Subject: more Mirnews from Chris
From: "Hans G. Janssen" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 12:56:41 +0100

MIRNEWS.327                            12 SEPTEMBER 1996

Activities on board MIR:

The crew  has spend a lot of time and efforts to repair an
airseal problem in one of the modules.  Obviously the problem has
been solved, but the cause of that what might have been a leakage
seems to be a mystery.  Meanwhile the crew started preparations
for the meeting with the Atlantis (STS-79) still to be launched
on 16.09.1996 at 0854UTC.  Apart from extra physical training 
Sannon is packing things which she has to transfer to Atlantis
for delivery on earth.  Assisted by  Kaleri,  who also gave her
instructions, Shannon tried out a spacesuit. She reported (in
Russian) to TsUP that the suit  was the right size and that she
was sure to be able to use it if if this might be unlooked-for
necessary.  TsUP confirmed that this exercise had to be done in
case of an eventual return of Shannon with a Soyuz-TM.  One of
the means to inject oxygen in the atmosphere of the complex  is
the system Elektron.  These systems produce oxygen out of water
by an electrolysis process. Nitrogen is needed for the purging of
these Elektrons,  but also for the pressurizing. Nowadays there
is not enough nitrogen on board and new supplies, which have to
be delivered by Atlantis and Progress-M33 (in October) are badly
needed.   

Atlantis (STS-79):  If all goes according to plan and Atlantis
starts on 16.09.1996 at 0854UTC  radio-amateurs in Western-Europa
can try to monitor phone reports from Atlantis at abt. 20 minutes
after launch.  This might  be possible during the first contact
of Atlantis via a relay-facility in Spain.  During the last
flight of Atlantis signals could be monitored on  259.700 mc AM. 
After an elapsed time of 2days 18hrs 23mins Atlantis must link up
with MIR, so if the launch goes as planned and the flight has
been proceeding well this will take place on 19.09.1996 at
0017UTC (for the USA still 18.09).  If the same communications
are used as during the last Atlantis mission an American TDRS as
well as a Russian Altair (1 or 2 or both) will be used during
approach and docking.  23 minutes after the 'soft docking' the so
called 'hardmate' will take place.  After a check  period of 2hrs
and 25mins the hatches will be opened.

Radio-amateurism:  During the last week a lot of traffic, Packet
Radio and Phone could be heard on 145.550mc. Korzun is an
enthousiast radio-amateur and he made a lot of QSO-s over Western
Europe. His knowledge of the english  language  and his feeling
for radio-amateurism enables him to do this and to enjoy it. 
Apart from some recorded voice messages on 437.925mc I cannot say
much about the use of the Safex-2 facilities in the Priroda
module.  Here the UHF-frequencies 437.925,  437.950 and 437.975
mc  are used for medical purposes (hearth monitoring)  by a
hospital nearby. Monitoring these frequencies is such a torment
that it would endanger the condition of my  hearth in such a way
that  I myself even might need  that service by that hospital!

Chris  van  den  Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.