Excerpt from report in English by ITAR-TASS news agency

Moscow, 2nd January: Specialists from the ground Mission Control Centre found the cause of a malfunction in the Mir station's main computer on Friday [2nd January].

The malfunction occurred in one of the computer's units, which would be replaced with a new one, sources at the centre told ITAR-TASS. The unit is being replaced by the Mir crew - Anatoliy Solovyev, Pavel Vinogradov and NASA astronaut David Wolf...

Source: ITAR-TASS news agency (World Service), Moscow, in English 1601 gmt 2 Jan 98

Computer malfunction causes misalignment of Russian Mir space station

Text of report by ITAR-TASS news agency

Moscow, 2nd January, ITAR-TASS correspondent Veronika Romanenkova: The central onboard computer of the Mir orbital station suffered another malfunction today.

This slowed down the gyrostats, and the station became misaligned, ITAR-TASS has learnt at Flight Control Centre.

Specialists are looking into the cause of the malfunction. An officer on duty at Flight Control Centre said that "perhaps later tonight it will be clear which module needs to be replaced in the computer".

This is the first malfunction on Mir in the new year of 1998. Last year the computer suffered malfunctions on seven occasions and it had to be replaced in November by a new one, which was delivered to the station by a Progress cargo craft.

However, this newly installed computer is relatively new because it has only been used on earth before. It is impossible to install a completely new model onboard computer on Mir unless a significant upgrading of the 12-year-old station is carried out.

Source: ITAR-TASS news agency (World Service), Moscow, in Russian 1325 gmt 2 Jan 98

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