1988 May 10 - .

    Mir News 032: Oncoming operations - . Nation: Russia. Program: Mir. Flight: Soyuz TM-4.

    During the last weeks of April 1988 it was obvious that there had
been some changes in the time schedule for the important operations
planned for the end of May and during the month June. On 22 April using
the engines of the Progress-35 (then still attached to the Kvant module)
the whole complex shifted to a little bit higher orbit. Thus they
changed the schedule for meetings (rendezvous ) in the near future, i.e.
the Progress-35 and the Soyuz-TM5.

    Previously the meeting with Progress-36 had been planned for approx.
23 May and the arrival of the Soviet-Bulgarian mission by Soyuz-TM5
would originally occur towards the end of June. The preparations for the
undocking and destruction of Progress-35 took place according to the
original plans. During the last days of April the transfer of the last
fuel from that s/c to the base block and the stowing away in Progress-35
of all which they wished to throw away or had to get rid of badly.

    The report of the conclusion of those activities came from Manarov
on May 4th during orbit 12693 from 1015-26 UTC. He reported the closing
of the hatches and the unlocking of the safety locks against spontaneous
undocking. So from this moment on ground control was free to undock the
s/c and to put it on the destruction trajectory into the atmosphere.
This had been done on May 5th and the Progress-36 burnt away over a
silent part of one of the Oceans far outside our window.

    Meanwhile other sources revealed that Progress-36 was on Baykonur
ready for launch within a few days. As always the normal question: When?
The launch-window for a successful flight to Mir is a small one. I did
not need to try to find the answer with difficult calculations as the
answer came from Manarov himself. In a conversation with TsUP on 8 May,
during orbit 12757 from 1152-1202 UTC, the exact date was of the planned
docking of Progress-36 with Mir was mentioned.

    Manarov got orders for certain activities on 14 May and he made
objections as this would be "docking day" and after the docking they
possibly will be sleeping. Using the updated program for Mir predictions
I found that the pass in which the docking operation will be in its
final stage will be one with for us a negative elevation: orb. 12848,
0137-0141 UTC with highest elevation -1 degree. I suppose the docking
will take place appr. 0149 UTC.

    So the only possibility to be sure about the conclusion of the
docking operation will be monitoring the next pass, during orbit 12846,
from 0308-18 UTC, which I certainly will do. After the docking of
Progress-36 to the docking port of Kvant they will have to do something
to get that port free for the arrival of Soyuz-TM5 on June the 9th. They
can try to finish operations (unloading, loading and destruction) with
Progress-36 as soon as possible or put it to one of the side ports in
the transition section, as the axial port of this section is still
occupied by Soyuz-TM4. We will wait and hear!

    So June the 7th the launch of the Soyuz-TM5 with captain Anatoliy
Solovyov, the mechanic Viktor Savinykh and their Bulgarian guest
Aleksandr Aleksandrov. The stand-in crew consists of: captain Vladimir
Lyakhov, mechanic Andrey Zaytsev, and the Bulgarian Krasimir Stoyanov.
They just started their final training in Baykonur.

    There is more news: a lot of interesting events recently: problems
with stinking water on board Mir and extra observations of the sand
drifts from the Sahara to the north. They also spoke about the damage to
the glass of portholes caused by micro meteorites for instance appr. 1
May 1988. These minuscule damages are being registered by a device with
the abbreviation T.I.G.R. This makes it possible to send TV-images ,
photo's and halograms to the experts on Earth.

    (The abbreviation stands for Television- Interference-
Halographic-Registrator ) During a long conversation with -possibly- a
scientific journalist in TsUP he gave a lecture about that device during
the pass in orbit 12709 on May the 5th.

    Greetings, and for radio amateurs, 73-s, Chris van den Berg,
NL-9165/A-UK3202