MIRNEWS.194    21 OCTOBER 1993

4th Spacewalk (EVA):

This EVA has been put forward and will
take place on 22.10.93. The crew will open the hatch at 1630-
UTC and the EVA has to last 3 or 4 hours. During this EVA the
crew will conclude the experiment Panorama. This is an inspec-
tion with camera's of the outersurface of the complex. Special
attention will be given to the damages caused by particles
from outer space during the Perseid meteorites storm around
12.08.93 and that of the collision with something from outer-
space on 21.09.93. Serebrov will execute this survey from a
position in the top of the Strela crane (or: girder). The
crane will be steered by Tsibliyev.

Progress-M20:

This freighter will undock from the complex on 21.11.93. After
jettisoning the V.B.K. (returncapsule) Pr-M20 will burn up in
the atmosphere. The undocking and decay of Pr-M20 has been put
forward due to one of the American (Boeing) experiments. To
keep this experiment in space until the return of Soyuz-TM17
to the 2d decade of January 1994 was undesirable.

Reason for the delay of the launch of Soyus-TM18:

This delay has been caused by the bad economical situation.
Simply: there was no funding available for a launch in novem-
ber 1993. Soyuz-TM18 will start on 4.01.94 with the reliefcrew
(15th main expedition to MIR) on board. One of the crew of 3
persons will be a doctor (Polyakov or Arzamazov), who will
remain on board MIR for 1.5 year. The present crew (14th main
expedition) will return to earth with Soyuz-TM17 on 12.01.94,
so their flight will last well over 1.5 months longer than
foreseen in the original planning. Though reluctantly Tsibl-
iyev and Serebrov agreed to this delay.

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