Subject: mirnews.349
From: "C.M. van den Berg" <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 10:58:20 -0500

MIRNEWS.349                        4 MARCH 1997

Set-backs: 2 serious disadvantages vex Russian spaceflight:

1. Progress-M33: 

The redocking of this freighter at the MIR complex planned for
4.03.1997 at 0750UTC did not take place. 
During the first pass of both objects here in MIR's orb.
63065, 0733-0739UT, radiotraffic revealed that the docking was
not possible. Tsibliyev reported that the Pr-M33 did not do
what she had to do and that he did not have a continuous image
on his screen of the approaching ship. So he was unable to aim
her with the system TORU. He was able to give some commands,
for instance to reduce the speed of Pr-M33. Pr-M33 passed MIR
in a distance of appr. 220 - 230 Meters. The cosmonauts now
and then had visual observations of the Pr-M33, but not conti
nuously and it was difficult to determine the distances via
the portholes as there were no referencepoints. Radiotraffic
during following passes confirmed the failure. Pr-M33 was
flying near MIR in a distance of appr. 1 KM. A commission
headed by  V. Solovyov is trying to find the cause of the
failure and to find a solution. Tomorrow they hope to announce
if and, if so, when the second attempt will take place.  

2. Geostationary communications for the MIR-spacestation:

At the moment MIR does not have the possibilities to communi
cate via Altair-1 (Cosmos-2054) and Altair-2 (Luch-1). Altair-
1 came in a so called sun-pointing attitude and is no longer
under control. This happened once in the past and then the
satellite restored the normal attitude itself. Whether this
will be possible this time or not is not sure. MIR also cannot
use the 2d geostationary satellite over 96 degrees East. The
Antares transceiver for MIR's uplink to the geostationary
satellites is unserviceable and has to be replaced. The Russi
ans hope to send a new Antares to MIR by Progress-M34.
So the communication situation is very poor at the moment: in
fact even worse than before the deployment of Luches for MIR.
In the past trackingships filled up the gaps, but these ships
are not operational now. The possibility to use American trac-

kingstations (Wallops, White Sands and Dryden) does not give
enough solace. 

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202