A CLOSE SHAVE IN ORBIT

By Frederic Golden

When an unmanned progress resupply ship docked with the ailing Mir space station last week, astronaut Michael Foale had good reason to smile. Among the two tons of equipment hauled up for a risky orbital repair that his two Russian companions are slated to attempt later this week were replacements for his lost toothbrush, shaving kit and sneakers. Freshly groomed and shod, Foale was nothing if not upbeat when he talked to NASA boss Daniel Goldin, himself under heat for allowing Americans to continue working aboard the 11-year-old Mir. "The safety concerns, I think, are well met," said the 40-year-old British-born astrophysicist, "and I'm not worried."

But that could have been stiff upper lip. Even as colleagues on the ground rehearsed procedures that cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin must undertake to fix their troubled station, Russian commentators candidly admitted that the damaged part of the station could be a Pandora's box. Rammed by another Progress on June 25, Mir's Spektr science module suffered a foot-long tear in one of its sail-like solar panels and an inch-wide breach in its hull, depressurizing the interior. To keep the rest of Mir's precious atmosphere from spilling as well, the crew hurriedly sealed off Spektr, site of Foale's racks of experiments and his living quarters--disconnecting the cables from solar panels that provide nearly 40% of Mir's power. To ration electricity, the crew shut off Mir's stabilizing gyrodynes for several days and kept the ship from spinning out of control by firing its thrusters manually.

When Foale was first told of the repair scheme, his silence echoed around the world. "Incredible," he finally muttered. Tsibliyev and Lazutkin groused more openly before assenting to a four-hour "internal" space walk in the frigid, airless and possibly contaminated lab. As one stands by, the other will enter with a flashlight to look for the right wires, moving gingerly in the tight quarters to avoid ripping his bulky space suit. Then they will reseal Spektr with a new hatch fitted with cable ports on either side to complete the electrical circuits to Mir. Foale, meanwhile, will be waiting in a Soyuz capsule, ready for the team's escape if an emergency occurs.

Although Russian officials are confident their ingenuity will pay off, Spektr still won't be ready for the kind of zero-G science that astronauts have been doing aboard Mir in exchange for U.S. payments of $472 million to the cash-strapped Russian space agency. That will require an "external" space walk to plug Spektr's puncture. Nor will the pressure ease on Goldin, who is already being urged by Capitol Hill to call off further visits to Mir by Americans. Joining these voices last week was Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, also the beneficiary of a celebrated space rescue. "Mir has done an exceptionally fine job," he acknowledged. "Now it's time to give it a very respectful retirement."

--By Frederic Golden. With reporting by Andrew Meier/Moscow and Dick Thompson/Washington

With reporting by ANDREW MEIER/MOSCOW AND DICK THOMPSON/WASHINGTON