1988 June 6 - .

    Mir News 035: Progress-56 undocked on June 5. - . Nation: Russia.
Program: Mir. Flight: Soyuz TM-4.

    PROGRESS-56: This cargo ship was separated from the Mir station and
destroyed. It was expected that this would happen before the launch of
Soyuz-TM5, estimated for tomorrow. During the last operation there have
been, deviations from schedules used before. Normally the period between
the undockng of a freighter and the next launch is longer. During the
radio conversation with TsUP during the pass in orbit 13202/13203 from
1849-1854 UTC they spoke about the departure of the Progress-36. Titov
reported that they had been able to observe it until the attitude change
of the station. Now this was difficult and they had to look for a
suitable porthole. Manarov explained that they were positioned on one
side. A few minutes later they saw the Progress-36. Titov said that it
looked like Venus, even somewhat clearer. At 1853 UTC Manarov made a
photograph of the freighter. He did this on a request of TsUP and used a
computer for aiming the camera. At 195220 UTC he entered the command via
the "display" and made the shot at 1853 UTC sharp. It was a pity that
the sky was overcast over here during the periods that the 2 objects
were passing. This must have been so the next pass just before the start
of the Progress-36 engine at 2028 UTC to reduce its speed for decay in
the atmosphere. which followed a few minutes later. Undoubtedly Moscow
will speak about 6 June as for Moscow time it was already 6 June., for
UTC still 5 June. A few days ago -probably with the use of the Progress
engine- they changed altitude. (Somewhat higher, but enough to corrupt
all prediction programs). A manoeuvre necessary for a good ballistic
configuration for the rendezvous soon to follow.

    SOYUZ-TM5: The last preparations are in progress now on Baykonur .
If all goes well the take off will be on 7 June 1988 at 1405 UTC
(1805Msc Time) The independent flight will last 2 days and my own
calculation (so might deviate much or somewhat) tells me that the
docking might take place on 9 June at 1538 UTC. While editing this story
the commission did not yet appoint the crew which will fly. Yesterday
they all were in good health and so probably the Soyuz will be flown by
Solovyov, Savinykh and the Bulgarian Aleksandrov: if not so Lyakhov,
Zaytsev and the Bulgarian will have to postpone terrestrial activities
for 10 days. During the flight of Soyuz-TM5 there will be radio traffic
on 121.750 Mc, (FM) so several ground services on West European
airfields can expect funny sounds during there wok. During a previous
occasion. Titov reacted on radio traffic of the Airport Rotterdam.
(Until now they do not believe that!) After docking with Mir (Kvant port
)the main channel for radio traffic will be 143.625 mc again. In
Bulgaria there is a lot of enthusiasm and the Observatory of Stara
Zagora will act as a sub control station.

    Greetings and radio amateurs 73-s,

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