A senior Russian space official yesterday blamed cash shortages and failure to replace components for the latest computer crash on board the troubled Mir space station, saying equipment was used until it virtually fell apart.
"We used to change Mir's computer parts after its technical life expectancy would run out, say after five years. But now, due to financing problems, we have to use them till they die," said Mr Viktor Blagov, deputy flight head, speaking from Mission Control in the town of Korolyov.
"We are saving a lot of money on this scheme, but we really have to decide soon whether we need safety or money-saving," he added. The station has been spinning in orbit since Monday evening, when a computer failure during a docking procedure between Mir and a cargo ship prompted the station automatically to switch off all but vital life support systems.
Mr Blagov said a computer unit, which exchanges data between all peripheral system parts and the computer centre, had not been changed for almost 11 years, since Mir started working.
"This interface malfunctioned. It had to happen during a docking procedure. During a routine flight there would be no consequences, but now we have problems," Mr Blagov said.
The computer failure meant Mir lost its stable orientation with the sun, which its solar panels need to face to produce energy.
The crew hoped yesterday to change the malfunctioning computer section, reboot the whole computer system and realign the station to the sun. After that, the cosmonauts will make a risky sortie into Mir's damaged and airless Spektr module to restore power supply lost after a June accident.
The work was initially scheduled to take place today, but the computer crash forced Mission Control to delay it.
Mir has run on partial power since Spektr was holed in a collision with a cargo ship on June 25th in the worst accident in its 11-year history. The cosmonauts have to enter the module to reconnect electric cables leading from Spektr's solar panels to the main ship.
Mr Blagov said Russia also had to think about financing and maintenance of its part of the planned international space station Alpha, due to start working next year.
"We will have to review our maintenance strategy for Alpha. Clearly we will have to return to changing bits and pieces after their technical life expectancy runs out."
The accidents on board Mir have raised questions about the future of international co-operation with Russians in space.
However, earlier this month President Yeltsin gave the space programme a boost by giving the green light to the raising of new credits to help Russia complete its part of the international space station which will eventually replace Mir.
Meanwhile, a leading British space expert yesterday accused mission controllers in charge of Mir of taking unacceptable risks with the lives of their cosmonauts.
Prof Andre Balogh, who is head of space physics at Imperial College, London, said the crew of the space station were lucky still to be alive.
Repeating his call for Mir to be decommissioned and the crew to be brought home, Prof Balogh said: "They are lucky to have survived this long, there is no question about that.
"It's important to be lucky. But the station ought to be decommissioned, and they keep trying to wring the last bit of use out of it.
"They seem to be willing to continue taking risks which I believe will lead, if they keep going, to the disaster none of us wants to see," Prof Balogh said.