The Story of Space Station Mir David M Harland The Story of Space Station Mir Published in association with Praxis Publishing Chichester, UK David M Harland Space Historian Kelvinbridge Glasgow UK SPRINGER±PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. ISBN 0-387-23011-4 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York Springer-Verlag is a part of Springer Science + Business Media (springeronline.com) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harland, David M. (David Michael), 1955± The story of Space Station Mir / David M. Harland. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-387-23011-4 1. Mir (Space station) I. Title. 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Cover design: Jim Wilkie Project Copy Editor: Alex Whyte Typesetting: BookEns Ltd, Royston, Herts., UK Printed in Germany on acid-free paper Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907±1966) Other books by David M Harland The Mir Space Station ± a precursor to space colonisation The Space Shuttle ±roà les, missions and accomplishments Exploring the Moon ± the Apollo expeditions Jupiter Odyssey ± the story of NASA's Galileo mission The Earth in Context ± a guide to the Solar System Mission to Saturn ± Cassini and the Huygens probe The Big Bang ± a view from the 21st century The Story of the Space Shuttle How NASA learned to fly in space with JohnE Catchpole Creating the International Space Station with Sy Liebergot Apollo EECOM ± Journey of a lifetime with BenEvans NASA's Voyager Missions ± exploring the outer Solar System and beyond with Paolo Ulivi Lunar Exploration ± human pioneers and robotic surveyors The dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. Robert Goddard, Americanrocket pioneer The Earth is the cradle... but you cannot live in the cradle forever. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian rocket pioneer Mir [is] an awesome sight. Bill Readdy, STS-79 commander Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would [be] on the Russian space station. Shannon Lucid, Mir research astronaut Space station Mir is an incredible laboratory and workshop... I really enjoy it here! JohnBlaha, Mir research astronaut The Mir station has been on orbit for 10 years now; that's an amazing feat in terms of duration in a harsh environment. Rick Searfoss, STS-76 pilot You have to understand that initially we planned to fly [Mir] for only 3 years. Yelena Kondakova, Mir flight engineer Table of contents List of illustrations...............................................xv List of tables .................................................. xxi Author's preface............................................... xxiii Acknowledgements ..............................................xxv 1 Getting started ............................................... 1 Intotheunknown ............................................ 1 Chelomei's plan .............................................. 9 The world's first space station ...................................13 Frustration. .................................................14 Anexcellentstart .............................................15 Abandoned station............................................20 From bad to worse ...........................................21 Filling the gap ...............................................23 Reconnaissance from orbit......................................27 More frustrations.............................................30 A glimpse of the future?........................................32 Anorbital laboratory ..........................................32 First crew ..................................................36 Abort! .....................................................38 A second tour ...............................................40 A testing time ...............................................43 The military's turn ............................................44 A new camera ...............................................46 Salyut 5 reprise ± almost .......................................47 Another try .................................................48 2 Routine operations ............................................51 Salyut 6 ....................................................51 x Table of contents Frustration. .................................................55 Second time lucky ............................................56 Visitors! ....................................................58 Resupply ...................................................62 A Czechoslovakianvisitor ......................................65 End of a marathon ...........................................67 A second long-duration mission ..................................68 A Polish visitor ..............................................70 A new furnace ...............................................71 External activity..............................................72 AnEast Germanvisitor ........................................73 Swapping ends ...............................................74 Record breakers..............................................76 Final resupply ...............................................76 Write-off? ..................................................78 Repair crew .................................................79 Sonearandyetsofar.........................................81 Working on .................................................83 A radio telescope .............................................84 Half a year..................................................86 A new ferry .................................................87 Yet another expedition.........................................88 A Hungarian visitor ...........................................89 Hotel Salyut! ................................................90 Completing a second six-month tour ..............................93 Reprise? ....................................................94 Gremlins ...................................................96 One final tour ...............................................96 A clear success ...............................................99 Another Almaz?.............................................102 3 A step towards continuous occupancy .............................105 Building on success ..........................................105 Salyut 7 ...................................................105 Commissioning crew .........................................107 A Frenchman visits ..........................................108 Installing exposure cassettes ....................................111 Back to work ...............................................112 A womanvisitor ............................................113 The long haul ..............................................114 Trials and tribulations ........................................116 The second expedition ........................................118 `A slight leak'...............................................120 Pad abort! .................................................121 Adding solar panels ..........................................121 Table of contents xi The third crew ..............................................122 Engine repairs ..............................................124 Crisis! ....................................................129 Anorbital handover at last ....................................133 4 A base block for modular construction.............................141 Mir......................................................141 Anambitious mission ........................................143 Anewhome...............................................145 Anold home ...............................................148 Another new ferry ...........................................150 The wanderers return, briefly ...................................150 Intermission ................................................152 5An astrophysics laboratory .....................................153 Second start ................................................153 Kvant 1 ...................................................154 A new launcher .............................................159 The dorsal solar panel ........................................159 The long-delayed Syrian mission ................................160 Alongsixmonths...........................................162 Handover..................................................164 A year inspace? .............................................166 Bulgarianreflight ............................................168 Repairing the telescope .......................................170 Back to the routine ..........................................171 AnAfghanvisitor ...........................................171