MIRNEWS.454    8 FEBRUARY 1999

Soyuz-TM28:

On 8.02.1999 the MIR-crew transferred the transportship S-TM28
from the forward (-X axis P.Kh.O.) port to the aft (+X axis Kvant-1)
port between 11.23.04UTC (separation from MIR) and 11.39.07UTC
(soft mate to MIR).

During the last stage of the redocking MIR and S-TM28 were in my range
and the cosmonauts could be heard via 121.750 mc.The moment of the
'touch' (kasaniye) was reported by Padalka. The autonomous flight
lasted shorter than planned. Padalka executed the approach and docking in
the manual mode. Avdeyev reported that the fuel consumption measured by
the SIRT had been 407 Kilograms.

They spoke about 'flying around' but in fact the S-TM28 hovered while the
MIR complex made a 180 degrees turn in the Z-axis plane just waiting
until the aft port came in front of that ship.

During the pass in orb. 74116, 1313-1320UTC, the cosmonauts again used
the 143.625 mc.They were inside the station and had installed the
clamps to attach S-TM28 firmly to Kvant-1.The crew almost recovered the
MIR-station into the status it had before the redocking. They use the
Russian word 'raskonservirovatj', so to undo the 'conservation'.
Meanwhile they had 'conserved' the S-TM28, so they had put this in the
'stand by' or 'inactive' mode. Before the redocking the had 'de-
conserved' that ship. In the period in which the MIR-station is
unmanned a lot of systems are switched off. If for instance the
redocking fails and the cosmonauts have to return to earth the station
must remain alive. Among the systems switched off are almost all life
support systems, which consume a lot of energy, for instance the BKV-3
(the a.c.), the Elektron oxygen generator, the BMP (a unit to purify the
air of unwanted products), the Vozdukh (the CO-2 scrubber) and the
S.R.V.K. (the system to regenerate condens into water). The crew also
switched on again the greenhouse (oranjerie).

The reactivation of these systems was reported in that pass. They had
to leave the Elektron 'off'. Padalka reported the start of the program
to turn the solar panels to the most effective angles towards the sun.

MIR-routine in relation to the redocking:

During the last days there
were indications about the oncoming redocking operation, for instance
the necessity to clean up the Kvant-1 and on 7.02.1999 the crew got
instructions about the procedures during this operation. Even the
undocking time was mentioned 1420 DMV -Decree Moscow Time-, so 1120UTC,
but nothing was said about the day.

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.