Subject: mirnews.479
From: "C.M. vd Berg" <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list FPSPACE <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 07:15:22 -0400

MIRNEWS.479                                                                                                                         10 MAY 2000

1st Spacewalk (EVA) 28th Main Expedition to MIR: 

On 12.05.2000 the crew of the 28th M.E. to MIR will make an EVA. The beginning of EVA is at 1040UTC (opening of the hatch) and the end at 1605UTC (closing hatch). The cosmonauts will have to carry out a lot of tasks, i.e. the 'sealing' of a little slit in the hull of the base block and the execution of a panorama inspection of the outside of the complex. The crew will use a device called 'germatizator' and will also dismantle a solar battery from the outside of the Kvant-1 module. 

During the last week main subjects during radiocontacts were the preparations for the oncoming EVA , such as the airtight checks of the available space suits, and checks of all equipment needed during the EVA, the airseal of connections, the status of valves, oxygen and other tanks and the radio communications system Tranzit. 

Almost the whole EVA will be made before MIR comes in range of Western Europe. Possibly the closure of the hatch will just take place during the first pass in orbit 81356, 1605-1613UTC. During the following communication sessions the crew can be monitored during their post-EVA activities. 

On 4.05 Zalyotin read out a salute to a recently opened youth forum about subjects like WW-2 and the victory over fascism. Acitivities during this forum were sports estafettes by representatives of patriottic military clubs. Zalyotin sent the best wishes to the participants. 

On 7.05, after the conversations about the next EVA the last communication session was concluded by the TV- or radiobroadcast of the inauguration of President Putin. His promise to rule the country in an 'honest and open way' could be heard loud and clear via the 'uplink' channel in the background. 

Experiments: In the past 2 weeks now and then the cosmonauts worked on experiments. They spoke about original Russian experiments , for which the 'hardware' is still on board of the station. For the time being it is still unclear who will pay for these experiments and if so, whether this is in the benefit of the shareholders of MIRcorp. The crew was executing experiments like the Orangery (greenhouse), Doza (measurements of the radiation levels on board), Dakon (a liquid convection meter), Optovert, Indikator, etc. 

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