Soviets renew space orbiting

Press, 7 September 1989, Page 8

Soviets renew space orbiting

NZPA-AP Baikonur Cosmodrome

Two cosmonauts riding in an advertisementemblazoned rocket blasted off yesterday. The white Soyuz TM-8 capsule, resting on a gray booster rocket, took off from the middle of the Central Asian desert. The mission commander, Alexander Viktorenko, and the engineer, Alexander Serebrov, have a busy schedule of space construction and science laid out for them during their six-month mission abroad the now vacant orbital station Mir. From the way their mission has been promoted, the public relations aspects are also important. Soviet officials have stressed repeatedly that such missions can yield practical dividends sorely needed in the country now struggling with

economic and environmental woes, and pounded home the theme in the final hours before the cosmonauts’ liftoff.

-To help the space programme pay more of its own way, the Soviets have even allowed commercial advertising on the flight. One of the three stages of the 49m tall booster was painted bright orange and displayed a huge advertisement for an Italian insurance company.

Cosmonauts Viktorenko and Serebrov will spend about six months aboard the space station Mir, designed as the first permanently manned orbiting laboratory but empty since April when its last crew returned to Earth. The new crew will carry out maintenance checks aboard Mir and its Kvant module and oversee the attachment of two additional modules to the

complex in October and February. They are expected to carry out at least two space walks to attach new apparatus to the outside of the space station and carry out checks on antennae already in place. One of the high points of the mission will be the testing of a new “flying seat-suit,” a white rocketpowered armchair, which will be used for short trips in space. The Soviet version of the United States space shuttle, Buran, has been grounded since an apparently successful unmanned maiden test flight in November.

Space officials said there are plans for Buran to make a second unmanned flight in 1991, when it would dock automatically with Mir before returning to Earth. Fully manned flights are not envisaged before 1992.