MIRNEWS.254    16 MAY 1995

2d Spacewalk (EVA) MIR-crew:

The crew of the 18th Main Expedition, Dezhurov and Strekalov,
will do their 2d EVA on 17.05.1995. This EVA will begin at
0247UTC (opening of the hatch) and will end at 0820UTC (clo
sing the hatch.) The cosmonauts will fold up and transfer one
of the solarpanels of Kristall (Module-T) to the outersurface
of the astrophysical module Kvant-1. They will use the Strela-
crane as a lever. The cosmonauts have to make complicated
manoeuvres with Strela: they have to reach the Kristall module
first and later on swing over to the Kvant-1 with their 'cargo'.

The American astronaut, Norman Thagard, will stay inside the
complex and execute commands if necessary. Today he even
practised the loading of date in the movementscomputer of the
complex.

1st EVA (correction and completion):

At the moment of the closure of the Altair/MIR window on
12.05.95 at 0937UTC I was sure that the EVA was still going
on. However I believed a spokesman who stated that the hatch
had been closed at 0935UTC. In fact the EVA lasted 1 hour
longer until 1035UTC (1335 TsUP Time and not Moscow summerti
me) so exceeding the planned EVA with 1 hour and the guaranted
security period for the spacesuits with 15 minutes.
The cosmonauts were very tired when they came back on board,
but satisfied for the EVA was a success.

Launch of Spektr: Still on schedule for 20.05.1995.

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