MIRNEWS.240    20 DECEMBER 1994

After Euromir94 and the docking of the freighter Progress-M25
there have been no important operations. During the last 10
days the passes for our position took place at night. Meanwhi
le these passes shifted to the early evening. There has been
radiotraffic during the nighthours about powersupply problems.
This time the solarpanels are not to blame, but the accumula
tors full of age after 8 years continuous loading and unloa
ding, are no longer able to fulfil their task properly. Now
and then they cannot deliver enough power to keep important
systems in operation. Sometimes this even causes malfunctions
of the gyrodynes.

Spacewalks (EVA-s):

The long awaited EVA's have been put back
again. The EVA in which Viktorenko and Polyakov have to repla
ce a dockingsysteem inside the transitionsection obviously is
no longer on schedule. The important EVA for the transfer of
the solarpanels of Kristall to Kvant-1 has been put back to
May 1995.

Communications:

The geostationary Kosmos-2054 (Altair) on 16
degr. West is still operational but seldom in use for MIR-TsUP
traffic. Sometimes the channel on 10.835 GHz is in use for
other 'customers'. Possibly the Russians use another channel
for MIR-TsUP communications.
On 16.12.94 at abt. noon a new geostationary satellite, Luch-1
has been launched from Baykonur. This Luch-1 will be used for
MIR-TsUP communications over 95 dgs East. Possibly this satel
lite will be operational in January 1995.
Long ago 95 dgs East was in use for Luchsatellites (Cosmos-
1700 and 1897). For the Russians it would be very useful to
place a 2d Luch on 160 dgs. West. Luch-1 on 95 dgs East will
help to fill up the gaps after the loss of the trackingstati
ons in Tblisi and Yevpatoriya. There still is a third trac
kingstation near Russia's weak underbelly: Dzhusaly not far
from Baykonur, but the status of this station is vulnerable as
it is located in Kazakhstan. A lot of unpleasant events during
the last years proved that this country does not always appre
ciate the Russian presence on its territory.

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