MIRNEWS.159 26 JANUARY 1993 SOYUZ-TM16 docked to MIR on 26.01.93. at 0731UTC. Long for the 1st pass over here (orb. 39700, 0724UTC) our good friend Peter received Altair with TV-images of the approach of S-TM16 to MIR. These images came from the S-TM16 relayed by MIR to Altair. So it was possible to see the docking unit (ASAP-89) on Module-T (Kristall), some solarpanels and the axially docked S-TM15. The crew of MIR observed the approach from the Landing Module and the Life Compartment of S-TM15 and made their TV-images and photo- graphs. When S-TM16 and MIR came in VHF-range the Russians switched off Altair and so I had to take over the monitoring. Between 0724 and 0729UTC Manakov reported his steering manoeuvres and Polishchuk reported the approach speeds and distances. With speeds between 15 and 13 CM/SEC S-TM16 came in a distance of 33 Meters from Kristall during LOS for our position. During the next pass (orb. 39701, 0900UTC) S-TM16 had been docked to MIR (Kristall), but it was still impossible to open the hatch due to some problems with the air-seal checks. They had resolved these problems during the pass in orb. 39702, 1036UTC. The hatch was open and after a warm welcome the old and new crew enjoyed a good dinner. Manakov went back to S-TM16 to conserve this ship. He still communicated with MIR via the 121.750 mc. Immediately after the docking Solovyov and TsUP started procedures for the attitude control of the huge complex. During the next pass MIR and TsUP used Altair again and OM Peter was able to record nice TV-images of the docking operation and the arrival of the new crew onboard MIR. The crew enjoyed the capers which Polishchuk had to make during his first minutes on board MIR. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.