MIRNEWS.357                                                   29 APRIL 1997
1st Spacewalk (EVA) MIR 23/NASA 4:
This EVA passed of successfully and without problems. Tsibliyev and Linenger 
opened the hatch of the airlock of Kvant-2
 on 29.04.1997 at 0510UTC and closed this after the EVA  at 10.08.30UTC. 
Duration: 4 hrs 57 mins and 10 secs. The cause
 of the slight delay is still  unknown.  The fact that the EVA lasted much 
shorter than the planned 5 hrs 30 mins  was no indication that they had been 
forced to return earlier but  they just accomplished their tasks well within 
the durat ion which  had been foreseen.  These tasks consisted of the 
installation of the OPM (Optical Properties Monitor) at the
 outersurface of the SO (dockingcompartment at the Kristall module). Having 
this done they moved by the crane Strela to
 the Kvant-2 where they retrieved the American experiments PIE (Partial 
Impact Expt) and the MSE (Mir Sample Expt). The se experiments will be 
brought back to earth by the Atlantis in May this year. The last task was the 
installation on Kv ant-2 of the Benton Radiation Dosimeter. This instrument 
will measure the intensity of the radiation between 51.6 dgs  North and 51.6 
dgs South.  The areas between these latitudes will be covered by the IRS, 
which will orbit in the same i nclination (51.6 dgs) as MIR.  During the 
first pass for our location in orbit 63941 (0958-1010UTC) the EVA was in its 
final phase. The both 'spacewalkers' already were in the airlock, which they 
had entered at 0930UTC.  During radiowindo ws they worked with tranquillizing 
music in the background.  Radiotraffic revealed that Tsibliyev and Linenger  
had a l ot of fun and acted fully relaxed.  The EVA was successful and they 
did not meet any problems.  The new type of the Orl an DMA spacesuit was used 
for the first time and  during the pass in orbit 63942 (1133-1145UTC) 
Tsibliyev reported his satisfaction about the improvements.  He told that his 
good experience with this spacesuit during trainings in the hydr olab now has 
been proven in practice. The suit is very flexible, and especially the gloves 
are very good: it is much ea sier to use your fingers.  And Tsibliyev has the 
right to judge this for he did 5 EVA's during his mission in 1993. Dur ing 
the EVA Lazutkin remained on board where he watched the systems, made films 
of his colleagues, helped them with adv ices and communications.  If the 
present good luck of the MIR exploration will not vanish Lazutkin will do 2 
EVA's toge ther with Tsibliyev during this MIR 23d Main expedition. 
Admiration: All those responsible for the achievements of today: the crew, 
but also the flight control  and consultativ e groups in Korolyov and Houston 
deserve our admiration for the way in which they showed their skill and this  
example of excellent international cooperation. They had  the courage to 
execute this difficult operation just a week after a l ong period in which 
the operational life of the MIR spacestation was hanging by a thread.  Let us 
entrust the work on f uture space flight projects in their hands!
Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202
--- Maximus 2.01
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