Russian/French crew set to leave Mir space station
Glenn Chapman
depart for a landing on July 22. Long term cosmonauts Gennadiy Manakov and
Aleksandr Polishchuk, who arrived at Mir on Jan. 24th, will be flying French
Spationaut Jean-Pierre Haignere in the older Soyuz TM-16 capsule. Manakov and
Polishchuk will have spent 174 days in orbit during this mission, while
Haignere will have had 22 days in orbit. Manning the Mir complex will be
cosmonauts Alexander Serebrov and Vasily Tsibliev (mission commander). They
are slated to do several space walks in September to modify the power systems
on the Mir space station.
The International French video station TV5 has shown several news
conferences with the combined Mir crew, including one with the French Prime
Minister. Interestingly for most of these a huge French flag was in the
backdrop. These appeared to be broadcast from one of the large Star modules
extending perpendicular from the front ball docking adaptor of Mir. Views
were show of the Soyuz TM-17 during from a window during one of the
conferences.
In other news according to a Radio Moscow report on July 19th the US and
Russia reached an agreement on the selling of Russian space hardware to other
countries. The problem arose over the sale of liquid hydrogen/oxygen rocket
technology to India for use in an upper stage. This was considered by some
to violate the missile control treaty which prevents the sale of ICBM
hardware. Russia will be allowed to sell upper stages, but not the
technology to build them. Another agreement was signed in Washington on July
20, for cooperation in manned space missions. This calls for the flight of a
Russian cosmonaut on the space shuttle, and an 1995 visit to Mir by a US
astronaut. This second agreement was being held up until the Indian export
problem could be solved. (Radio Moscow and French TV5)
Glenn Chapman
School Eng. Science
Simon Fraser Univ.
Burnaby, BC Canada
Glenn Chapman
(Sorry, a mailing problem caused Wednesday's posting of this to bounce)