Published: 8/21/1998

President Boris Yeltsin's former security aide, Yuri Baturin, has received the go-ahead for a space flight to the Mir station and the flight was launched on 13 August. The main crew includes commander Gennady Padalka, flight engineer Sergei Avdeyev and researcher Baturin. The stand-by crew were Sergei Zaletin, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Kotov. It is planned that Padalka, Avdeyev and Baturin will spend 12 days together with the current Mir crew of Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin. On25August, Musabayev, Budarin and Baturin will return back to the Earth, while Padalka and Avdeyev will work on the Mir up to early-1999. Instead of the four space walks planned intially, Padalka and Sergei Avdeyv will carry out only two, to enter the module Spektr, depressurised after a 1997 collision with a cargo spacecraft, and to work on the station's exterior. "Spektr's restoration is not planned. The funds are too scarce, and it is not sensible if the station is to be closed soon," the crew commander said. Only one cargo vehicle will be sent to Mir instead of the scheduled two. "Our task is to ensure the station's good condition. There will be big problems if Mir has to fly without cosmonauts," Padalka said. Meanwhile, the station, whose orbit is to be lowered from 450 to 330km above earth in October, is "in good condition, which offers an opportunity to conduct more research," according to the third crew member, Yuri Baturin. Baturin will conduct 22 experiments in physics, technology, biotechnology and medical studies during his 12-day-long space flight. According to plans, the Russian cargo vehicle Progress M-39 will dock with Mir in October 1998 to bring Mir to the lower orbit using the cargo spacecraft's engines. The further descent will be conducted by successive cargo spacecraft during January-June 1999, after which the orbiter will enter the Earth's atmosphere, burn up and be guided to fall into the ocean. Its last crew will be picked up from the station five to seven days prior to its descent. The last mission to Mir is being made on credit, Yuri Semenov, president of the Energia space corporation which owns the Mir station, said. "I shall make the launch by taking credits of more than 200 million roubles". According to Semenov, despite government decisions taken several weeks ago on funding manned space flights by the state and from extra-budgetary sources, there is no cash as before. The budget's debt to Energia amounts to 800 million roubles, with 450 million out of the total -- for 1997. However, Semenov, who raised the question at the start of the summer on an early closure of the station and uncontrolled pushing it from the orbit, does not speak about this now. For his part, he intends to reach understandings to organise another two missions to Mir and to drown the station in June 1999. "People will be up there, and it is necessary to take credits," the Energia president noted. The leaders of the space industry have already considerably cut the Mir flight programme for the remaining ten months due to a shortage of money. Three Progress cargo ships, instead of five, will be fired off to Mir: each will carry necessary supplies to the station and give an impulse for lowering the complex. Also, the missions of a Slovak and a French cosmonaut, who are to work on Mir until its closure, may be combined. According to a preliminary plan, the two foreigners will be put into orbit in February 1999 under the command of a Russian cosmonaut. After a week, the Slovak and Padalka will return to Earth, while the commander of the new crew, Avdeyev and the Frenchman will remain in orbit until June. (SP898.1) (VZ)  

Article ID: 264