MIRNEWS.236    4 NOVEMBER 1994

Soyuz-TM19 returned to earth.

S-TM19 with on board the cosmonauts Malenchenko, Musabayev and
Merbold landed at abt. 170 KM N.E. of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan on
4.11.94 at 1118UTC. S-TM19 separated from MIR at 0729UTC. For
radio- and TV-communications the trackingstations Ulan-Ude,
Ussuriysk, Kolpashevo and Petropavlovsk Kamchatka were used.
From 1020UTC, so 3 minutes before retrofire, S-TM-19's traffic
was relayed via MIR and the geostationary Altair satellite to
TsUP. Malenchenko gave information about the retrofire, the
fuelconsumption and the altitudes of his ship. At 1051UTC
S-TM19 jettisoned the lifecompartment and the service module.
These compartments burnt up in the atmosphere. At 1054UTC the
descent module entered the dense layers of the atmosphere and a
short period of radiosilence began. The radiocontact had to be
resumed at about 1101UTC, but obviously due to a failure the
transmitters of S-TM19 remained silent. This caused anxie ty
among 'observers' and the people following the events in the
centres in Moscow, Toulouse, Cologne and Noordwijk (Estec).
The controllers at TsUP did not get any reaction on their calls.
At 1119UTC a representative of ESA, who was on board of a
search- en rescue helicopter, reported that he saw the landed
capsule. Gradually reports came in about the safe landing of the
cosmonauts without any reference to their physical condition.

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