MIRNEWS.253    12 MAY 1995

1st Spacewalk (EVA):

Today the cosmonauts Dezhurov and Strekalov had their first
EVA during this expedition. Strekalov made EVA's in the past;
for Dezhurov it was his first.
The hatch has been opened at 0420UTC and closed at 0935UTC.
So the duration of this EVA was 5 hrs 15 mins.
The cosmonauts executed 3 tasks:
1. To install cables and contacts on Kvant-1 for the electric
power of the solarpanel to be installed there during the 2de EVA.
2. To check whether it is possible to roll up that solarpanel which
still is installed on Kristall for the transfer to Kvant-1 during the
2d EVA. This was possible.
3. The retrieval of materials which have been exposed to open
space for a long time (the American experiment Trek).
The 2d EVA will be executed on 17.05.1995. Then the 1st solar
panel definitely must be replaced from Kristall to Kvant-1.
During the spacewalk Norman Thagard was on duty inside the
station to look after the communications and now and then
giving commands, for instance the switching off and on of the
power of the solarpanel during the work on it by the cosmonauts.
For communications between TsUP and MIR all available
windows for traffic via Altair have been used.

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