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 mode. Later analysis indicated that the right side of the orbital module had struck Mir two glancing blows 2 sec apart. The impact point was on Kristall, near its connection to the Mir base block. The cause of the impact was traced to a switch error: the hand controller in the orbital module which governed braking and acceleration was switched on, disabling the equivalent hand controller (the left motion control lever) in the descent module. Tsibliyev was able to use the right lever to steer Soyuz past Mir’s solar arrays, antennas, and docking ports after it became clear impact was inevitable.
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