MIRNEWS.211

Progress-M22 launched for flight to MIR-spacestation:

The freighter Pr-M22 has been launched from Baykonur on 22.03-
.94 at 0454UTC. If all goes well the Pr-M22 will dock to MIR's
aft (Kvant-1) docking port on 24.03.94 at abt. 0638UTC.
During some of the passes within our range the transmitters of
Pr-M22 could be heard. During the pass from 0929-0931UTC only
in the 166 and 165 mc bands, from 1059-1105UTC also the beacon
on 922.755 mc transmitted. So the transmitters did not -as
usual- transmit during all passes. TsUP stated that all systems
worked without problems. TsUP emphasized that the delay
of the launch (originally on schedule for 16 or 18.03.94) was
caused by the blizzards and that the fire in MIK and a commandcentre
on 7.03.94 had nothing to do with the delay. The
blizzards burried the cosmodrome under snowdunes up to 6
meters high.

Trackingships: Now and then TsUP and MIR meet problems with
the communications via the geostationary satellite Altair.
Probably this is caused by malfunctions of the meanwhile worn
out transceiver (Antares) on board MIR
The trackingship Kosmonavt Pavel Belyayev (KPB), somewhere in
the Atlantic, regularly is involved in MIR-communications.
On 23.03.94 from 1705-1714UTC MIR and TsUP have a communication
sched via KPB.

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