MIRNEWS.264    17 JUNE 1995

Planned spacewalk (EVA) cancelled:

This EVA already had been put back once from 15 to 16.06.1995,
but has now been cancelled. The cosmonauts did not have the
right tools voor their tasks and doing the job with the tools
now at their disposal would be too risky. The Russians and
NASA are sure that the present situation (powerproblems and
the not fully deployed solararray on Spektr) is safe enough
for the intended docking operation of Atlantis. The EVA will
be made by the crew of the next mission (19th Main expediti
on), Solovyov and Budarin, who will deliver the right tools to
MIR and already trained in Houston for that EVA.

ATLANTIS READY TO GO!!

After a long period of uncertainties, of hope and despair, the
date for the launch of Atlantis on her dockingmission has been
set: 23.06.1995 at 2108UTC. Docking on 25.06.1995 at abt
1430UTC. The launchwindow is only 7 minutes long and if the
launch not takes place in first 2 minutes the flight before
docking had to last 3 instead of 2 days. NASA however sticks
to the docking on 25.06.1995 and will manoeuvre Atlantis in
such a way that this is possible.

HOWEVER.......:

The fact that the date for Atlantis's launch has been set
means that I will fly to the States to be there during the
major events and so I will close my station for a while to
continue my work on the spot. I will produce reports of all
what will happen for some media in the Netherlands and report
my findings after my return in a MIRNEWS-summary and in the
next issue of the Amasat UK journal Oscar News.
Goodbye everybody!!

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