MIRNEWS.407    19 FEBRUARY 1998

SOYUZ-TM26 made safe landing:

The S-TM26 with on board the relieved crew of the 24th Main Expedition to MIR
(Solovyov and Vinogradov) and the CNES astronaut Leopold Eyharts made a soft
landing not far from the city Arkalyk in Kazakhstan on 19.02.98 at 0910UTC. The
weather in the landing area was bad, though there was a slight improvement in
the hour before the landing they had to land in a blizzard. So the search- and
rescue operation lasted relatively long and to avoid collision only one
helicopter had been directed to the landing position.

Return operation:

S-TM26 separated from the complex at 05.52.50UTC. During the autonomous flight
all went well. In the nighthours S-TM26 communicated via the eastern tracking
stations in Russia. From 0805UTC until the reentry in the atmosphere at approx.
0847UTC the communications could be monitored via Altair-2. The signals from
and to Soyuz-TM26 were relayed via the satellite transceiver on board MIR and
from there via the Altair-2 geostationairy satellite. The engine which had to
slow down the velocity of S-TM26 to achieve reentry was switched on at
08.16.20UTC. Solovyov reported the data about the impulses in meters per
second and the fuel consumption (SIRT) in kilograms. The engine was shut off
after approx. 260 seconds. At 08.41.35UTC the program for the separation of the
motor compartment and the life compartment was started. The mood of the men on
board the descending landing compartment was very good, they could be heard
laughing. The last signal from S-TM26 which could be monitored via Altair-2 was
the well known ANAN beacon. Altair-2 remained active for MIR-traffic until
0855UTC. Musabayev is now in command of the 25th Main Expedition. Budarin
reported his attempts to observe and film the descending S-TM26.

Soyuz-TM27:

On 20.02.1998 the crew of MIR will enter the S-TM27 for the redocking flight.
Between 0845 and 0930UTC S-TM27 will make an autonomous flight from the aft
(Kvant-1, +X axis) port to the forward one (-X axis, P.Kh.O. -transition
section).

Progress-M37:

The return of this freighter to the MIR complex (to aft docking port) is
scheduled for 23.02.1998.

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