MIRNEWS.365                              28 JUNE 1997
Radiotraffic after collision Progress-M34 with MIR.
On 25.06.1997 during the first pass of the daily sequence (orb. 64831, 
1049-1054UTC) it was obvious that something went
 terribly wrong. If the redocking would have been a success this should have 
been obvious during this traffic.  No word
 about the Pr-M34.  The only subjects about which the crew spoke with TsUP 
were the systems on board MIR.  In the first
 place they had  problems with the SUD (attitude control) and something had 
happened with a module. TsUP transmitted a long series of 4-digitgroups and 
the crew got orders to record  and to collate them ('kvitantsiya').   In the 
next pass
 (orb. 64832, 1223-1232UTC) reports about serious problems  indicating that 
the complex  had suffered from a heavy blow .  An emergency signal warned  
that the power supply  was too low (tension too low), that storage 
accumulators  could n ot be charged and that the attitude of the complex had 
been changed and flew on its side.  One or more of the 5 still a vailable 
solararrays could not be adjusted for a good angle towards the sun.. 
Tsibliyev reported that they were unable to change this and that the complex 
had a movement  along the X-axis.  The crew got orders to activate the direct 
TV-li nk (commands Anna-72 and Anna-86) and to send images. Mike Foale made 
this images with a camera. (These images could be
 seen all over the world during the rest of the day). Very alarming was that 
what the crew reported during the 3d pass (orb. 64833, 1359-1409UTC).  Those 
solarpanels which were still available could not be adjusted  via 
computercommands, but this had to be done manually by the cosmonauts. The 
gyrodynes did not work any more , the electrical tension was to o low and the 
Ts.V.M.-1 (the main computer) ceased to function.  The SUD failed  and this 
was also the case with such a
 system in Module-D. After reporting all these calamaties Tsibliyev stated 
that the situation was very bad. A number of
 ventilators did not work and the crew was grateful about the fact that  the 
ventilators in Module-D functioned normall y.  The fact that the gyrodynes 
stopped and did  not consume power anymore  decreased the burden on the 
powersupply.  A fter a long discussion about the powerproblems the crew got 
permission to adjust the solarpanels of Module-D manually f or a better angle 
towards the sun.  In the background the voice of the veteran cosmonaut 
Vladimir Solovyov, Head of Fli ghtcontrol, could be heard. As much as 
necessary the crew could use the Soyuz-TM25 and in case of a failure of the 
comm unications from the Baseblock they could use the transceiver of that 
ship.  The traffic during the 4th pass (orb. 68434 , 1535-1546UTC) began with 
the cheerful voice of Foale asking Tsibliyev how he felt himself. Tsibliyev 
said that he was
 very tired and suffered from strain caused by the event. Before LOS TsUP 
gave the windows for communications via the g roundfacilities of 
Oberpfaffenhofen, Dryden en Wallops in the coming night. There was also good 
news: Foale reported th at the amount fo CO2 in the air was so low that the 
CO2 scrubber Vozdukh was not needed. An inconvenience was the fact that the 
alarmlight : 'Depressurization of the complex'  was burning continuously and 
that reset was impossible while t he mano-vacuummeters indicated that the 
pressure remained stable (692 mm). During a following pass Tsibliyev said 
that he understood that the launch of the Progress-M35 had been put back. 
TsUP confirmed this. (to be continued)
Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202
--- Maximus 2.01
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