Russia's Mission Control and the crew of the damaged Mir space station restored a vital computer link yesterday. It will allow experts to analyse data and help the cosmonauts repair the craft. "We have received telemetry of a good quality and we are recording it now," said one of the experts as the screens of the computers, dead since the station lost most of its energy early in the day, came alive. The link-up ended with a "Go to sleep, good luck" message from Earth.
But Prof Balogh, an expert in space technology from Imperial College, London, said Mir was doomed and the three-man crew should escape in the Soyuz "lifeboat" vessel before it was too late.
He said: "The situation is pretty bad. If I was the mission controller I would give the order to evacuate.
"What is happening now is the culmination of two or three weeks of problems. The impression I get is that it is very serious.
"It's like a disaster movie, but in real life. Hollywood actors can go home at the end of the day but these are real people in a real situation."
The latest problem hit Mir during the night from Wednesday to Thursday when one of the three man Russian-US crew mistakenly pulled out a vital computer cable, disrupting the power supply system and plunging the ship into its worst crisis since a near-fatal collision on June 25th.
The power loss forced the crew to switch off most of Mir's systems, including light, heating and life-support systems on the main station. The cosmonauts had to sit in their Soyuz escape capsule to communicate with Earth by radio.
The mission physician, Dr Igor Goncharov, said later the crew had succeeded in accumulating sufficient solar power in Mir's batteries to restart the gyroscopic guidance system that keeps the panels lined up on the Sun.
The accumulated energy appeared to make it possible for the crew to restore the computer link.
For a brief moment yesterday the flight director, a veteran cosmonaut himself, lost patience with the crew of the space station. "This is a kindergarten," a frustrated Vladimir Solovyov said aloud at Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow, after ending a conversation with the crew of the station, who had plunged into a new crisis by mistakenly unplugging the vital computer.
"Have you switched off everything?" he shouted during a radio link-up as cosmonauts sat in the Mir's escape capsule. "Switch off everything on the left side."
Mission Control buzzed with nervous energy as experts crowded around various terminals in the central hall full of computers trying to work out a solution to the latest challenge.
"There is a tension in a hall," said one engineer. "But there is no panic. We are under constant pressure with something new happening every day."
Outside the main Mission Control hall, Russian and US NASA officials sat under a bust of Lenin and a mosaic of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, as they examined detailed photos of the Mir interior.
"You're over-stressed and it would be good if you could remember 50 per cent of what I say," one Russian told a NASA official.
Tension in the Mission Control peaked as the orbiting crew came into radio contact every hour or so as they passed over radio relay stations on their two-hourly orbits of Earth.
"What alarm was that going off?" Mr Solovyov asked the crew at one point.
A small crowd of engineers gathered at the side of the room to watch. Some spoke out with quick advice as they watched the seconds tick away to the end of the communications window.
On the surface many showed a cool confidence that the latest crisis could be overcome. But with the power off in the station's main module and the oxygen supply limited, the crew were clearly working against the clock to save the ship.
Officials said the pressure and temperature should be fine for two or three days more and the oxygen supply for five.
Mission Control officials said they had weathered similar crises before.
"The situation is no worse than it was when they turned of the orientation system after the crash on June 25th," said deputy flight director Viktor Blagov. "This is not the first occurrence and we have always succeeded before."
In Washington, President Clinton said he had been briefed on the latest problem aboard Mir and there seemed to be "no immediate crisis."
Asked whether the United States would end its participation in the Mir project, in which a US astronaut rotates into the orbiter's crew, Mr Clinton said: "It's too soon for me to draw a conclusion."
Meanwhile, the US space shuttle Columbia touched down at sunrise yesterday in Florida after completing a research mission cut short in April.
Columbia, the oldest of NASA's four shuttles, landed at Florida's Kennedy Space Centre.
Columbia's seven astronauts completed an $86 million research programme left unfinished in April, when the shuttle had to return to earth 12 days early because of a defective power generator. - (Reuter, PA)