Apr 16 1999
From The Space Library
Mir Commander Viktor M. Afanasyev and French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Haignere replaced scientific equipment on Mir's exterior during a planned 5-hour spacewalk that went overtime. The pair overcame "numerous technical blips," to complete the French portion of the tasks and most of the Russian portion. Malfunctions in their spacesuits' ventilation systems delayed both men in leaving the station. Other problems included equipment failure during a simulated repair to an imaginary hole on Mir's superstructure; an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve data from a pollution study in process around the station; and the failure to install a new Russian-sponsored experiment to measure cosmic rays. Cosmonauts succeeded in other tasks during the spacewalk, including the recuperation of a French-sponsored test and the installation on the station's hull of comet technology designed to gather space dust for analysis. Haignere was on his second mission to Mir, but this was his first spacewalk.
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