MIRNEWS.153    14 NOVEMBER 1992

PROGRESS-M14: Here some times of the returnoperation of this freighter.
Undocking from MIR: 21.10.92 at 1646UTC. Safe landing of the returncapsule
in the planned landingzone in Kazakhstan on 22.10.92 at 0009UTC.
Decay in the dense layers of the atmosphere of the Pr-M14 itself took place
somewhat later: 22.10.92 at 0014UTC.

Progress-M15: For data about this freighter now part of the MIR-complex:
see MIRNEWS.152 of 31.10.92.

Orbit corrections: The Pr-M15 has not been used for orbit corrections thusfar.
So relatively old Keps are still valid.

CREW MIR:

The crew concluded the half of their sortie. They carried out astrophysical
experiments, produced semi-conductor materials in the ovens of Module-T,
replaced and mended equipment by the use of components delivered to the complex
by Pr-M15, kept the micro-climate of the complex within the desired limits, for
instance they had to do a lot to get rid of condense water. To get a better grip
on this matter they on 31.10.92 replaced the NOK, a pump for the removal of
condense water. Their roentgen telescopes have been aimed on an X-ray pulsar in
the constellation Vela. 2 years ago the Russian satellite Granat discovered this
X-ray source near 2 twin-stars in that constellation.

Radiotraffic: Radiotraffic on 143.625 mc increases due to the fact that the
passes gradually shift to daylight hours. The packetradio bursts on 145.550 mc
increase as well and during the last week this frequency also has been used by
Solovyov, U6MIR, for phone with amateurs in Italy, France and Austria. He also
spoke with Tognini who is in Moscow now.

Manned flights:

The Frenchman Haignere will fly to MIR on 1.07.93. Instead of Tognini his
eventual stand-in will be a French lady, Claudie Andre-Deshay. So if she has to
replace Haignere the space nation France will have its first woman cosmonaut, a
spationaute feminin as they use to say.

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