Subject: mirnews.405
From: "C.M. vd Berg" <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 10:20:31 -0500

MIRNEWS.405                                           1 FEBRUARY 1998

MIR-ENDEAVOUR:

During the combined flight the 'Russian segment' continued to maintain
direct communications with TsUP Moscow.  During previous flights the
MIR-crew regularly used the American communication facilities. Now  they
used their geostationaire  sat. Altair-2 more often. 

In the early beginning of the combined flight there were technical problems
on board of Endeavour and for a short period the MIR-complex controlled the
attitude of the huge combination.  Due to the high fuel consumption the
attitude control was given back to the Endeavour.  Now and then the
Russians discussed the recent problems with the space suit  of Andy Thomas.
In their opinion  a bad  coordination between American and Russian experts
in this field caused a lot of unnecessary fuss. 

Departure Endeavour from MIR:  After a few days toiling  to and fro with
supllies and equipment Endeavour separated from MIR on 29.01.1998 at
1656UTC.  Before the separation Altair-2 transmitted images from MIR. These
were old video recordings of the Endeavour during the approach on
24.01.1998.  A few seconds before the undocking Altair-2 was switched off. 
 Altair-2  transmitted  the images of the departure and the fly around  of
the Shuttle between 1747 and 1827UTC.  A part of these images had been made
through a porthole of the Priroda module.  During this transmission
Solovyov reported a malfunction of a ventilator of the CO2 scrubber
Vozdukh. 
 
Launch Soyuz-TM27:  At 16.33.52UTC, so 23 minutes before the undocking of
Endeavour S-TM27 started from Baykonur with on board the crew for the 25th
Main Expedition to MIR and the French guest astronaut Leopold Eyharts.
Commander is Talgat Musabayev, who is making his 2d spaceflight. Now as a
commander, during his first flight he was on board engineer.  This time
engineer is Nikolay Budarin, who also makes his 2d flight.  He started for
the first time in a S-TM-ship as during his first flight he was delivered
to MIR by the Shuttle Atlantis (June 1995). The callsign  of the new crew
is Kristall. 

Progress-M37: This freighter had to free the aft docking port (Kvant-1  +X
axis) for the S-TM27 and when it was clear that all went well with that
transportship Pr-M37 separated from MIR on 30.01.1998 at 12.50.30UTC.
Initially there were no plans for a redocking, but as long as the Russians
do not make a final decision Pr-M37 will fly autonomously.  The advantage
of the occupation of the aft docking port by a ship is a better
thermo-protection of the docking mechanism of that port and the additional
possibility for the crew to get rid off stuff which is no longer needed. 

Flight of the Soyuz-TM27: After the launch, which took place 12 seconds
behind schedule, all went well. During the pass in the 3d orbit strong
transmissions on all frequencies could be monitored over here. Musabayev,
Kristall-1, reported that they meanwhile had entered the BO (life
compartment). The pressure was 706 mm. (As always there was a lot of
interference from the groundservices of a nearby airport using the same
frequency 121.750 mc in AM-Wide) During the next pass Musabayev reported
the good performance of the 2nd orbit correction impulse. 

During the 3rd pass over here he reported that they had resolved a problem
with the percentage of CO2 in the air  and  the so called 'ugli posadki'
the   angles of reentry in the atmosphere and the related times if they in
case of emergency would be forced to return to earth.  Meanwhile Eyharts
slept in his sleeping bag in the BO and the Russians continued to work in
the SA (landing apparatus).  During 30.01.98 the flight went on without
problems.  An employee of the groundservices   Rotterdam  Airport 
recognizes the language during a S-TM27 transmission and reacts with a
'dosvidaniya'.  This was the first time during all those years in which
this phenomenon regularly took place.  

Approach and docking Soyuz-TM27 on 31.01.98:  This operation was an
excellent performance.  All went well from the very beginning until
contact.   Enjoying the benefit of optimum monitoring possibilities I could
make this statement.  Communications via Altair-2 started at 1724UTC during
MIR's orbit 68271.   The approach was going on  far ahead of schedule.  At
1725 the distance was 7060M, the approach speed 10.5 M/sec. and the
deviations around the 3 axes were minimal. At 1732, distance 4300M with
appr.speed 10.2 M/sec. The operation was executed in the automatic regime
with the system Kurs.  Musabayev continuously reported details of the
operation. He also regularly stated: No emergency instruction.  So Kurs
worked well and there was no need to take over manually.  On 1735 Altair-2
switched over to TV-transmissions and the MIR complex could be seen via a
camera in the S-TM27.  At 1750 they again went over to phone with the clear
and calm voice of Musabayev. 

At 17.54.29UTC the smooth docking took place and immediately both crews
reacted with great enthousiasm.  Almost always dockings take place  a few
minutes after disappearance of both objects  behind my eastern horizon, so
just after the first pass  and VHF window for my position. This time this
VHF window showed up after the docking.  After abt. 6 minutes after the
docking CNN came with a 'live event' of the docking, so in fact not 'live',
but somewhat later.  This was also the case with the TV-images of the
opening of the hatches and the meeting of the 2 crews.  I monitored the
voices of the enthousiastic crews while the TV-transmissions on a UHF
channel went via a tracking station in Russia, so not via Altair-2. 

I could monitor a lot of joy. After the mutual greetings and
congratulations the deputy head of RKA (the Russian NASA), Ostroumov, 
addressed himself to the crews with a statement of his chief, Koptev.
(Congratulations and appreciations for the successful docking operation)
Ostroumov also congratulated Musabayev with the birthday of his daughter. 

Pegasus: The mission of Leopold Eyharts is Pegase (Pegasus).  This mission
ends with the departure on 19.02.1998 of Leopold together with Solovyov and
Vinogradov in the Soyuz-TM26.  (I sincerely hope that  the S-TM26 will
perform during the return operations for during her stay within the
MIR-complex the systems of S-TM26 regularly had to support the MIR-complex.

Soyuz-TM27:  After the departure of Soyuz-TM26 the crew of the 25th Main
Expedition and Andy Thomas will make an autonomous flight to redock the
S-TM27 to the forward (Transition section, -X axis)  docking port, enabling
Pr-M37 to redock there. 

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