MIRNEWS.179    15 JULY 1993

MISSION ALTAIR:

This French scientific mission goes according to plan. Haig-
nere stated that all experiments are going well. The only
problem is the fact that they have a lot of work to do. On
14.07.93 due to their work a direct TV-report in which a
conversation with President Mitterand had to be cancelled or
did not take place due to lack of comm. channels. H. is fee-
ling well. No spacesickness, no headache or other pains, he
sleeps well and has a good appetite. H. praises the good
amicable sphere among the crewmembers, which guarantees a good
cooperation.
H., call F6MIR, enjoys the possibilities of radio-amateurism:
as soon as France is in range he has long conversations with
French radio-amateurs. On 11.07.93 in orb. 42293, 1324UTC, he
also got the opportunity to speak with his parents. He had to
ask one of the amateurs to leave the frequency (144.475 mc)
for he was not able to hear his mother. On this frequency also
a lot of P/R traffic. H.'s presence on board MIR caused a
remarkable increase of French amateur-calls on MIR's P/R.

MIR-crew:

Manakov is still captain of the MIR-complex and this
he shows clearly. During every pass he tightly holds the
microphone. Now and then Polishchuk and Serebrov can be heard;
Tsybliyev, who has to take over command one of these days,
rarely speaks with TsUP.

Progress-M17:

During the experiment 'Rodeo' on 3.07.93 this
freighter undocked from the MIR station while Soyuz-TM17 was
waiting for the docking port freed by Pr-M17. Pr-M17 undocked
at 1553UTC. S-TM17 docked to MIR at 1624UTC.
The return-capsule of Pr-M17 landed safely in Kazakhstan at
1802UTC.

Soyuz-TM16:

With this ship, now still attached to the Kris-
tall-Module, Manakov, Polishchuk and Haignere will return to
earth on 22.07.93. The landing is expected at about 0630UTC.

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