MIRNEWS.121    13 FEBRUARY 1992

After the arrival of the freighter Progress-M11 on 27 January 1992 the
cosmonauts started unloading goods from that ship into the MIR-complex, but also
stowing equipment and goods, which are no longer needed, into the Pr-M11 for
destruction during Pr-M11's decay within a few weeks. If the crew wants to get
rid of superfluous equipment the crew has to ask permission from experts on
earth. The crew had to wait some time before they got permission to repair the
girodynes. Possibly they almost finished this job for there have been no
complaints about the attitude control of the complex any more.
The waterregeneration system Elektron still does not always work as it should
do. The crew has to invest a lot of time to keep the system running. On 30 Jan.
1992 they discovered a dirty sediment in some watertanks. On 3 Feb. 1992 (orb.
34124, 1034UTC) the crew reported that the airpressure decreased by 20mm/hour
(mercury pressure). During the next pass the problem was not eliminated, but
they coped with this problem later on during a period in which MIR was out of
our range. During the next day the pressure remained stable.

FAX-LIKE SOUNDS:

During their training on the hometrainer docters on earth monitor the E.C.G.-s
of the cosmonauts. Sometimes the also transmit the sounds of that hometrainer to
be able to determine the speed of the pedals. This sounds like a WEFAX or FAX
transmissions on VHF or HF. It has no use to try to detect those signals with
FAX equipment. (In the past some weather-fax observers tried this. One of them
even dismatled his equipment to discover why he did not see images.)

SOYUZ-TM14:

Launch still scheduled for 17 March 1992 at appr. 1100UTC. The relief crew will
then fly with a German cosmonaut, probably Flade. The S-TM14 has to dock to the
MIR complex on 19 March 1992 at abt. 1130UTC. Flade will be on board MIR until
25 March 1992. Then he return in the Soyuz-TM13 with Volkov and Krikalyov.

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.