Spektr. He conducted medical experiments in Spektr. He adorned Spektr with photos of his pregnant wife, Kathryn, and their 18-month-old son, John.

Now Spektr is a lifeless chamber, punctured last month by an errant cargo ship and crippled by the vacuum of space.

“When I heard about the collision, it was like a dagger going through me,” said the 42-year-old NASA astronaut, who returned to Earth in May aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. “I felt a sense of ownership in Spektr--it’s where I lived, a place I cared for. I know that module pretty much inside and out.”

That knowledge has made Linenger an important part of the mission to help salvage Mir, which lost about half its power in the accident and may have to be abandoned if solar panels on Spektr can’t be repaired.

To do so, his former crew mates, cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin, will have to don bulky spacesuits and squeeze into the darkened module. Meanwhile, Linenger’s American replacement, Michael Foale, will be at the helm of a small emergency vessel, waiting to whisk the trio to safety if the repair efforts go amiss.

“It’s a difficult task,” conceded Linenger, a Navy physician and triathlete who earned his master of science degree from USC.

Since the June 25 accident, he has attended briefings almost daily here at NASA headquarters, sharing his recollections about life in the Spektr module and working with engineers to draft a blueprint for executing such a delicate procedure in an unforgiving environment.

When the garbage-laden cargo ship crashed into Spektr, crew members were forced to yank the module’s power cables and seal it off from the rest of Mir. Now, somehow, they must wriggle back in and reconnect the wiring--all the while careful not to let the depressurized module suck the life from the rest of the craft.

But Linenger and his former crew mates have shown a flair for improvising in the face of danger.

In February, during his stint aboard Mir, a fast-moving fire erupted from an oxygen canister, nearly forcing the astronauts to make an emergency evacuation. The blaze raged for almost 15 minutes--”a hot blowtorch-like flame”--clouding the orbital outpost with thick smoke, said Linenger, who could barely see beyond his own hand. He reached for a respirator. It didn’t work. Holding his breath, he located a second device, finally filling his lungs with air.

“My own reaction was to get calmer rather than more excited,” said Linenger, who helped douse the flames with a fire extinguisher. “It was all very methodical.”

But afterward, there was a price to pay. “We overcame a lot of difficulties, but there’s a certain stress and strain that puts on you,” Linenger said. By the time he had completed his mission, leaving his Russian friends to face even more challenges, “we had already drawn on a lot of our human reserves.”

Although he keeps one eye to the heavens these days, Linenger made it home none too soon. On Wednesday, his wife gave birth to their second son.

Times researcher Lianne Hart contributed to this report.