MIRNEWS.283 9 DECEMBER 1995 2d Spacewalk (EVA) crew MIR's ME 20: The Russian crew members of the 20d Main expedition to MIR made a short EVA on 8.12.1995. The hatch was opened at 1915- UTC and closed at 1952UTC. So a duration of 37 minutes. The dockingcone fixed on the port of the -Z-axis (there were Kristall is docked) has been moved to the only free docking port of the Transitionsection (P.Kh.O.), +Z. So this port is now ready for the eventual reception of the Priroda Module in March 1996. Progress-M30: The launch of this freighter is still on schedule for 18.12.1995. Rumors and questionmarks about future: The Russians flew a kite about the eventual use of the Modules Spektr and Priroda for the International Space Station Alfa. They even suggested the option to use the present MIR space station as the first 'agglutination point' for Alfa. NASA is willing to listen to their Russian partners during a meeting in Houston next week, but showed no enthousiasm thusfar. If Priroda will be accepted as a part of the IRS Alfa a docking of that Module with MIR in March 1996 would be unlikely. But for the time being we have to wait and, of course, listen! Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.