posted 02-25-2017 10:56 AM               

Space Cover #406: Progress collision with Mir

On June 25, 1997, the Russian crew including Vasiliy Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin plus NASA astronaut Michael Foale, found themselves in the middle of the worst collision in space history. During a docking test with the use of remote control onboard the station, Tsibliev lost control of a tumbling cargo ship Progress M-34. The vehicle collides with the station's Spektr module and seconds later, the crew onboard Mir hears a hissing sound of air escaping their vessel.

Miraculously, almost instantly, the crewmembers were able to locate the air leak to Spektr module. After short struggle to find cutting tools, they severed the cables leading into the Spektr and safely sealed the hatches. The collision damaged one of Spektr's solar arrays, caused a fracture that depressurized the module. Power restoration required two internal spacewalk in August and October 1997, which restored about 70% of the power capability previously available. The module was left isolated from the Mir complex until the end of the space station's life.

The cover is actually Sergey Chizhov cachet postmarked on the collision day — 25.06.1997 in Korolev — hometown of the Russian space mission control center. Another Chizhov cover shows the ill-fated Progress M-34 docked to MIR on April 8, 1997 and a backside cachet postmarked in Korolev one month after the collision.

Vasiliy Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin arrived aboard MIR on Soyuz TM-25 together with Reinhold Ewald in February 1997 and Michael Foale was a crewman of STS-84 that performed 6th Shuttle-MIR docking in May. One more Sergey Chizhov cachet showing all the spacemen of MIR 23/STS-84.

In September 1997, STS-86 visited space station on the planned 7th Shuttle-Mir docking and got the image of the damaged Spektr module while undocking on October 3rd. That image was used as a cachet of a Colorano Silk STS-86 series cover.