A four-hour spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts on the Russian Mir space station August 22 to reconnect power cables from solar panels mounted on the damaged Spektr module was a success, although the power generated by the panels was less than expected.
     Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov overcame a few problems just before the spacewalk began to successfully complete the repair, which involved replacing the hatch to the Spektr module with one that includes connectors for power cables from the module's solar panels.
     "This is a super day," said American astronaut Michael Foale, who monitored the spacewalk from inside the Soyuz spacecraft docked to Mir. "We carried out everything we set out to do and more. Well done, everybody."
     The spacewalk, which had been slated to begin around 5am EDT (0900 UT) August 22, was first delayed when the crew had problems depressurizing the docking node, which served as the staging area for the spacewalk. The hatch sealing off the Kristall module from the docking node was leaking air, and required the cosmonauts to reseal the hatch.
     Then, just before the spacewalk was to begin, Vinogradov noticed the left glove of his spacesuit was leaking air: a dangerous, potentially fatal situation in vacuum. The crew found a replacement glove which sealed properly after about an hour's delay.
     Russian mission control considered canceling the spacewalk, since the crew had already used more than an hour of the oxygen available in their spacesuits, but decided to proceed after consultations with the crew.
     After all the problems leading up to the spacewalk, the repairs themselves were almost anticlimactic. The two spacewalkers were able to easily replace the old Spektr hatch with the new one and connected 11 cables from Spektr's three functioning solar panels to the new hatch.
     Solovyov and Vinogradov also reported that the Spektr module was in much better shape that anyone expected, with no evidence of a hull puncture from the June collision with a Progress cargo spacecraft the depressurized the module. They were able to retrieve some equipment left behind in the module when it was sealed off after the accident.
     After a weekend of rest, the crew connected the solar panels to the station's power supply. The new panels generated about 140 amps of current, less than the 300 amps predicted by Russian officials before the spacewalk. A faulty motor used to move the solar panels into alignment with the Sun may be the cause of the lack of current.
     The crew used the new source of electricity to power up equipment in two modules, Kristall and Kvant-2. Power will be used later to restart equipment in the Priroda module.
     The spacewalk had been scheduled for August 20, but was delayed two days when the main computer on Mir failed August 18, requiring two days of repairs to bring the station back online.

Reports by NASA August 25 that the Russian Mir space station had lost its primary and secondary oxygen systems turned out to be more symptomatic of communications difficulties between Russian and American officials.
     NASA originally reported that the primary Elektron oxygen generator had gone offline, and the backup system of lithium perchlorate "candles" was also not working, leaving the station without any system to generate oxygen. In such a situation, the crew would have a few days' of oxygen left in the station's air supply.
     By the next day, though, the problem turned out not to exist. The Elektron system had gone offline for repairs August 25, but was fixed and operational before the crew went to bed. After the crew went to bed for the night, Russian mission controllers left, leaving NASA with no way to get an update on the situation.
     The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported that Russian officials said NASA had "over-dramatized" the incident, and were seeking to find out why NASA called the generator failure a "potentially serious" event.
     The incident took place one week after a real problem hit the station, when the main computer on Mir shut down. The shutdown took place as a Progress cargo spacecraft was docking with the station, requiring the crew to complete the docking manually.
     The computer failure was found and corrected one day later, and the crew worked to bring the station's power back up. The station lost power when the computer failure shut down the attitude control systems, causing the station to drift and the solar panels to lose alignment with the Sun.
     The extra work by the crew in the days after the Spektr repair spacewalk has meant Russian officials have pushed back the date of the next Mir spacewalk, scheduled for September 3, by two to three days. On that spacewalk Anatoly Solovyov and Michael Foale will venture outside the station to inspect the exterior of the Spektr module, looking for damage.

NASA's Lewis spacecraft, meant to demonstrate advanced remote sensing technologies and the agency's overall "faster-better-cheaper" philosophy, had spun out of control and was losing power just days after launch, NASA reported August 26.
     Telemetry received by NASA ground stations early August 26 shows the spacecraft had started spinning at a rate of two revolutions per minute, fast enough to keep its solar panels from generating enough power to keep operating. Later attempts to contact failed, presumably because of a loss of power as the satellite's batteries drained. The spin was likely caused by an attitude-control thruster that remained in the on position longer than planned.
     Officials at NASA and TRW, the company that built the spacecraft, were working on ways to solve the problem. They expressed hope that they could make some effort this weekend, when they thought the solar panels would be able to see more of the Sun while spinning and thus generate more power.
     The spacecraft is also "smart" enough to find its own solution to the problem, NASA chief technologist Samuel Venneri said. "Lewis carries several autonomous systems onboard that raise the possibility that it can correct itself and recharge the batteries."
     Lewis was launched by a Lockheed Martin LMLV-1 rocket August 23 at 2:51am EDT (0651 UT). The launch of the spacecraft had been delayed by more than a year due to problems with the launch vehicle, but the launch proceeded smoothly and placed the spacecraft into orbit 300 km (180 mi.) high.
     Because the launcher placed Lewis in the "optimum" orbit, Venneri said they have a minimum of three weeks to resolve the problem.
     The Lewis spacecraft carries a number of advanced instruments, including a "hyperspectral imager" that can take images of the Earth over a wide range of wavelengths. It also carries an ultraviolet cosmic background astronomy instrument for the University of California Berkeley.
     The Lewis spacecraft has an estimated cost, including launch and operations, of $71 million, including over $6 million in storage costs incurred by NASA from launch delays. A companion spacecraft, named Clark, is scheduled for launch next year.

Nearly two months after landing on the surface of Mars, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft is moving into what project scientists called a "monitoring" phase, with an emphasis on atmospheric data and rover operations.
     Both the rover and lander are operating well, project scientist Matthew Golombek reported at a press conference August 27. The vehicles have spent more than 50 days on the surface, far exceeding the one-month primary mission for the lander and one-week mission for the rover.
     Golombek reported the Sojourner rover had overcome some problems it encountered while driving through a dense area of rocks known as the "Rock Garden." Sojourner had become stuck between two rocks and ended up driving over another as it made its way to its destination, a smooth, dust-free rock dubbed Shark.
     The rover was delayed by several days during its journey, but survived undamaged. Mission controllers were directing Sojourner to several other rocks in the area over the next week.
     With most of the main imaging projects for the mission, including the high-resolution "super pan", completed, the mission's emphasis will shift to long-term atmospheric monitoring as the climate in the landing site shifts from summer to winter.
     Recent atmospheric observations show the conditions there have remained stable, with high temperatures around -10 degrees Celsius (15 degrees Fahrenheit) and lows around -75 Celsius (-103 Fahrenheit). The number of dust devils seen by Pathfinder has increased, though, with at least a dozen observed in the last three weeks.
     Pathfinder also imaged a high-altitude cloud of water ice one morning in the pre-dawn hours. Data taken during the descent of Pathfinder to the surface also suggests the spacecraft passed through a thin cloud of carbon dioxide ice about 80 km above the surface.
     Planetary scientists have also found that the rocks around the landing site appear to be in one of two broad classes. One class, which includes the rocks Barnacle Bill and Shark, have high concentrations of silica, while the other class has elevated amounts of sulfur. The cause for these compositional differences is unclear.
     Golombek also confirmed plans to send Sojourner to the peak of a nearby hill, after completing a reconnaissance around the lander and checking the composition of dust that has collected on magnets mounted to the side of the lander.
     Golombek said he believes both the lander and rover can continue to operate for up to a year. "I don't want another job for at least a year," he said.

The Titan 4B Centaur booster that will launch the Cassini mission to Saturn in October has been cleared for launch after repairs to correct leaks detected in the booster in August.
     A "terminal countdown demonstration" of the rocket on August 20 turned up no sign of leaks that had been found in a test August 5. In the earlier tests leaks of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were reported in the Centaur upper stage of the booster.
     "The success of the Titan test today keeps the launch of Cassini on target for October 6," said Richard Spehalski, Cassini program manager. "The processing of the spacecraft here at KSC has gone well and we are also on schedule."
     Work on the spacecraft was wrapped up in August as well. During an August 22 ceremony project officials affixed to the side of the spacecraft a digital versatile disk (DVD) which contains more than 600,000 signatures collected from members of the general public around the world.
     "We received signatures from individuals young and old, from whole families, hundreds of classes of students and whole schools," said Charley Kohlhase, Cassini's science and mission design manager.
     Cassini was shipped out to the Titan IV launch pad on August 28 and mated to the booster. Launch of the mission is scheduled for October 6, which would result in a July 2004 arrival at Saturn.

The space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth with a landing at the Kennedy Space Center August 19, after a one-day delay due to potential weather problems which never developed.
     Discovery was scheduled to land at 7:14am EDT (1114 UT) August 18, but was waved off when meteorologists predicted the possibility of dense fog forming around the landing site in Florida. However, the fog never formed.
     Discovery landed at 7:07am EDT (1107 UT) August 19 under good weather conditions, ending the mission after nearly 12 days in orbit.
     During the STS-85 mission the six-person crew deployed and retrieved a scientific satellite, CRISTA-SPAS. The satellite spent over a week monitoring the Earth;s atmosphere in conjunction with experiments in the air and on the ground.
     The crew also tested a small robotic arm system designed by Japan for use on the International Space Station. The system would be used to move equipment around the exterior of the Japanese laboratory module that will be attached to the station. After some difficulties with the software that controlled the arms, the crew was able to put the arm through its paces.
     The next shuttle mission, STS-86, will feature a docking between the shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir. The shuttle will drop off supplies for the station, and shuttle astronaut David Wolf will take the place of Michael Foale on the station for a four-month tour. Launch of Atlantis is scheduled for September 25.

The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is working well and returning images of Mars as mission planners prepare for the September 11 arrival of the spacecraft at Mars.
     The spacecraft completed its final course correction on August 25, tweaking its velocity by 0.3 meters per second (0.67 miles per hour). The course correction put the spacecraft on target to arrive at Mars at 9:31pm EDT September 11 (0131 UT September 12).
     At that time, the spacecraft will fire its main engine for 22 minutes, slowing the spacecraft down and placing it into a preliminary orbit around the planet. The spacecraft will then spend the next four months performing aerobraking operations through the Martian upper atmosphere to circularize its orbit.
     The aerobraking operations will pace the spacecraft into a nearly circular orbit 350 by 410 km (217 by 254 mi.) above Mars by mid-January 1998. The spacecraft will begin mapping and other scientific operations in March.
     The spacecraft's camera has already returned a sequence of black-and-white images of Mars, taken August 19 and 20. The images, taken while the spacecraft was 5.3 million km (3.3 million mi.) from Mars, will be processed into a rotational movie.
     Mars Global Surveyor is a partial replacement for the Mars Observer mission, which failed just before arrival at Mars in August 1993. Many of the instruments on Global Surveyor are backups of similar instruments flown on Mars Observer, and are designed to provide high resolution images and other data on the Martian surface and atmosphere.

While August may be the height of the "dog days" of summer, a strong burst of launch activity in the U.S., China, and Russia took place in the latter half of the month.
     A Chinese Long March 3B launched a Philippine communications satellite August 19. The launch of the Agila 2 satellite took place at 1:50pm EDT (1750 UT) from China's Xichang launch facility. The launch was the first of this class of booster since a February 1996 launch attempt, when the booster crashed to Earth and exploded seconds after liftoff, killing several people.
     A Boeing Delta II launched five Iridium satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California August 20. The launch, which took place at 8:38pm EDT (0038 UT August 21), had been delayed due to mechanical problems and then smoke from nearby fires, which obscured the sky. The launch means one-third of the planned 66-satellite Iridium constellation is now in orbit.
     Another Delta II launch, this time of a NASA science satellite, took place from Cape Canaveral on August 25. The launch of ACE took place at 10:39am EDT (1439 UT), one day later than planned. The first launch attempt was scrubbed when two shrimp boats were located in the restricted area offshore and could not move before the launch window closed.
     The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) will fly to a Lagrange point about 1.6 million km (1 million mi.) from the Earth for long-term studies of the Sun. ACE will be able to provide, among other things, a 30- to 60-minute warning of solar storms that reach the spacecraft before they reach the Earth.
     A Russian Proton rocket launched an American communications satellite from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on August 27. Launch of PanAmSat-5 was at 8:33pm EDT (0033 UT August 28), and was the second Proton launch this month. The communications satellite will be used for video, data, and voice communications in the Americas and Europe.
     An Orbital Science Corporation Pegasus XL launched a Department of Energy satellite August 29. The Department of Energy's Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events (FORTE) satellite was launched at around 11am EDT (1500 UT) from OSC's L-1011 aircraft flying in the Pacific Ocean near Vandenberg Air Force Base. The spacecraft will be used as part of efforts to monitor nuclear tests as well as scientific observations of the Earth's ionosphere and lightning.

Solar scientists using a NASA/ESA spacecraft have detected unexpected "rivers" of hot plasma circulating below the surface of the Sun, NASA reported at an August 28 NASA press conference.
     "In what is a completely new discovery, we have found a jet-like flow near the poles," Jesper Schou of Stanford University said. "This flow is totally inside the sun. It is completely unexpected, and cannot be seen at the surface."
     Scientists using data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft found that bands of plasma flowed below the surface, with speed changing with latitude. The flow created banding "like the stripes on a barber pole" according to one.
     The differences in the speed of the plasma may be linked to the generation of the solar magnetic cycle, which is in turn linked to variations in solar activity. "We'll need more observations to see if this is correct," said Dr. Craig DeForest of Stanford.
     The scientists used data from a SOHO instrument called a Michelson Doppler Imager, which can take data on the vertical motion of the Sun's surface at the rate of one million points per minute. The scientists then modeled the data in much the same way seismologists use seismic wave data from earthquakes to model the interior.
     "People always thought the sun's turbulent surface made its underneath molasses, very gentle, very uniform," said Douglas Gough of Cambridge University. "What we've found is that it doesn't."

Mir Comings and Goings: The Russian government announced August 25 that government official Yuri Baturin would make a flight to the Mir space station some time next year. Baturin, 48, had been the secretary of Russia's Defense Council at the time of the announcement; he will now reportedly train full time at the Star City cosmonaut center for the flight... One astronaut who will not be returning to Mir, or anywhere else, in space is Jerry Linenger. Linenger told the newspaper Florida Today August 29 he plans to leave the astronaut corps by the end of this year, as well as resign from the Navy, where he holds the rank of Captain. Linenger spent four often-tumultuous months on the station earlier this year, and also flew on a shuttle mission in 1994.

Conference Announcement: The Santa Fe High Power Laser Ablation Conference has issued its first call for papers. Abstracts of 300 words are due September 29. The conference, sponsored by SPIE, will treat physics and applications of high power laser interaction with materials. Topics range from laser space propulsion and laser removal of orbital debris - the ORION concept (see SpaceViews July issue) - to the latest research on high power lasers and atmospheric beam propagation. Full instructions for attendance and abstract submission can be found at http://www.spie.org/web/meetings/calls/sf98/sf98_home.html.

Ahoy There, Cassini: The one-day delay of the launch of a Delta 2 carrying the ACE spacecraft, prompted by two shrimp boats anchored in a restricted area offshore, may have provided anti-Cassini protesters with a new idea. "The Shrimp Boat Protest Against Cassini is really gaining momentum," one newsletter claimed, although it did not substantiate this. Another suggestion was to use small, personal submarines that would play a cat-and-mouse game with patrol boats with the aim of delaying the launch. One wonders, though, how effective these ideas will be practice, especially when they're being disseminated to the public, including NASA and related agencies, more than a month before launch...

Elsewhere: The September issue of Wired magazine devoted about half a page to the successful first launch of HAL5's HALO rocket program, which took place in May. The article also quotes Vance Houston, NASA's project manager for high altitude launch systems, who said projects like HALO will "provide access to space but will not enable people to orbit a payload or satellite around Earth," because, he claims, such a payload would weight at least 45 kg (100 lbs.) and is something no amateur rocket could ever accomplish... The September issue of George magazine has a short article titled "Rocket Grrls" about the "Mercury 13", a group of women who underwent preliminary tests for astronaut training in the early 1960s before NASA dropped the program... Newsweek reports moviegoers next summer will have the opportunity to see two rather similar space-related disaster movies. "Deep Impact" stars Robert Duvall and Tea Leoni in a story of Earth threatened by a comet, while "Armageddon" stars Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis in a story of Earth threatened by an asteroid. "By the way, what's the difference between an asteroid an a comet?" the article asks, hopefully rhetorically...