MIRNEWS.286    8 JANUARY 1996

Russian, American, French and German plans with MIR 1996:

This year will be full of interesting activities. There
already had been published a schedule, but we can expect
changes, for instance the launchdata for the Shuttle flights
are never sure. The crew now on board MIR (Main Expedition ME
20) will continue the Euromir95 program and make a 3d space
walk (EVA) on 8.02.96. This EVA, originally an EVA to be
executed by Russians in the interest of ESA, will now be made
in the framework of Euromir95 and one of the 2 'spacewalkers'
will be Reiter. This became possible due to the extension of
ME-20/Euromir95 by 44 days. During the EVA they will retrieve
the ESEF (European Science Exposure Facility), which had been
installed on the outersurface of the MIR-complex by Reiter and
Avdeyev on 20.10.95. The crew of ME-20 will be relieved by
the crew of ME-21, Onufriyenko and Usachov. They will start
with the Soyuz-TM23 on 21.02.96 and link up with MIR on 23.02. 
The ME-20/Euromir95 crew will return to earth in the Soyuz-
TM22 on 29.02.96. Other topics will be the 3 missions of
Atlantis to MIR. These missions are: STS-76 (23.03.96), STS-79
(03.08.96) and STS-81 (05.12.96)
3 times Soyuz-TM ships will bring reliefcrews to the MIR-space
station. During 2 of these missions there will be foreigners
involved: a French lady and a German.
3 times Soyuz-TM ships will return to earth with relieved
crews. This year 4 Progress-M supplyships will link up with
MIR. The last big module, Priroda, will be launched to MIR in
march 1996. This will be the 5th module. With this extension
the MIR-configuration will be completed, much later than
originally had been planned.
A few days after the docking of Priroda and its redocking
from the axial to a radial port, the first Atlantis mission
will begin. During this mission Astronauts will make an EVA
and work outside the huge complex. One of the American astro
nauts, Shannon Lucid will be added to the MIR crew and return
to earth by Atlantis during the 2de dockingmission in August.
The crew of MIR-ME-21 (launch 21.02.96) will do 5 EVA's.
The following crew (ME-22), launch 06.07.96, will make 4 EVA's.
The most spectacular operation will be the last Atlantis
mission in 1996 (STS-86). In the period in which the Atlantis
is docked to the MIR-complex the freighter Progress-M34 will
undock and decay in the atmosphere. One day later the Soyuz-TM
25 with a reliefcrew will dock to the complex. The next day
Atlantis will undock and return to earth.

Intention of your scribe for 1996: To continue his activities
as much as possible, but by somewhat loosening the reins 
being able to give more attention to wife, children and grand
children.

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