MIRNEWS.241    11 JANUARY 1995

Autonomous testflight Soyuz-TM20:

On 11.01.1995 between 0900 and 0925UTC the S-TM20 flew autono
mously to test the Kurs-approach and dockingsystem at the
forward transitionsection (P.Kh.O.) of the MIR-complex. Pro
blems during some docking operations in aug/sept 1994 (Pro
gress-M24) and on 6.10.1994 (S-TM20) made this operation
necessary. Long before S-TM20 separated from the complex the
whole crew was on board of that ship and thoroughly tested all
systems.
According to the plan the S-TM20 executed the approach and
docking fully automatically by use of the Kurssystem. Vikto
renko, assisted by Kondakova, was ready to take over manually
if something went wrong or in case of a too high fuel consump
tion. S-TM20 perfectly linked to the station at 09.24.57UTC,
the aberations remained far within the limits, just before
docking less than 0.5 degrees.
The good functioning of the Kurssystems is indispensable for
the execution of the program for this year.
During the operation with the S-TM20 the radiotraffic went via
the geostationary Altair. During the separation S-TM20 flew
within our range and the traffic could be monitored on 121.750
mc as well as via Altair.

Luch-1:

This geostationary satellite to be used for MIR-TsUP communi
cations in the near future is standing over 95 degres East,
but is not yet operational for TDRS purposes.

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.