MIRNEWS.255    17 MAY 1995

2d Spacawalk (EVA) MIR crew:

The Russian crewmembers of the 18th Main Exp. to MIR, Duzhurov
and Strekalov, did their 2d EVA on 17.05.1995 from 0238 until
0930UTC. This EVA also lasted longer than planned and again
the 'safety guarantee period' has been exceeded. During this
EVA the cosmonauts had to fold up the solarpanel on Kristall,
to disconnect contacts and drivers, install the 'cargo' on the
Strela crane en transport this and Strekalov to Kvant-1.
Strekalov folded the panel assisted by Thagard who was inside
the complex and gave commands to switch off and on servomo
tors. After every 'movement' caused by these servo's Strekalov
could fold the next section. Str worked on the panel, Dezhurov
steered the Strela. For the 'fold-up' operation the cosmonauts
used more time than was expected. They also spent a lot of
time to reach the necessary spots. The cosmonauts could not
fully accomplish their task due to the limited endurance of
their spacesuits. They left the package behind on the outer
surface of Kvant-1 and returned to the airlock. During the
beginning of the operation communications were relayed via
Altair, later on and within our range the 143.625 mc was
active. As always during EVA's interference by cross-modulati
on from an airtraffic control channel. During the first pass
after the EVA the cosmonauts could be monitored waiting in the
airlock for the equalization of the airpressure.

3d EVA:

To accomplish their task the cosmonauts will make
their 3d EVA on 24.05.1995.

Orbitcorrection:

On 15.05.1995 at 0630UTC MIR's orbit has been
corrected. This correction was necessary to make the docking
of Atlantis to MIR late June this year possible.
Herwewith the most recent Keps:
Epoch: 135.39591536, decay: 0.00024944, Incl: 51.6461, RA:
321.7764, Ecc.: 0.0005314, Arg. per.: 307.8737, MA: 51.1567,
MM: 15.56501886, Rev. nr.: 52784.

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