Soviet Space Linkup Fails by an Inch in 2nd Attempt

MOSCOW — The Soviet Union’s new Kvant space module Thursday failed by an inch to link up completely with the manned space station Mir in a second docking attempt, the official Tass news agency said.

Ground control was analyzing data from Kvant to decide whether the mission could be saved after the automated module suddenly stopped moving just as it made contact with the space station, Tass said.

A first attempt to dock Kvant with Mir was aborted Sunday when the module’s directional systems failed.

Kvant, launched March 31 carrying 1.5 tons of scientific equipment, would be the first experiment module to link up with Mir, and the failures to dock represented a setback in the Soviet space program after a string of successes.

‘Something Unexpected’

“At the moment when the mission control screen lit up with the words ‘Docking is under way,’ something unexpected happened. A docking rod on Kvant which had penetrated 365 millimeters (14 inches into Mir) suddenly stopped dead,” Tass said.

“The situation which occurred this morning in space has never been seen in the Soviet experience of manned space flight,” the agency continued. “The module and the orbiting complex were just a few centimeters (about an inch) away from a complete linkup.”

Cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko, 42, and Alexander Laveikin, 35, who have been on board Mir since February, switched on an outside television camera to try to help mission control remedy the situation, but to no avail.

Kvant Working Normally

The two cosmonauts were in the Soyuz TM-2 craft, which brought them from Earth to Mir two months ago and which is now linked up with Mir--a normal safety procedure when another craft docks with the space station, Tass said.