MIRNEWS.387                                   6 OCTOBER 1997
Communications MIR during mission  STS86:
The communications to and from the MIR during the link-up period of Atlantis 
and MIR demonstrated what we can expect wh en of the International 
Spacestation the Russian and American segments will be operational. For 
matters regarding the w hole complex the American side will take care for the 
communications and traffic between the Russian segment and TsUP-M
 will only concern Russian matters (experiments, maintenance, advices, etc.) 
The lion's share of the communications wen t via Atlantis.  During windows in 
which the MIR was able to communicate via Russian tracking facilities they 
only hand led Russian matters. The communications between MIR and Atlantis 
took place  via an intercom system. Sometimes Atlantis
 also took care of the Packet Radio traffic for MIR.  During the link-up  MIR 
seldom used the Altair-2 facility. Images
 of the approach of Atlantis and the EVA of Parazynski and Titov made from 
inside MIR were directly transmitted to eart h via Russian tracking stations 
on UHF frequencies.  Sometimes the comments on those images went via the VHF 
channel.  On 28.09 Altair-2 was in use for the relay of video-recordings. 
Progress-M36: This freighter blasted off from Baykonur on 5.10.1997 at 
15.08.57UTC. All went well. The Pr-M36 will deli ver the normal cargo: water, 
food, fuel, experiments and a spare computer.  Among the repair material is a 
special glue
 ('germetik') to be used during the repair of the Spektr. 
Progress-M36 is expected to dock at MIR's aft docking port (Kvant-1 +X axis) 
on 7.10 at 1642UTC. 
Transmissions Pr-M36:   On 5.10 during the 3d orbit (1944-1946UTC) Telemetry 
was heard in the 165 and 166 mc bands. Dur ing the 4th orbit  (2114-2119UTC) 
the signals in het 165 and 166 mc were very strong.  The transmitter on 
922.755mc was
 active during that pass. TCA was at 21.15.54UTC
Progress-M35: This old freighter is no longer needed and will separate from 
MIR on 6.10 at 1124UTC for a short autonomo us flight  and decay in the 
atmosphere over a designated area in the Pacific East of New Zealand at 
1424UTC. 
Mini-sputnik:  A small copy of Sputnik-1 will also be delivered by Pr-M36.  
During the next EVA of Solovyov and Vinogra dov on 16.10.1997 this Sputnik 
will be 'launched' manually.  This satellite will send 'bleeps' on a 
frequency in the 2 Meter amateur band to recall the launch of the first 
artificial earth satellite on 4.10.1957. 
Chris  Vandenberg, NL-9165/A-UK3202
--- Maximus 2.01
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