MIRNEWS.149    1 OCTOBER 1992

(I did not produce an English translation of MIRNEWS.148. This
message mentioned the suspending of the operations of the
trackingstation Yevpatoriya on the Crimea about which I got
some extra information more or less clarifying the situation
inserted hereunder).

PROBLEMS with MIR-TsUP relayswork Yevpatoriya.

Disagreements between Russia and the Ukraine about the Blacksea
fleet, the Crimea, monetary matters and the former Soviet
army on Ukraine's territory for a long time threatened the
functioning of the trackingstation Yevpatoriya and other
radiostations. Half a year ago Yevpatoriya almost had to cease
operations due to lack of money. The French government subsidized
the station on request of French astronomers who
feared that they would lose the input of the satellite Granat,
carrying French experiments under control of Yevpatoriya.
During recent EVA-s now and then communications between MIR
and TsUP were interrupted. As of 21.09.92 no traffic could be
heard on 143.625 mc. This traffic came back on 29.09.92.
Thusfar there has been no telemetry on 166 and 165 mc, so
possibly the Russians now use a temporary facility on Russian
territory.

YEVPATORIYA PRIVATIZED:

The Ukrainian government privatized the tracking station
Yevpatoriya and forced the staff to be sworn in. Russian has
to pay an enormous amount of money for the continuation of
Yevpatoriya's services. Russia is not inclined to do so and is
trying to find alternatives. As long as the Ukraine does not
receive money for the station there is no money to pay the
wages of the staff. On 1.10.92 the staff went on strike.
Possibly TsUP is now supported by a temporary station on
Russian territory for during the passes in orbits nr. 37878,
37879 and 37880 traffic was relayed during the window of
Yevpatoriya. There still has been no Telemetry on the normal
channels in the 166 and 165 mc bands. Some officials in Kalingrad
near Moscow uttered the suggestion to put back in operation
one or more trackingships to fill up the gap caused by
the 'radiosilence' of Yevpatoriya.

PROGRESS-M14: This freighter is still attached to the aft
(Kvant-1) docking port of the complex. The undocking and decay
of Pr-M14 has been planned for 22.10.92. The returncapsule
will have to make a soft landing while Pr-M14 will burn up.

PROGRESS-M15: Thusfar the launch of this freighter was expected
to take place on 5.10.92, but this is impossible due to
the delayed departure and decay of its predecessor.

VDU (EXTERNAL MOVEMENTS CONTROL MOTOR in Soforagirder):
A spokesman of NPO-Energiya declared that this VDU is perfect
in technical resprect, but that it has not been used so far.
Scientist are computing calculations for the oncoming functioning
of the VDU.

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