MIRNEWS.195    23 OCTOBER 1993

4th Spacewalk (EVA) MIR-crew on 22.10.93:

This EVA started earlier than was expected. The hatch swung
open at abt. 1535UTC. During the first half hour of this EVA
the cosmonauts spoke with the Russian premier-minister Cher-
nomyrdin who visited TsUP. Regretfully this EVA ended earlier
than planned due to a malfunction of a lifesystem Serebrov's
spacesuit. The EVA took place between (plus/min) 1535-1615UTC
and had a duration of only 38 minutes.
The crew succeeded in installing on the outersurface of the
complex a device for measurements of the micro-meteorite flux
and the salvaging of materials which had been exposed to the
influence of outerspace. Serebrov made some images in the
framework of the Panaroma experiment, but for the conclusion
of that experiment another EVA will be necessary.
Our good friend OM Peter observed via Altair that the cos-
monauts had left the airlock. After a while the transmission
of images switched over to the system Orbita and only the
speech could be monitored. Soon we derived from this traffic
that the cosmonauts were in the airlock, that they had closed
the exithatch and were equalising the pressures between the
airlock (S.Sh.O.) and the instrument- and scientific compart-
ment (P.N.O.). For that purpose they had opened the valve
K.V.D. and via the downlink the sound of streaming air could
be heard.
During the first pass within VHF-range (in orbit 43902, 1932-
1937UTC) the cosmonauts reported that all was well. The pos-
sible date of the 5th EVA also was mentioned. This might be
29.10.93 depending on further analyses of the emerged pro-
blems.

Information:

The English service of Radio Moscow slightly
payed attention to this EVA, but did not speak about the cause
of the premature return on board of the crew.
For the first time in the history of spaceflight Radio Moscow
spoke about the Russian crew as 'astronauts' instead of 'cos-
monauts'.

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