MIRNEWS.476    6 APRIL 2000

Soyuz-TM30 docked at MIR-spacestation:

The last meters of the approach and the docking were executed in the
manual mode. Just before reaching a distance of 9 meters the cosmonauts
saw a deviation of 1 or 2 degrees along one of the axes. (Some press
reports said that just before the docking the approach was again in the
automatic mode, but a TsUP's spokesman denied this.)

The docking (the so called 'kasaniye', soft mate) took place on 6.04.2000
at 06.31.24UTC. (Again differences in press reports varying between 0630
and 0633UTC)

Radiotraffic during the final phase of the approach between 0619-0622UTC.
At 06.19.50UTC Zalyotin reported a distance of 167 and also that he had
no remarks on the 'automatic mode'.

During 2 orbits after the docking (MIR's orbits 80783 and 80784)
communication took place from inside Soyuz-TM30. The egalisation of the
pressures in MIR and S-TM30 lasted rather long. At 0756UTC the pressure
in MIR was 572 mm mercury, in S-TM30 633 mm. At 0932UTC the crew
switched on the TV transmitter for the transmission of images of the
opening of the hatches and the entering of the crew into MIR.

During the pass in MIR's orbit nr. 80785, between 1102-1107UTC,
radiotraffic could be monitored in the old good frequency 143.625 mc.
The crew had been blowing additional air in MIR's atmosphere, which
increased the pressure to 628 mm. For this measurement they used only
one manovacuummeter.

Meanwhile they had deconserved the Central Post, the transition chamber
(PRK) to Kvant-1 (Module-E) and the Kvant-1 itself. In following reports
the crew stated that the air on board was good, but the temperature a
little bit too high, 26 degrees Celsius. They also reported about a lot
of routine work (loading commands into computers) and they paid a lot of
attention to valves and extra airpressure checks.

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