MIRNEWS.350    7 MARCH 1997

SITUATION ON BOARD MIR REMAINS PRECARIOUS:

After the loss of one Solid Fuel Oxygen Generator in the night from 23 to
24.02 the crew has been struggling along to keep the mini-atmosphere on
board of the space station suitable for the needs of human beings. On
5.03 one of the Elektrons (possibly the 2d Elektron is out of order and
has to be repaired with spareparts to be delivered by the next
supplyship) showed a malfunction and so the crew had to use a part of the
oxygen reserved for spacewalks to bridge the period until the repair of
that Electron. They managed to get this Elektron operational again in the
afternoon. The crew is very busy to secure the working of the lifesystems
and this fact can be derived from radiotraffic during every possible
pass. Among the additional measures to maintain a liveable siutation on
board a lot of airhoses have been deployed to enhance the aircirculation
through the whole complex.

Communications:

As it is not possible to communicate via the geostationary satellites
every possible VHF-pass via trackingstations in Russia and the United
States is fully utilized. In this way I can obtain a lot of information,
but in fact this is rather poor in comparison to that what can be derived
during the long sessions via Altair-1. For TV-sessions the Russians now
use the direct links on lower frequencies via trackingstations. These
sessions are shorter and have a rather poor quality, mostly black/white
and often the accompaning speech goes via the normal VHF-downlink.

Progress-M33:

It has been decided not to try a second attempt to redock Pr-M33 at MIR.
The Pr-M33 will be put on a destruction course on 11 or 12.03.1997 and
burn up in the atmosphere over a designated area in the Pacific East of
New-Zealand.

Progress-M34:

The Russians are still waiting for the disposal of a rocket for this
launch. This certainly will not be earlier than 25.03.1997. They hope to
launch the Pr-M34 on 6.04.1997. Among a lot of other supplies this
Progress has to deliver a replacement for the Antares transceiver (uplink
to Luches) and spareparts and materials for the repairs of the defective
lifesupportsystems.

Spacewalk (EVA):

The Russians still hope that Tsibliyev and Linenger will be able to do an
EVA. For the time being 17.04.1997 is on schedule.

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