Jul 28 1999

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Two Russian cosmonauts carried out a successful 5%-hour spacewalk outside Mir, installing equipment and opening the antenna that they had failed to unfold properly in a previous spacewalk. Russian space officials said that the spacewalk was most likely the last to occur at Mir. This was the seventh spacewalk for Mir Commander Viktor M. Afanasyev and the eighth spacewalk for Flight Engineer Sergei V. Avdeyev, who had spent a record-making, cumulative total of 717 days in space.

NASA announced that, after Space Shuttle Columbia's return to Earth on the night of 27 July, engineers had found "three little holes" in its right engine nozzle, confirming that the Shuttle had leaked hydrogen fuel during liftoff. The holes, 0.25 inches (0.64 centimeters) in size, had caused the craft to lose up to 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) of fuel during each second of its 8%-minute climb to orbit.

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