Oxygen-generator failures latest troubles for Mir

March 8, 1997
Web posted at: 11:47 a.m. EST (1647 GMT)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- A
second oxygen generator aboard the Russian
space station Mir has failed, leaving two
Russian cosmonauts and U.S. astronaut Jerry
Linenger with a two-month supply of oxygen,
NASA said Friday. 

NASA and Russian officials are watching the
situation closely, however, because the backup
system now creating oxygen in the space
station is similar to one that sparked a fire two
weeks ago. 

The Mir has several redundant systems to generate oxygen for the crew. Two
Elektron units, which extract oxygen from the station's waste water, failed this week,
forcing the crew to resort to the chemical backup, which is usually used as a
supplement when more than three crew members are aboard. 

"What probably happened is, in essence ...
some sort of contamination or clogging
process and causing the air to shut down," said
NASA spokesman Edward Campion. 

NASA and Russian officials say the recent
problems with Mir are coincidental and
unrelated. 

"We obviously take these kind of issues very
seriously and we're going to do what ever is
prudent to keep both our astronaut as well as
the cosmonauts safe, but I think this is mostly
just a challenging space flight," Campion said. 

Linenger is halfway through a four-month stint aboard the space station, and
cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin are 23 days into a 197-day
mission. 

Russian officials say if the current chemical
oxygen system fails, there are tanks with a
five-day supply of emergency oxygen. If
necessary, the crew can leave the space station
in a Soyuz capsule that is attached to Mir for
emergency use. 

U.S. officials said Mir's latest problems,
however, should not reflect badly on the
station and its builders. 

"The Mir had a service-life of five years when
they launched it and they're in their 12th year
already," said Frank Culbertson, a veteran
astronaut who heads NASA's shuttle-Mir program, "so I think it demonstrates that
they built a pretty robust system." 

Correspondent Dan Ronan and Reuters contributed to this report.
http://cnn.com/TECH/9703/08/space.station/index.html