MIRNEWS.244    12 FEBRUARY 1995

MIR-routine:

MIR's passes within our range are gradually
shifting to the late evening hours. So the number of VHF-
sessions will increase. During the dayhours the Russians
regularly, though a little bit frugally, use the Altair satel
lite for MIR-communications. During a long session on 8.02.95,
orb. 51281, 0824-0853UTC, Polyakov was training at the con
trols of Soyuz-TM20. By the use of the testpossibilities
without activation of the systems S-TM's can be used as link
trainer. In fact steering of such a ship is not the task of
the physician-cosmonaut, but useful if this unexpected might
be necessary in emergency situations. Polyakov had a rough
time during this exercise for towards the end everything went
wrong.
On the same day during orb. 51284, 1437-1500UTC, MIR spoke
with the crew of Discovery via Altair and an American TDRS.
Polyakov congratulated the Discovery crew with the successful
deployment of the satellite Spartan.
On 11.02.95 , orb. 51327, 0829-0913UTC, Polyakov assisted by
Kondakova gave a lecture for a group of spaceflight loving
children about food on board the MIR complex.

Progress-M26:

The launch from Baykonur of this freighter is on
schedule for 15.02.1995 at 1647UTC. If all goes according to
plan Pr-M26 can be monitored in our vicinity (Western Europa
and UK) that day at about 1950UTC. Frequencies: 922.755,
166.130, 166.140 and 165.873 MC.

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