MIRNEWS.353    7 APRIL 1997

Launch Progress-M34:

The Pr-M34 was launched from Baykonur on 6.04.97 at 16.04.05UTC. This was
according to plan. Until now (morning of 7.04.97 UTC) the flight of Pr-M34
is proceeding well. During the 4th and 5th orbit the necessary
orbitcorrections have been executed. If all will go as planned the Pr-M34
will dock to the aft (Kvant-1) dockingport (+X axis) on 8.04.1997 at abt.
1729UTC.

Radiotraffic Pr-M34:

In the evening of 6.04.1997 the transmitters of Pr-M34 could be monitored
in the 166, 165 and 922 mc bands between 2039-2042UTC and 2209-2213UTC.
Radiotraffic MIR: During the last nights there has been a lot of
radiotraffic. The windows during hours in which the crew normally is
sleeping were needed badly to coordinate with TsUP matters regarding a
lot of technical problems.

Significance of the freighter Pr-M34:

These days the MIR-spacestation goes through a very critical phase. A lot
of failures harass the MIR-complex during the last weeks and in
particular the problems regarding the maintenance of an acceptable
atmosphere on board in fact passed admissable limits. The only way to
produce oxygen is the use of the lithium perchlorate cartridges. The crew
cannot use the whole available supply of these so called 'shashki' 2 or 3
of which they consume daily. The series of cartridges to which the
'naughty' one belonged and that caused a fire some weeks ago cannot be
used. That means that there is only a supply for a few days. Pr-M34 has
to deliver the necessary cartridges to ensure the oxygen supply until the
docking of Atlantis in her mission STS-84 in May. Atlantis can also bring
to MIR a replacement for the Elektron system. By electrolysis the
Elektron can generate oxygen from waste water, for instance water
distilled from urine. Possibly the Atlantis will also deliver a new
Vozdukh, the system to absorb carbonic acid (CO2) from the air on board.
This Vozdukh broke down in the night from 3 to 4 Aprill 1997 and could
not be repaired. The failure of that Vozdukh was the last one in a long
sequence of set-backs. Fate of the MIR-station as a manned complex is
hanging by a thread. If the docking of Progress-M34 to the complex fails
the crew will have to return to Earth by Soyuz-TM25 within a few days.

Dockingprocedure:

This time there is still the possibility to execute the approach and
docking in the automatic mode by the system Kurs. If the first attempt to
dock in this way fails Tsibliyev has to take over and dock Pr-M34
manually by the system TORU. In 1994 the cosmonaut Malenchenko secured
the continuation of the manned flights on MIR with the TORU-docking of
Progress-M24. Perhaps Tsibliyev will have to take the same responsibility
tomorrow. Radiotraffic in the evening of 6.04 revealed that among the
activities for 7.04 there would be the checking and training with TORU.

Altair-2 (23426 - 94082A):

During the 'snail-paced' move of this geostationary satellite from East
to West she is not operational and will not be used for MIR-TsUP
communications. It might be possible that Altair-2 equal to her
predecessor Altair-1 has a service beacon on 11.380 GHz. If so we might
be able to catch up a sign of life of this satellite before she reaches
the position over 16 dgs West.

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