Conference 7.286::space

336.0. "MIR Evacuation Drill" by IMGAWN::BIRO () Wed Sep 09 1987 09:57

    Radio Moscow and the AW 7 Sep issue had an article about a MIR emergency
    evacuation drill.  This dril was discribe as normal and was conducted
    to prepare the station crew for any life-threatening situation that
    would cause them to return to earth immediately.  It was done on
    the 31st of Aug. My radio monitoring of signals that day had typical
    communication but weaker then normal (no translation but I have
    a tape if someone wants to ) I did not have in the freq for the Soyuz 
    TM-3, however. It sounded like a list of things including info on
    Kvant and the Corrumdum units.
    
    AW said this only happen twice before following a micrometeorite
    stucking the Salyut window and threatening a loss of pressure and
    once following a propellant leak.  
    
    The Mir cosmonauts quickly entered the Soyuz TM-3 unit, closed the
    Soyuz hatch and put on their space suits.  The crew ran a
    pre-separation check list to prepare for undocking form MIR but
    the simulation was terminated before separation.
    
    RM said this was a planed rehersal.
    
    Then latter that week ( I think thur or fri ) Radio Moscow announce
    that the crew had fired the Progress-31 eng for the first time
    in a long while.   This would make sense as typical time between
    progess units is 30 to 56 days.  MIR has been flying low and could
    stay up in the present orbit for a few months without fule assuming
    no major solar storms.  What normall happens the crew fires the
    Progress eng to rise the orbit to open up the widow for a new 
    Progress unit and then jetterson the spent Progress unit and within
    two days the old Progress unit is commanded to deorbit.  The new
    Progress unit is normall launched on a Monday or a Tuesday.
    
    BUT I waited for changes in AOS and LOS and MIR did not change,
    did RM announce before the event was to take place and it was
    changed?  In any case the orbit of MIR remains unchanged with
    NASA element set dated the 3rd of Sept.
                        
    Other MIR info from Radio Moscow (RM) included a story of how
    they were doing research with another satellite to map out 
    earth reasource and water info for Czechoslovakia
    
    john
    
    Other strange space actions (no know connections) include that of
    Cosmos 1872 launched on 19 Aug intio a 207 x 130 mile orbit then
    later maneuvered to a higher orbit for a short time , then commanded
    into a lower one.  C_1872 then returned to Earth on Sunday the
    30th of Aug, the normal time for this type of spacecraft is 14 days
    compared with the 11 days for C_1872. In addition , Sunday recoveries
    are rarely schedule, it is the single day off given to the Soviet
    ground forces

From: [email protected] (John Woods, Software)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: News item about MIR
Date: 23 Sep 87 19:42:00 GMT
 
From the 23 September 1987 BOSTON GLOBE:
 
    Cargo spacecraft supplies cosmonauts
 
    MOSCOW - An unmanned cargo spacecraft separated from the MIR space
station yesterday after bringing supplies of fuel, food, water,
equipment and mail, the official agency Tass said. 
 
    PROGRESS 31 docked with MIR August 7 with supplies for cosmonauts
Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Alexandrov. 
 
    Romanenko, 43, who blasted into space February 6, is set to match
the world space endurance record at the end of the month.  The record,
237 days, was set September 6, 1984, by three Soviet cosmonauts aboard
MIR's predecessor, the SALYUT 7 space station.  Alexandrov, 44, has
been aboard MIR since July. 
 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, [email protected]