A Kilkenny ham radio operator has said media stories that the space station Mir was spinning out of control earlier this week are in conflict with the US astronaut's messages from the station to his mission control in Cape Canavarel, Florida. Mr Revere Richardson of Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny, has been speaking to the astronaut, Mike Foale, using a VHF radio, and has obtained a recording of what Mr Foale said to Houston on Monday in the middle of the supposed crisis.
Mr Richardson said he believed he was one of only two radio hams in the world who had spoken to Mir. He is using a transceiver which tracks Mir's progress in space. Ireland was particularly well located on the periphery of western European for the tracking process, according to Mr Richardson. He heard Mr Foale tell mission control about last Monday's docking of the most recent Russian supply ship: "Ah, you jokers. Well, my life flashed before my eyes again. It worked out a real treat this time, I tell you. I surprised myself even. Well, we didn't go down the blind alleys that we did the last time and we had the sun just smack bang on the Y-axis right now and we did it just right . . .
"Yeah, I tell you as I saw that sucker coming in towards us, it was coming in so fast; I mean I was filming it through the video camera and it was getting bigger as I was watching it. I mean in a matter of 10 seconds or so, I was thinking: `Oh no, not again' and I couldn't help but say `Anatoly, it's still coming very fast' ".
But, he then told mission control, his Russian colleague took manual control and "it all worked out. It got much more stable and I started breathing again."
Mr Richardson said he spoke again to the American astronaut yesterday who told him that Mir's solar panels were once again realigned with the sun, restoring the space station's power.
Mr Foale said the incident on Monday was captured on video but they had not yet sent it down to Earth. Asked if the arrival of the two new Russian astronauts signalled the end of Mir's current problems, Mr Foale replied: "We don't know that yet."
Asked if he was bored, Mr Foale said they had been too busy over the past few days. Mr Richardson said the "vibes" on board Mir during the conversation were "quite happy" and the American astronaut "was laughing a bit, too".