MIRNEWS.140 27 JULY 1992 LAUNCH SOYUZ-TM15 ON 27.07.92 AT 0609UTC: A smooth start from Baykonur only a few seconds later than planned. On board the first crew, i.e. Anatoliy Solovyov, Sergey Avdeyev and the Frenchman Michel Tognini. Callsign of the crew Rodniki, so resp. Rodnik 1, 2 and 3. Already towards the beginning of the 3d orbit of S-TM15 its transmitters on 121.750, 166, 165 and 922.755 mc could be heard. (so still orb. 2, 0909 and 0913UTC). No problems yet. The airpressure in the Landing module and Lifecompartment was goodjand so the crew could open the hatch between these compartments. The on-board navigation computer Chayka worked well. Also during the next passes (resp. 1041, 214 and 1348UTC) The 2 cosmonauts and the spationaute could be heard. Neither of them seemed to suffer from space-sickness. For Anatoliy Solovyov this will bejthe 3d spaceflight, his 2 colleagues are novices, although Tognini already started his training for spaceflights in 1986. 1st Orbit-correction: During the 4th orbit this correction was executed without problems. 2d Kurssystem out of order: During the checks of the on board systems the 2d Kurs-approach and docking system showed a malfunction. This will not influence the approach on 29 July 1992 for the first Kurssystem is still in good order and Solovyov has a lot of experience in manual dockings. Estimated docking time: The S-TM15 is expected to dock to the MIR-station on 29 July 1992 at abt. 0750UTC. Radio-traffic regarding the docking operation (on 121.750 mc and comments from MIR on 143.625 mc) can be heard in UK and the Netherlands between 0738 and 0746UTC. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.