Mir Navigation System Working; Crew Awaits Repair Supplies

MOSCOW — The Russian-U.S. crew aboard the crippled Mir space station had some good news Sunday after the worst trouble in the craft’s 11-year history.

A mission control expert said the station’s navigation problem had been fixed and its gyroscopes--the devices that keep its solar panels lined up to the sun to gain maximum power--were now working.

Another official said later that the crew had spent Sunday gathering strength for today’s docking of a supply ship which will bring equipment to help them fix the station’s damaged power supply.

Mir commander Vasily Tsibliyev, flight engineer Alexander Lazutkin and U.S. astronaut Michael Foale spent the day exercising and resting, and all spoke to their families.

“In the latest radio exchange . . . the cosmonauts said they felt fine,” the Russian official said. “Their blood pressures and temperatures are normal and they are in a good mood.”

The official said the docking of the supply ship was expected to take place as scheduled.

He said earlier that a problem with a solar battery panel on the Progress cargo craft, launched Saturday from Kazakhstan, had been overcome.

The station lost up to half its power June 25 after a collision with an unmanned cargo craft punctured the Spektr scientific module and cut off energy supplies from some solar panels.