MIRNEWS.344                      10 FEBRUARY 1997
Launch Soyuz-TM25:   This ship with on board the reliefcrew for the 23d Main 
Expedition (M.E.) to MIR and the German astronaut Reinhold Ewald, who will in 
cooperation with the Russians 
execute the MIR-97 program, has been launched from Baykonur on 10.02.1997 at  
14hrs 09mins 30secs UTC.  The callsign of the crew is Sirius (so Sirius-1, 2 
and 3).  The commander is
Tsibliyev, now making his 2d flight in space and the
board-engineer is Lazutkin who did not fly thusfar. 
Progress-M33: There must always be a free docking port for the new ship. 
Before the flight of the Soyuz-TM24 the Russians
undocked the Pr-M as soon as they were sure that the systems of the new ship 
were functioning normally, so at abt 1 day after launch.  Some orbits after 
the undocking the freighter entered the earth's atmosphere and burnt up.  To 
begin with the Pr-M32 the Russians changed this routine and the Pr-M32 flew
autonomously  until 18.08.96, redocked to the complex and left MIR  and burnt 
up in the atmosphere  on 20.11.1996.   The
Progress-M33 separated from MIR's aft (Kvant-1 +X axis) on
6.02.1997 at 12hrs 13mins 56secs and will make an autonomous flight until the 
beginning of March '97. 
Soyuz-TM24: This ship had been docked at the forward dockingport 
(transitionsection - P.Kh.O.  -X axis).  This port has been chosen for the 
docking of the S-TM25. In the future the Russians refrain from the use of the 
approach system Kurs in Soyuz-TM and Progress-M ships.  This decision has 
been taken due to problems about the delivery of that systeem between RKK 
Energiya and the factory NPO Kharton in Kharkov, Ukraine. 
On 7.02.1997 at 16hrs 28mins 01secs the S-TM24 separated from MIR and manned 
by Korzun, Kaleri and Linenger made an autonomous flight concluded by the 
docking of that ship at the aft (Kvant-1 +X axis) dockingport that day at 
16hrs 51mins 27secs. 
Undoubtedly this has been quite an experience for Jerry Linenger who came by 
Atlantis and will return with the shuttle. 
Dockings of S-TM ships will be executed manually by the commander and those 
of unmanned Pr-M freighters will be done by the crew on board MIR by the use 
of the Remote Control system TORU. 
ETA (expected time of arrival) of Soyuz-TM25 at MIR: 
S-TM25 has to dock to the MIR's forward (P.Kh.O.  -X axis)
docking port on 12.02.1997 at abt. 1550UTC.  This is 3 minutes after the 
first pass for both objects over Western Europe. During this pass 
(1541-1547UTC) we can expect communications about the approach on 121.750 mc 
FM-N and the 143.625 mc. 
Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202
--- Maximus 2.01
---------------