MIRNEWS.391                                           22 OCTOBER 1997
Rehearsal Internal spacewalk (IVA) on 17.10.1997:
This rehearsal lasted some hours.  David Wolf stayed in the descent module of 
the Soyuz-TM26 ship   from where he now a nd then communicated with TsUP or 
his working crewmates.  Solovyov and Vinogradov tried to train for the IVA as 
realist ically as possible. The original plan to replace the steering 
interface for the solarpanels from the Kristall to the Sp ektr module had 
been abandonned: installing this device with clumsy spacesuit gloves is a 
'mission impossible'. So the only way to insert the Kristall interface  in 
the circuitry for the servomotors of the solarpanels on Spektr was to dep loy 
cables from the connection for these motors to the  interface in Kristall. 
During the IVA Vinogradov has to connect
 3 cables between the servomotors and the inside of the vacuumplate. 
Progress-M36:  During the IVA the docking device of this freighter had to be 
depressurized.  On Saturday, 18.10 the cre w could not open a valve for this 
depress. Solovyov compared this with an equal experience he had during his 
short stay
 in  MIR in  June 1988, when Vladimir Titov was the commander.  Probably the 
failure was caused by a failing switch. Th e crew resolved the problem on 
19.10.
IVA on 20.10: Opening of the hatch 45 minutes later than planned at 0940UTC. 
The delay was caused by the fact that it l asted longer to put on the 
Orlan-DMA spacesuits and a valve to one of the modules which failed to close. 
When the hatch
 was opened MIR was still out of range of the Altair-2 Comm. Sat . Vinogradov 
was the first to enter the Spektr module,
 followed by Solovyov who supported him and  gave him instructions  about his 
movements and what he had to do. The cosm onauts were surprised by the chaos 
they found inside Spektr.  A lot of goods was floating around: 7 bags with 
experimen ts and personal belongings of Foale,  a hometrainer (bicycle), some 
covers or lids, one of them belonging to  the refri gerator, loose panels, 
the dockingdevice of the Spektr and a lot of dangling cables.  Vinogradov had 
to be very careful
 not to get entangled in cables or structures. Solovyov told Vinogradov what 
he saw  and instructed him how to restore order and where to stow away and 
fasten the goods. 
During the IVA David Wolf stayed in one of the seats of the Descent Module  
of S-TM26. He made images of the earth, for
 instance Africa, and checked the lifesystems of 'his ship': temperature, 
pressure and quality of the atmosphere over t here, whether it was necessary 
or not to add oxygen, a.s.o.  He mostly communicated with TsUP. Sometimes the 
cosmonauts
 spoke with him, saying 'Hello First Mate'  (shturman).    
At last the cosmonauts began to execute their main task:connecting 3 cables 
between the  servo motors  of the solar pan els with   contacts on the 
vacuumplate between Spektr and the P.Kh.O. (transition section). It was very 
difficult but a fter consuming a lot of time Vinogradov managed to connect 
all three of them.  Enormous difficulties they met during th e last stage of 
the work:  connecting the 3 cables with the contacts of the vacuumplate.
                                                   -2-
                                                   -2-
The stiff, unwilling cables had to be attached firmly to those contacts. To 
make this possible Vinogradov used a spanne r,  manufactured for this 
operation and  recently delivered to the station. The cables regularly popped 
out. Finally Vi nogradov attached and fastened 2 of the 3 cables, but the 3d 
one was so recalcitrant that after struggling with it for almost 90 minutes 
Vinogradov did not succeed.  He tried to this with the spanner and even took 
a long screwdriver to tr y to reach the bolt and fasten this. The length of 
the spanner was too short to use while holding it with a spacesuit g love. 
Later on Solovyov reported a second imperfection of this spanner: the coating 
at the inside of the head   was too
 smooth to get a firm grip on the bolt.  
At 1524UTC TsUP told Solovyov that in 15 minutes the limit of 6 hours (the 
guaranteed endurance of the spacesuits) woul d be reached. If the cosmonauts 
preferred to continue 
the 'struggle' they could do this using the 'emergency oxygen supply'. Their 
eagerness to accomplish the full task was so strong that they decided to go 
on.  After 38 minutes they returned to the transition section and closed the 
hatch, l eaving the 3d cable  dangling (and possibly laughing)  behind. 
During those 38 minutes there was no communication between MIR and TsUP and 
for a long time TsUP did not know what had happened and the time of the 
closure of the hatch. They reported that this took place at 1618UTC.  Great 
relief when du ring the pass in orbit 66661 (1642UTC) the cosmonauts could be 
heard again. They almost could not speak and breathed he avily.  They were 
very disappointed about that 3d cable.  Nevertheless TsUP heartily 
congratulated them with the partia l success. These congratulations more or 
less gilded the pill
 
Chris Vandenberg,  NL-9165/A-UK3202
--- Maximus 2.01
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