MIRNEWS.446    11 NOVEMBER 1998

2nd Spacewalk (EVA) crew 26th Main Expedition MIR:

The EVA began on 10.11.98 at 1924UTC (opening hatch) and finished on 11.11.98
at 0118UTC (closing exit hatch of Module-D). All went well. During this EVA
the cosmonauts had to accomplish 17 tasks: the launch of the mini-sputnik
Spoutnik-41, (which they immediately did when they entered open space) the
installment of a number of experiments and the retrieval of mainly Russian
experiments. Among the installed experiments was a French one, a so called
'meteorite trap' to catch fragments which are expected to pass in a few days.
These will come from the dust cloud behingdthe comet Tempel-Tuttle. The name
of the meteorite rain is Leonids.

Radiotraffic:

During the first pass of the MIR-complex in orbit 72708, on 10.11
at 2353 until 11.11 at 0001UTC the cosmonauts were still in open space. They
were about to return to the exit hatch. During the 2nd pass in orb. 72709,
11.11 from 0127-0139UTC, Padalka and Avdeyev were in the airlock of Module-D.
They switched their spacesuits over from the autonomous regime to that of the
on-board systems. During the next pass (orb. 72710, 0302-0314UTC) they worked
in the neighbouring compartment, the P.N.O. , the Instrument and scientific
compartment, to return to the inside of the complex.

For Padalka this was the first 'real' EVA. He already made an IVA, an internal
EVA inside the Spektr module.

Spoutnik-41 (or; RS-18):

Immediately after entering open space the crew
launched this little radio-amateur satellite. During all passes of the MIR-
station the signals of that satellite could be monitored via 145.815 mc. The
signals were bleeps (duration approx. 5 seconds), some c/w carrier tones, and
short statements spoken by young people in French, English and Russian. Sp-41
is flying a little bit ahead of MIR and gradually the distance will
increase.

The Leonids:

During the Leonids (the dust cloud behing the comet Tempel-Tuttle)
in the period around 17.11.1998 the cosmonouts will hide in the Soyuz-TM28
during periods in which this might be dangerous. The highest intensity is
expected on 17.11.98 at 1943UTC. In the Soyuz-TM28 the cosmonauts are
protected against the incoming fragments by the whole axial length of the
complex (the Base Block, the module Kvant-1 and the Progress-M40). They also
have the radial positioned modules Kvant-2, Kristall, Priroda and Spektr as
extra umbrellas. During their stay in the S-TM28 they might use the 121.750 mc
to report observations and, as in the past befell for instance during some
Perseid rains, eventual 'hits'.

C.M. van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.