MIRNEWS.429 28 JUNE 1998 Uncertainty: For the time being the fate of MIR is uncertain. The cosmonauts on board MIR hoped to get information about the results of meetings on earth about the exploitation of MIR for the very near future. A meeting about this subject planned for last week has been put back until 2.07.1998. At this meeting a commission or group of experts will discuss the serious problems due to the lack of money for the present MIR exploitation and future operations. RKK Energiya did not receive the promised money badly needed this year and if this allotment will not be transferred soon, there are no means for the launch of Soyuz-TM28 with the relief crew for the present expediton. Possibly the meeting on 2.07.1998 will draft an ultimatum to the Kremlin: if the Kremlin fails to transfer the needed amount, another meeting will take place in mid July to discuss the termination of MIR's exploitation and to plan the operation to bring the station back into the atmosphere for decay later this year. The present uncertainty phase is unpleasant for the cosmonauts. On 19.06.98 Musabayev spoke with Baturin, who is still training for his flight to MIR with Soyuz-TM28, together with the crew for the next (26th) MIR Main Expedition. Musabayev wished Baturin a good flight and said that he hoped to meet him soon on board MIR. Baturin, a former spaceflight constructor and an advisor of Yeltsin, was selected for a flight to MIR for political reasons, but regretfully Yeltsin sacked him due to measures of economy. Apart from asking questions about the developments the cosmonauts do not say much about the present situation, but it is clear that their mood is far below the desired level. This could repeatedly be derived from conversations between the crew and TsUP. Especially Musabayev, a man with a stable character and in fact a humorist who likes to laugh a lot, regularly looses his temper. MIR-routine: Nevertheless Musabayev and Budarin continue to run the station as good as possible. They performed a number of repairs and were busy with a series of experiments. Last week they spent a lot of time to mend the defective Elektron oxygen generator in Kvant-1 for which they used parts of the Elektron in Module-D. A few times they did not succeed, but on 25.06 the Elektron worked well for 6 hours. On 26.06 the crew replaced a part of the Antares transmitter (for communications via Altair-2) and obviously they succeeded, for on 28.06 the transmitter was in use for a televised family meeting. Later on Musabayev reported that he had replaced the transmitter. Experiments: In coordination with American experts the cosmonauts continued the use of the Optizon furnace for melting processes. The Gallar furnace was also used. There were a lot of medical experiments, especially aimed at the cardio- vascular systems, Regularly they reported about experiments like Cardio, Holter and (the Dutch) Portapress. They also worked on astrophysical experiments. The crew reactivated the spectrometer Mariya in Kvant-1 to study electromagnetic processes in the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere. They also carried out radiation measurements outside the complex along MIR's trajectory. Experiments located in the Priroda module were also discussed, i.e. MOMS, Ozon and Alisa. Planning: The last report about the launch of the Soyuz-TM28 with the relief crew Padalka and Avdeyev, and the politician Baturin, was about putting back this mission with 1 day for ballistic reasons. The launch is now scheduled for 3.08.1998 and the rendez-vous with MIR for 5.08.98. To free the aft (+X axis) docking port of MIR the Progress-M39 has to undock from there on 4.08 for an autonomous flight. After the departure of S-TM27 the new transport ship S-TM28 has to be redocked to the forward (-X-axis) port. From that moment on the aft docking port is free for the redocking of the Pr-M39. This cargo ship has to remain docked to MIR, for the next one, Pr-M40, will not arrive before September 1998. This all with due reserve, for important decisions regarding MIR's immediate fate have to be made. If Padalka, Avdeyev and Baturin will fly, their call will be Altair. Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.