[FPSPACE] Russians To Propose Redocking Progress To Test SW Patch

[JamesOberg@aol.com]

Aerospace Daily -  27 November 2000
Progress may be used to test software fix at Station Alpha

FLIGHT TEST: Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko may get another chance to demonstrate
his prowess with the TORU manual docking system on Space Station Alpha.

Flight controllers in Moscow suspect a software glitch kept the KURS
automatic docking system from working properly when the latest Progress
resupply capsule arrived, failing to distinguish clearly between the Zarya
and Zvezda modules as it approached Zarya's nadir docking port. 

Last week Russian programmers were readying a software patch for
uplinking. To test it, they were considering having Gidzenko use TORU to
undock the Progress and back it off for another attempt at automatic
docking with the updated KURS. 

With the Space Shuttle Endeavour due to
deliver a new Station solar array next Sunday, the test will have to be
done in time to get the Progress out of the way. If the Russians formally
propose the test, watch NASA - which hasn't forgotten the harrowing 1997
Progress collision with Mir - push for a quick but stringent safety review.