Jonathan's Space Report Apr 18, 1989 (No. 12) The Soyuz TM-7 crew are winding up their research program on the Mir orbital station. Mir is to be abandoned while a new crew is trained to repair the electrical power system. The STS-30 mission is still scheduled for Apr 28. The 23rd Raduga ('Rainbow') geostationary comsat was launched by Proton from Baykonur on Apr 14. The satellite is used principally for Soviet government and military communications. Other news: Kosmos-2016, launched on Apr 4, is a VMF (Soviet Navy) navigation satellite, part of a system analogous to the USN Transit. Kosmos-2017, launched on Apr 6, is a GRU spy satellite based on the Vostok design. It is expected to land on Apr 20. The SAGE (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) satellite reentered on Apr 11. The NASA satellite was used in 1979-81 to study the ozone layer as part of the Applications Explorer program. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved ---------------------------------------------------------------------------