Engine Work in Space

Taking their fifth space walk this month, Mir's two cosmonauts ventured into open space Wednesday and replaced an engine that keeps the space station's solar panels pointed toward the sun.

Cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin got off to an apparently trouble-free start, six minutes ahead of schedule, in their final space walk in a month filled with chores and repairs.

Ground controllers will fire up the new engine in two or three days, said Viktor Blagov, deputy Mission Control chief.

After five years of service, the old engine ran out of fuel during an April 6 space walk, forcing the cosmonauts to rush back to the station and switch on another engine that restored Mir's orientation. It is one of a series of problems that have plagued the aging space station.

Wednesday's mission is the third and last to replace the engine. During the previous two space walks, Musabayev and Budarin discarded the old engine and moved some of the equipment on the outside of the Mir to make room for today's work.

The third man on the Mir, NASA astronaut Andrew Thomas, remained inside during the space walk, filming his colleagues.

After a series of accidents and breakdowns last year, the 12-year-old Mir has had a largely problem-free time of it this year.

Russian space officials hope to keep the station manned at least until next year, when a replacement, international space station should be ready. Russia and the United States are among 15 countries involved in the project.

The cosmonauts are expected to make another space walk next month to retrieve some of the scientific experiments outside the station.

By ANNA DOLGOV, Associated Press Writer. #169;1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed