MIRNEWS.375    6 AUGUST 1997

Soyuz-TM26:

The perfect launch took place on 5.08.1997 at 15.35.59UTC. On board the
crew for the 24th Main Exp. to MIR, Anatoliy Solovyov and Pavel
Vinogradov. Call sign: Rodniki, so Rodnik-1 and Rodnik-2. During the
first pass in orb. 2 (1838-1841UTC) very weak signals on beacon- and
telephony frequencies. During the pass in orb. 3 (2007-2011UTC) very good
reception on all frequencies. Solovyov could be heard in a conversation
with TsUP. He reported a technical anomaly in the BO (lifecompartment):
a hose (or: tube) was not connected to an air purification unit, which
caused an increased amount of CO2 in the mini-atmosphere on board. He
told TsUP that he had connected that hose immediately and that the system
was functioning normally. Again good signals in the window in orb. 4
(2138-2147UTC) during which Solovyev repeated his report about that hose.

MIR:

During the passes in the evening of 4.08.1997 the crew reported that they
were working on the malfunctioning Elektron oxygen generator in Kvant-1.
(The Elektron in Kvant-2 is not operational due to power shortages).
During a long communication session via Altair-2 in the morning of
5.08.1997 the crew was still coordinating the repair work on the
Elektron. After the departure of Progress-M35 for a 10 day lasting
autonomous flight lithium perchlorate cartridges have to be used for the
production of oxygen. This will be not very convenient during the period
in which 5 men are on board (7-14.08.97).

An eventual delay of the S-TM26 launch due to the problems with the
Elektrons has not been taken into consideration.

In MIRNEWS.374 I gave an estimated time for the docking of S-TM26 on
7.08.97 as 1723UTC. In that report I remarked that this time considerably
deviated from the normal routine: dockings a few minutes after LOS of the
first pass of both objects for our position. Inquiries in the Ballistic
Section of the Keldysh institute of the R.A.N. learned that there had
been a misprint in a Russian message about the estimated docking time.
The estimated dockingtime is: 07.08.97 at 1703UTC, so in accordance with
the normal routine.

The supply ship Progress-M35 has to free the docking port (+X-axis) for
the arrival of the S-TM26 and will do this on 6.08.97 at 1144UTC. The
autonomous flight of Pr-M35 will last until 16.08.97. On that day Pr-M35
will dock (in the automatic regime with the system Kurs) at the same
docking port after the redocking of S-TM26 to the forward (-X-axis) the
day before.

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