MIRNEWS.349    4 MARCH 1997

Set-backs:

2 serious disadvantages vex Russian spaceflight:

1. Progress-M33:

The redocking of this freighter at the MIR complex planned for 4.03.1997
at 0750UTC did not take place. During the first pass of both objects here
in MIR's orb. 63065, 0733-0739UT, radiotraffic revealed that the docking
was not possible. Tsibliyev reported that the Pr-M33 did not do what she
had to do and that he did not have a continuous image on his screen of
the approaching ship. So he was unable to aim her with the system TORU.
He was able to give some commands, for instance to reduce the speed of
Pr-M33. Pr-M33 passed MIR in a distance of appr. 220 - 230 Meters. The
cosmonauts now and then had visual observations of the Pr-M33, but not
conti nuously and it was difficult to determine the distances via the
portholes as there were no referencepoints. Radiotraffic during following
passes confirmed the failure. Pr-M33 was flying near MIR in a distance of
appr. 1 KM. A commission headed by V. Solovyov is trying to find the
cause of the failure and to find a solution. Tomorrow they hope to
announce if and, if so, when the second attempt will take place.

2. Geostationary communications for the MIR-spacestation:

At the moment MIR does not have the possibilities to communi cate via
Altair-1 (Cosmos-2054) and Altair-2 (Luch-1). Altair- 1 came in a so
called sun-pointing attitude and is no longer under control. This
happened once in the past and then the satellite restored the normal
attitude itself. Whether this will be possible this time or not is not
sure. MIR also cannot use the 2d geostationary satellite over 96 degrees
East. The Antares transceiver for MIR's uplink to the geostationary
satellites is unserviceable and has to be replaced. The Russi ans hope to
send a new Antares to MIR by Progress-M34. So the communication situation
is very poor at the moment: in fact even worse than before the deployment
of Luches for MIR. In the past trackingships filled up the gaps, but
these ships are not operational now. The possibility to use American
trac- kingstations (Wallops, White Sands and Dryden) does not give enough
solace.

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