Subject: MIRNEWS.368
From: "C.M. van den Berg" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>
Cc: <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 14:30:22 +0200

MIRNEWS.368                                            7 JULY 1997

Progress-M35:  The start of this cargoship from Baykonur took place on
5.07.97 at 04.11.54UTC.  During the pass in orb. 2, 0847-850UTC, the
Telemetry transmissions in the 166 and 165 mc could be heard  and during
the pass in the next orbit these transmissions, but also those of the
beacon in the 922.755mc could be monitored. 
On 6.07.1997 during the passes in the orbits 18, 19 and 20 good signals on
all frequencies and with the Dopplershift on 922.755 mc 2 times TCA's could
be determined: 071751 and 085100UTC.

Progress-M35,  approach and docking:  Again all went of old: a stable and
reliable execution of this operation by the automatic system Kurs. The
docking took place on 7.07.1997 at 05.59.24UTC.  During MIR's orbit 65015
from 0549-0554UTC the approach was going on. At AOS the Pr-M35 was in a
distance of 147 M.  Tsibliyev reported very little deviations in the course
and attitude of Pr-M35. There was a stable GSO (gyrostabilized orientation)
and all went so successful that Tsibliyev could load some date, given him
by TsUP, in a computer.  Just before LOS the distance was still 120 M and
the approach was continued with a speed of 30 CM\sec. During the next
passes they did not speak about the opening of the hatches to Pr-M35. The
main subject was the good functioning of the gyrodynes, the good attitude
of the complex  and the fact that the solar arrays had been turned to a
good angle in relation to the sun.  The accumulators could be fully
charged.  The crew has to remove temporarily the spacesuits from the
P.Kh.O. (transition section)  to get more room for the transfer of goods
from Pr-M35 to the rest of the complex. 

The Russians deserve a heartfelt 'Molodtsy' (well done fine fellows). 

But please let those responsible for Russian manned spaceflight as soon as
possible make a deal with the Ukrainian factory Khartron for the
restoration of the delivery of the system Kurs. In that way
docking-operations can be executed with a 99.99% reliability!!

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