MIRNEWS.105    23 AUGUST 1991

IMPERTURBABLY THE FARMERS CONTINUE THEIR PLOUGHING. MIR AND COUP D'ETAT.

During these hectic days the cosmonauts continued their tasks. On 18 Aug. they
asked particulars about the political situation. TsUP informed them about the
resignation of Yakovlev and the Union Treaty to be signed on 20 Aug. Krikalyov
considered the resignation of Yakovlev as a lost. In the morning of 19 Aug. 1991
(pass in orb. 31501, 0747UTC) TsUP told them the news about the coup. Krikalyov
asked whether TsUP already knew about it in the evening of 18 Aug. or not. TsUP
stated that the news came in this morning (19/8). The cosmonauts did not comment
the events and Krikalyov said that they would collect news in a 'memory' and
only speak about it via the S.R. (TDRS), so not via the VHF channels.

PROGRESS-M9 LAUNCHED:

The launch of this freighter took place on Baykonur on 20 Aug. 1991 at 2254UTC
for a 2-days flight to MIR. Already for some weeks I expected this launch and to
make docking to the Kvant-1 aft port possible a redocking of Soyuz-TM12 from aft
to forward (P.Kh.O.). So a lot of checks and monitoring (also using
timeswitches) during the last weeks. There has been no redocking: so Pr-M9 had
to dock to the front port. (Possibly experts still do not trust the repaired
Kurs system on Kvant-1). On 20 Aug. 1991 I detected Progress-M9 in its orbits 5
and 6, 0504UT and 0634UTC transmitting on 166.130, 165.873 and 922.755 mc. I did
not get any news about the launch for all appropriate channels were jammed by
news about the events in the S.U. From one of my sources I heard that
Progress-M9 has a returncapsule on board.

PROGRESS-M9 DOCKED TO MIR:

The docking of Pr-M9 to the forward port of MIR (P.Kh.O.) took place on 23 Aug.
1991 at 0054UTC. During the final approach in orb. 31559 between 0042 and
0050UTC the crew observed the automatic operation. After 3 orbits the hatches
had been opened. The freighter delivered to MIR fuel, equipment (also for the
soviet-austrian expedition), food, post, etc.

MEDIA AND NEWSPAPERS ABOUT ACTUAL MIR OPERATIONS:

On 18 Aug. 1991 the Dutch radio news service published an Associated Press
message about the return of the MIR cosmonauts. Nor Associated Press nor the
news service took the trouble to verify the message. Also a prominent Dutch
newspaper blindly copied the message. After the faulty message my telephone was
ringing continuously.
For those, interested in spaceflight, media and papers do not give sufficient
actual news about manned flights. To serve connoisseurs PA2WJZ and PI8EAE
enabled me to dissipate messages like this via Packetradio for radio amateurs
in Europe, Israel and Asia.

Reactions showed that this service is highly appreciated.
Many thanks and 73-s to G3IOR, GB7VLS, SV1IW, GB7LDI, OH6EH, OH6RDW,
PA0SCH, PA3EAE, PA3EGB, PI8EAE, 4X4LF, 4Z4SV, and all others involved!

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