MIRNEWS.420    28 APRIL 1998

MIR-routine:

After the last of the 5 EVA-s the Russians restarted their own
experiment programs, which did not get much attention during the busy EVA
period. This caused a lot of work for Musabayev and Budarin who got many
radiograms with instructions and requests. M. told TsUP to send them clear and
accurate instructions.

Meanwhile experts of DLR and ESA in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich (Germany) were
ready to continue the experiments with the BDD (Betriebstechnik Deutschland
Direkt). These experiments started during the mission MIR-97 and had to be
discontinued due to the failure of Altair-1. The team in Oberpfaffenhofen was
ready for the operation. On board MIR the crew still had to work on cables and
systems. The former DDR cosmonaut Sigmund Jaehn had heard rumours saying that
M. and B. were reluctant to execute the BDD experiments. Musabayev emphatically
denied this: on the contrary, he and his colleague liked to do this very much
and he promised to do all what was necessary to be ready in the benefit of the
good friendship with their German partners. He immediately started his cable
work.

The first communication session in the BDD framework took place on 24.04.98 at
1649UTC. The first attempts resulted in phone and images with a very good
quality. All what could be heard and seen was very interesting.

In those transmissions from MIR via Altair-2 the TV-uplink images could be seen
with the equipment and team in Oberpfaffenhofen including Hans Schlegel. It was
a demonstration of an excellent international cooperation: a Kazak, a Russian,
an Australian American, and on earth a number of Germans, among them a former
D.D.R. cosmonaut . 3 languages could be heard: Russian, German and English.

In excellent German Andy Thomas spoke with Hans Schlegel. And it was clear that
Musabayev had picked up a lot of the German language from the community of
former Volga-Germans in his native country: he easely uses phrases like Gott
sei Dank, Wie geht es Ihnen and Auf Wiedersehen.

There had been plans to continue the experimental BDD operation on Monday,
27.04, but that had to be cancelled: the TV screen on board MIR remained dark!

During the communication window, which had been intended for BDD contact
Altair-2 was operational and stand-by.

So everybody was satisfied on Tuesday, 28.04.1998 when at 1402UTC Altair-2 was
transmitting loud and clear. The operators in the Russian tracking station for
Altair-2 (Medvezhje Ozero -Bears Lake- near Moscow) aimed one of the antennae
of the satellite in the direction of Munich and immediately a very good
communication session could be established. The color(!) images from MIR, but
also via MIR from Oberpfaffenhofen were excellent. Between the team on earth
and the crew there was some confusion about which floppydisk with the BDD
program had to be used. Was it BDD nr. 1 or 3? They showed each other the disks
they had and the texts on these disks were clearly readable. The people behind
the keyboards and screen in Oberpfaffenhofen also could be seen. Musabayev
showed the screen of a laptop, with data of the BDD program.

The Altair-2 window for BDD use was open until 1440UTC and exactly at that
moment the Bears lake people aimed the antennae again in their own direction
and the signal became weaker and for some minutes it was difficult to
understand what Musabayev said. After a while Musabayev switched over to the
phone mode and all was as before. So the antenna manoeuvre did not harm the
satellite. (Thusfar I do not know the cause of the failure of Altair-1 in 1997.
During the MIR-97 period Altair-1 came in a so called sun-pointing attitude.
Whether this had something to with the antenna manoeuvres or with the age of
the satellite is still a question for me.)

During the rest of this week more BDD operations are planned. (Experiments
executed by experts on earth without interfering by the crew, for instance with
the Titus furnace, and data-transmission activities.)

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.