MIRNEWS.327                            12 SEPTEMBER 1996
Activities on board MIR:
The crew  has spend a lot of time and efforts to repair an
airseal problem in one of the modules.  Obviously the problem has been 
solved, but the cause of that what might have been a leakage seems to be a 
mystery.  Meanwhile the crew started preparations for the meeting with the 
Atlantis (STS-79) still to be launched on 16.09.1996 at 0854UTC.  Apart from 
extra physical training Sannon is packing things which she has to transfer to 
Atlantis for delivery on earth.  Assisted by  Kaleri,  who also gave her 
instructions, Shannon tried out a spacesuit. She reported (in Russian) to 
TsUP that the suit  was the right size and that she was sure to be able to 
use it if if this might be unlooked-for necessary.  TsUP confirmed that this 
exercise had to be done in case of an eventual return of Shannon with a 
Soyuz-TM.  One of the means to inject oxygen in the atmosphere of the complex 
 is the system Elektron.  These systems produce oxygen out of water by an 
electrolysis process. Nitrogen is needed for the purging of these Elektrons,  
but also for the pressurizing. Nowadays there is not enough nitrogen on board 
and new supplies, which have to be delivered by Atlantis and Progress-M33 (in 
October) are badly needed.   
Atlantis (STS-79):  If all goes according to plan and Atlantis starts on 
16.09.1996 at 0854UTC  radio-amateurs in Western-Europa can try to monitor 
phone reports from Atlantis at abt. 20 minutes after launch.  This might  be 
possible during the first contact of Atlantis via a relay-facility in Spain.  
During the last flight of Atlantis signals could be monitored on  259.700 mc 
AM. After an elapsed time of 2days 18hrs 23mins Atlantis must link up with 
MIR, so if the launch goes as planned and the flight has been proceeding well 
this will take place on 19.09.1996 at
0017UTC (for the USA still 18.09).  If the same communications are used as 
during the last Atlantis mission an American TDRS as well as a Russian Altair 
(1 or 2 or both) will be used during approach and docking.  23 minutes after 
the 'soft docking' the so called 'hardmate' will take place.  After a check  
period of 2hrs and 25mins the hatches will be opened.
Radio-amateurism:  During the last week a lot of traffic, Packet Radio and 
Phone could be heard on 145.550mc. Korzun is an
enthousiast radio-amateur and he made a lot of QSO-s over Western Europe. His 
knowledge of the english  language  and his feeling for radio-amateurism 
enables him to do this and to enjoy it. Apart from some recorded voice 
messages on 437.925mc I cannot say much about the use of the Safex-2 
facilities in the Priroda module.  Here the UHF-frequencies 437.925,  437.950 
and 437.975 mc  are used for medical purposes (hearth monitoring)  by a 
hospital nearby. Monitoring these frequencies is such a torment that it would 
endanger the condition of my  hearth in such a way that  I myself even might 
need  that service by that hospital!
Chris  van  den  Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.
--- Maximus 2.01
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