MIRNEWS.117    3 JANUARY 1992

NEW YEAR ON BOARD MIR:

1992 started on board at 2100UTC. The time used by TsUP and the cosmonauts is
still UTC+3hrs. During their orbits on 31 December 1991 the crew during every
orbit passed territories, where the inhabitants already had met the New Year and
then again flew over territories where 1991 was still in force! For the
cosmonauts this New Year's Night must be unforgettable: in 1991 they began their
flight under orders of the then still existing state: U.S.S.R. Before the state
commission they took the oath to fulfil their mission on board the Soviet
space-station MIR. During one of their spacewalks they hoisted the Soviet
Stateflag in the top of the Sofora-mast. So the only place were that flag is
still fluttering is space! If all will go according last plans the flag can be
lowered during a spacewalk in June this year! So Flade, a German cosmonaut, will
fly his mission in a ship carrying the 'last' Soviet flag. The present crew is
also not sure for which country or organisation they work at the moment. A
commission of the Russian Parliament has to prepare the establishment of a space
organisation (like NASA) for the Russian federation. Volkov, the present
commander, has the Ukrainian nationality, but will certainly opt for that of the
Russian federation.

ATTITUDE CONTROL:

The systems to maintain control over the attitude of the huge
space complex do not always work satisfactorily. The complex inclines to turn
around its X-axis (roll). In June 1992 the crew (possibly Viktorenko and Kaleri)
has to install an attitude motor in the top of the Sofora mast. During traffic
in the first evening pass here on 2 Jan. 1992 (orb. 33629) the crew reported
that the attitude of the complex considerably deviated from the desired
attitude. The solarpanels of the Module-D overshadowed those of the Base Block
and this lead to a low power supply. The cosmonauts are accustomed to certain
attitudes of the complex in relation to the sun. The deviation at 1841UTC was so
that Krikalyov did not need instruments or data to see that attitude was wrong.
The cosmonauts stated that 'chto to nye to' (something was wrong) and that they
had a problem. Coversations about this problem could be heard during the 3 next
orbits. Possibly the cosmonauts coped with the problem for they slept during the
last 2 nightly passes. They have to cope with this and other problems for the
flight with the German Flade must go on. The Russians have a contract and can
earn a lot of money!

YEVPATORIYA AND GRANAT:

The continuation of Russian spaceflight, manned as well
as unmanned, these days depends on foreign support and contracts. A lot of
western countries use the enormous possibilities of the Russian space flight for
their scientific and technological needs. Many satellites, launched and guided
by the Russians, contain foreign as well as Russian instruments and experiments.
An example is Granat, an astrophysical laboratory, originally subsidized by
France, Danmark and Bulgaria. It has been lauched on 1 Dec. 1989 with a French
gamma radiation telescope on board, named Sigma and a number of Russian
telescopes and spectrometers. On 30 Sept. 1991 Granat had an apogee of 182090KM
and a perigee of 21325KM.
With Sigma French scientists observe radiation sources in the centre of our
Galaxy, but they also are discovering other galaxies. The results exceed all
expectations, even the endurance of the satellite does not seem to have an end.
France's CNES wants to do all what is possible to keep Granat operational. This
is threatened by the bad economic situation of Russia. They have budget problems
with the control station Yevpatoriya (on the Crimea, so now in the Ukraine).
Yevpatoriya has 8 enormous telescopes, dish-antennae with a diameter of 16 M
each. These are used for guiding Granat. Yevpatoriya also is a control centre
for many other deep space observatories all over CIS republics. On the premises
of the station there is also a facility for relay of MIR's and Soyuz-TM's
radiotraffic. This is also important for France. July this year a lot of traffic
from and to Tognini during his 12-days flight will be relayed by Yevpatoriya.
The importance of Yevpatoriya increased after the closure of the trackingstation
in Tblisi and the dismantling of the fleet of Soviet trackingships. The French
government positively reacted on a request by CNES to asign funds for the
continuation of the work in Yevpatoriya.

SILENT MIKE:

We lost a very important source of information about Russian spaceflight.
Leonid Lazaryevich, reporter of the Moscow radioprogram Mayak, specialized in
spaceflight, was killed during an assignment in the mountain area Karabakh.
During all important events in Soviet spaceflight Leonid was there: also during
Helen Sharman's launch and flight he was on his post. His attitude towards
Soviet spaceflight was not always positive. His critical behaviour during
interviews was very fruitful for he was able to reveal a lot of facts, which his
'victims' dit not want to disclose.

POLICY AND SPACEFLIGHT:

All is still on the move. There is a provisional agreement (a letter of intent)
about spaceflight between the republics of the CIS. Real arrangements must
follow. Main problem is Baykonur. Kazakhstan already appropriated all civil
infrastructures of Baykonur. The military installations for the time being
remain under control of the (former-) Unions M.O.D.
Kazakhstan has an own space-organisation in future possibly headed by Dr.
Gubanov, a chief designer of NPO Energiya.
Maintenance work on Baykonur, among which the runway of Buran and launch paths
is suspended. The (former-) Union's M.O.D. stopped funding of the Buran project.

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