MIRNEWS.182    26 JULY 1993

Ham-work during successfully accomplished Altair-mission:

Jean-Pierre, F6MIR, was an enthousiastic and skilled amateur. In
this field he did not yield to Tognini during his flight in 1992.
H. made all his QSO-s in the proper way and during the last day
of his flight he told in a CQ-message that he had been pleased
by radio-amateurism and he expressed his gratitude to all
amateurs with whom he had been in contact. He was not pleased
about an Italian amateur, who, using a very strong signal, often
blocked the uplink too long. He limited H's possibilities to make
more QSO-s with French and other amateurs.

MIR-crews:

On 16.7.93 the control over the MIR-station had been
transferred to the new crew: Tsibliyev took care of the attitude
control and Serebrov had replaced Polishchuk as board-engineer.
Manakov and Polishchuk prepared their returnflight. Their main
concern was to find room in Soyuz-TM16 for all what they had to
bring back to earth. Thoroughly they checked the on board
systems of that schip and rehearsed the procedures for the
navigation during and after the undocking from MIR on 22.07.93.
A physician at TsUP regularly checked the health of M. and P.

New crew:

As of 22.07.93 Tsibliyev and Serebrov are working
strenuously. They are busy with a lot of important repairs and
replacements. Obviously they have to solve all problems with the
attitude- (movements-) control of the complex. (Girodynes and the
VDU motor in the Sofora-girder). They already work on the
Girodynes. It is a pleasure to hear the new crew: undoubtedly
excellent cosmonauts. Quite normal for S.: this is his 4th
flight, but the novice T. acts as if he has a long experience in
space.

Progress-M18 and M19:

Recently the decay of the first freighter
(M18) still was on schedule for 24.07.93. This has been put back.
Though still not for 100% sure the plan is to undock Pr-M18 on
8.08.93 after the launch that same day of Pr-M19. If this happens
it will be a novelty: for a while 2 freighters flying autonomously
in space.

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