MIRNEWS.343                                                         28 
JANUARIY 1997
SOYUZ-TM25:   This ship with the crew for the 23d Main Expedition (M.E.) to 
MIR, Tsibliyev and Lazutkin, and German's M IR'97 astronaut Reinhold Ewald is 
on schedule for launch from Baykonur on 10.02.1997 at 1408UTC.  The callsigns 
of this
 crew are Sirius-1, 2 and 3. If all goes according to plan S-TM25 will dock 
at MIR on 12.02.1997 at abt 1553UTC.  Ewald
 will stay on board for 18 days and return to Earth with the relieved crew of 
the 22d M.E., Korzun and Kaleri.  During the MIR'97 mission DLR's GSOC in 
Oberpfaffenhofen will be able to communicate directly with MIR  via 
VHF-channels, but possibly also via the quasi-stationary Cosmos-2054 
(Altair-1) over 16 degrees W.L.   On 4 and 5.12.1996 GSOC in Oberpfa 
ffenhofen tested communications via Altair-1 and meanwhile the intention to 
use this possibility during MIR'97 and futu re Euromir missions has been 
officially confirmed. 
MIR-routine: The American astronaut Linenger started with his experimental 
programs.  He was satisfied about the briefi ng he got from his colleague 
Blaha and is very pleased to be on board MIR. He  had less problems as his 
countrymen had during previous flights in finding things for his work.  Of 
course he did not found all he needs, but obviously the exp erience of his 
predecessors  led to improvements in that field.  In the framework of his 
experimental program he execut es  a lot of long and hard physical trainings. 
 The cooperation with his Russian colleagues is very good.  He submitted
 a number of proposals to the American consultative group in Moscow  about 
his workplans and  means for the delivery of
 the results of his work to scientists on Earth.   He also works on ideas for 
an adequate logging of all his activities
 during  his flight to make the debriefing after his return easier.  
Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202
--- Maximus 2.01
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