MIRNEWS.460    12 JULY 1999

MIR-routine:

During the whole period covering this report the 27th Main
Expedition to MIR continued. This expedition is also called Russian-
French expedition, but in my opinion it would be better to say 'French-
Russian expedition'. ESA-astronaut Haignere, who executes the CNES
program Perseus, seems to dominate life on board and it is obvious that
he is enjoying his job very much. Daily he coordinates his work with the
French consultative group at TsUP Moscow, his contacts with Russian
experts or controlers are very scarce and he seems to go his own way on
board. Now and then he and Avdeyev help each other with experiments and
they get on rather well together. I don't believe that this is also the
case between Haignere and Afanasyev.

Afanasyev shows no signs that he is enjoying his flight, on the
contrary: he makes a irritated impression. I would not be surprised if
he has health problems. He and Avdeyev take care of the good
functioning of the systems of the station, especially those for the life
support and the operational control, such as the performance of the
solar batteries. Afanasyev uses to load commands given to him by TsUP in
the on board computer systems and he checks the so called 'ugli posadki',
angles of attack for eventual emergency landings. Avdeyev is responsible
for the Packet Radio traffic on the service channels and the
transmission to earth of files with experimental data.

As far as this can be derived from radio traffic, the mood on board is
far from cheerful. Some time ago, Haignere had an argument with Russian
physicians. They found some anomalies in the cardiovascular system of
Haignere during a medical experiment. Haignere did not share their
opinion. He stated that the exercises during that experiment were too
strenuous and he demanded to be informed about the limits for such
exercises during previous flights of French astronauts. In his opinion
there was nothing wrong with his health and he presumed that the
anomalies had psychological causes.

Regularly technical problems emerged for instance failing ventilators,
solar batteries showing incorrect angles towards the sun, bad
performance of the airconditioning and of the power supply systems.
During the last week radiotraffic revealed a mysterious leak of air. The
leak seems to be very small for the loss of pressure was not more than 4
mm in 24 hrs. For a long time the cosmonauts tried to find the location
of the leak and to be sure they closed all hatches between the base block
and the modules. On 12.07.1999 the suspicion fell on the Module Kvant-2
(Module D).

The very last failure:

In the night from 8 to 9.07.99 Afanasyev and Avdeyev reported that the
SEP (Electrical Power Supply system) in the Module Priroda failed at
2136UTC. Lights, ventilators, experiments and the radio amateur
equipment in that module failed. Only the computer used by Haignere was
still functioning. During all following passes that night and the passes
during the following night there was no radiotraffic, so no follow up
about this problem. Possibly the crew restored the power supply in
Priroda.

To reduce the natural decay of the complex a little bit, occasionally
minor orbit corrections had been executed. On 6.05.1999 this was done by
the use of the engines of the Pr-M41 and on 23.06.99 the impulses were
given by the approach and orientation engines of the ship Soyuz-TM29. On 
6.07.99 a correction with the engines of the Pr-M41 was performed,
lifting the orbit of MIR a few kilometers upwards.

Communications:

Often the 2 VHF-channels, UKW-1 (143.625 mc) and UKW-2
(130.165 mc) were used at the same time for different purposes. For
instance Packet Radio or phone conversations by the Russians on UKW-1 and
Haignere with his group at TsUP on UKW-2. During TV-sessions via UHF
UKW-2 was in use as phone channel. Now and then interference was
mentioned between ionospheric experiments (for instance with Ionozond)
and VHF traffic.

Radio amateurism:

During the period covering this report Jean-Pierre Haignere was still
very active with phone using the call R0MIR on 145.985 as well as on
145.940 mc. At AOS of almost every pass the Packet Radio on 145.985 mc
could be heard. This lasted until LOS or until the beginning of
Haignere's calls by phone. Often the Packet Radio continued during the
phone conversations. Haignere handles traffic in French as well as in
English and he acts as a very skilled radio amateur. Especially on
145.985 mc the uplink is overloaded by traffic and to be able to make as
much QSO-s as possible, he uses only 2 or 3 characters of the calling
stations. He also regularly states with whom he wants to communicate and
even threatened 'naughty' callers to ban them from answering for a
certain period. When in range of Moscow he switches over to 145.940 mc
for conversations with his countrymen over there or with his wife
Claudie. Apart from Phone and Packet Radio the 145.985 mc was also used
for a few SSTV transmissions. Now and then Avdeyev can be heard on the
amateur frequencies. I did not at all hear Afanasyev over there.

Plans for the near future:

Progress-M42:

On 14.07.1999 at 1725UTC launch of the freighter Pr-M42
with the normal cargo plus a special guidance and control computer to
steer the complex remote controlled by TsUP during the last unmanned
status of the MIR complex. At deadline for this report the launch that
day was not sure due the decision of the Kazakh government to suspend all
launches from Baykonur due to a dispute with Russia about compensation
for pollution by Russian space debris.

The launch of the freighter Progress-M42 on 14.07.99 is crucial, not only
for the well-being of the present crew, but also for the forthcoming
period in which the complex will fly in the unmanned status. To enable
controlers on earth to control the flight via the special navigation
computer to be delivered by Pr-M42 the present crew must be able to
install and test that computer.

Without that computer the 'mission impossible' to put the complex on a
safe destruction course into the earth's atmosphere would become
considerably more 'impossible'. I am sure that the government of
Kazakhstan will give permission for the launch of Pr-M42 on 14.07.99 and
in that way leave the burden of the responsibility for the decay of the
MIR space station where it belongs: on Russia. (remark: When this report
went to 'press' the government of Kazakhstan did not yet give the green
light for the launch, but preparations for the launch on 14.07.99 were
going on and on 12.07 the carrier-rocket and freighter had been rolled
out and erected on the start-complex.)

2nd Spacewalk (EVA) crew 27th Main Expedition:

This EVA is on schedule for 23.07.1999. Though not offically confirmed
now the EVA almost certainly will be executed by Avdeyev and
Haignere. They must install a new so called reflector antenna and
retrieve from the outer surface of the complex the experiments Spica and
Ekzobiologiya. Thusfar the returnflight of the Soyuz-TM29 with the the
present crew is scheduled for the end of August this year.

For an eventual extra, so 28th Main Expedition, in February 2000 we will
have to wait, see and hear.

Illness Mrs. van den Berg:

I tried to monitor MIR radiotraffic as much as possible, but was not
able to analyse, verify and report the gathered material as
comprehensively as I used to do until May this year. Though we have
still a long way to go, the condition of my wife is gradually
improving and I hope to be able to restore my normal working methods in
the near future.

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