MIRNEWS.198    21 NOVEMBER 1993

PROGRESS-M20:

Orbitcorrection: On 17.11.93 during orbit 44300 the engines of
Pr-M20 corrected the orbit of the MIR-complex: Ap/per now
395.3/388.2 KM.

Decay of Pr-M20 and safe landing returncapsule on 21.11.93:

Undocking of Pr-M20 from MIR at 0236UTC.
Pr-M20 jettisoned the VBK (returncapsule) at 0850UTC.
Pr-M20 entered dense layers of the atmospher at 0851UTC and
decayed.
The VBK safely landed not far from Orsk at 0903UTC. Orsk is a
town just north of the border with Kazakhstan. The VBK itself
landed just inside Kazakhstans territory.
So possibly Russia will have to pay Kazakhstan import duties
for the VBK and the cargo.

VBK's cargo:

The cargo mainly consisted of 2 American containers with
experiments: The first one is the experiment TREK, which had
been installed outside MIR from 4.04.91. This experiment
registrated particles of super-heavy elements in the cosmic
radiation. The 2d American experiment was the grow of biologi-
cal crystalls delivered by the firm Boeing.
The VBK brought back to earth some Russian experiments: 2
video-cassettes with images made during the survey experiment
Panorama, an experiment with Ultraviolet in the earth's atmos-
phere, a sample of thermo-isolationmaterial exposed to open
space and a lot of negative-films.

Progress-M21:

It is still unknown when this freighter will be
launched for a flight to MIR. This freighter is badly needed,
especially for a supply of fresh oxygen. The last days the
crew is complaining about problems with the airpressure and
oxygen, which cause respiration problems (dry nostrils and
throat).

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