Mir gets new crewman, computer

“We got it, Houston,” radioed shuttle commander James Wetherbee as a final burst of the shuttle’s manoeuvering rocket nudged the two ships together.As soon as the hatches swung open, Wetherbee handed the Mir crew a new computer.

“You guys have done a great job up here,” he said.

“There was a lot of discussion about the risk,” Wetherbee said. “We are here to tell you, for all 10 of us the benefits far outweigh the risks.”Laughter filled the giant orbiting complex.

“I’m going to like this place,” Wolf said minutes after he floated into Mir.

“Good to see you buddy,” one crewman said. “How’ve you been?” asked another.

And for American Michael Foale, who’s been living on Mir since May, there was this loud, happy greeting: “Mikey”.

Wolf, whose four-month mission was approved just last week, on Sunday will replace Foale, whose 4-1/2-month tenure included the worst wreck ever in space and a barrage of computer crashes. There wasn’t enough time to make the switch before Saturday’s bedtime. “In the last few hours one of the computer channels had been giving microseconds of wrong information but, as long as the other two channels are working, everything is in order on the ship,” said Konstantin Fedchinov, head of avionics at Energiya which designed the 11-year-old space station.

“It is a temporary breakdown that does not affect overall operations,” he said at the Russian Mission Control, near Moscow. Despite three breakdowns in as many weeks, Mir’s central computer kept the station in proper position for docking, and only a minor shuttle shift was required as Atlantis snuggled up to Mir 400 kms above the Russian-Kazak border. Engineers had spent days debating what to do in case the computer failed at the last minute. esides the new computer, Atlantis has batteries for the 11-1/2-year-old Mir as well as plugs for holes, pressurised air tanks, fresh water, food and other crucial supplies.