It is clear that the female cosmonauts are trained and ready for an August flight, and the men (Bykovskiy, Volynov, Leonov, Khrunov) can complete training by that date. The male cosmonauts object to spending 7 to 8 days in a spacesuit in the ground spacecraft mock-up as required by the flight doctors. They don't want to spend more than 3 to 4 days.

First manned space station. Salyut 1 included a number of military experiments, including the OD-4 optical visual ranger, the Orion ultraviolet instrument for characterising rocket plumes, and the highly classified Svinets radiometer. Primary objectives included photography of the earth, spectrographs of the earth's horizon, experiments with intense gamma rays, and studying manual methods for station orientation.

At 05:20 the State Commission and their guests arrive at the Area 95 observation point to view the launch. The booster takes off on schedule at 06:40 in light rain and 60 km/hr wind. The tracking station reports good orbital insertion, separation from the third stage, and antennae and solar panel deployment. But the cover of the scientific equipment bay does not separate. This will mean that many experiments cannot be accomplished. It is decided to launch the crew to the station anyway, since the station is otherwise functioning normally. The cosmonauts go to the baths in the evening. Additional Details: here....

Second Soviet replenishable long-duration 'civilian' space station. Objectives: Continuation of scientific research on board manned space complexes in the interests of science and the Soviet national economy; testing of advanced systems and apparatus for orbital stations. Continuation of the scientific research in progress on board manned space complexes in the interests of science and the national economy; testing of advanced systems and apparatus for orbital stations. Although of the same design as Salyut 6, technical breakdowns throughout its life made Salyut 7 a much less productive station. Replaced finally by Mir. Two different TKS resupply craft, originally designed for the Almaz military station, docked with Salyut 7 to provide a larger complex. With the cancellation of Almaz, a large proportion of the experiments carried out on board had military objectives. As of January 1990 out of fuel, unable to manoeuvre, uncontrolled re-entry expected in three to four years. Re-entered in 1991 with 70 kg fuel remaining over Argentina. Controllers attempted to control impact point (set for Atlantic Ocean) by setting Salyut 7/Kosmos 1686 assembly into a tumble. This however failed and Salyut 7 re-entered February 7, 1991 04:00 GMT. Many fragments fell on the town of Capitan Bermudez, 25 km from Rosario and 400 km from Buenos Aires, Argentina. At 1 am local time the sky was lit up with hundreds of incandescent meteors travelling from Southwest to Northeast. At dawn the inhabitants discovered numerous metal fragments, which seemed to have fallen in distinct groups at various locations in the city. Luckily no one was hurt in the metallic shower. Additional Details: here....

Immediately after the opening of the hatches to Progress-M34 the crew began to unload the most important stuff for direct use. They used a part of the new arrived pure oxygen supply and new lithium perchlorate 'disks' for oxygen production. Radio traffic revealed that the cosmonauts without delay had started the repair of the Elektron system in Module-D (Kvant- 2). On 11.04 this Elektron was activated, but after a few minutes during which oxygen was produced it switched itself off. On the days to follow the crew regularly worked on this system and to undo the last failure they even used a part of the unserviceable Elektron in Module-E (Kvant-1).

The urgent work on the Elektron caused a considerable work overload of the crew. These days the astronaut Linenger is often deployed to assist in this repair work for which he has to refrain from a part of his American experiments. A few times the work on the Elektron had to be suspended for the execution of repair work with a higher priority. This had to do with a lot of leakage in the heating- and cooling circuits in the Base Block and Kvant-1.

The leaks in the cooling loops in Kvant-1 caused the outflow of cooling liquid (ethylene glycol) and the decrease of the pressure within that circuit. A sufficient cooling is also needed for the functioning of the carbon dioxide (CO2) absorber Vozdukh. For the neutralisation of CO2 in Mir's atmosphere there is another alternative. Progress-M34 delivered for that purpose canisters lithium hydroxide. Meanwhile the Elektron in Module-D and the Vozdukh CO2 scrubber are functioning. The problems with the life support systems on board caused a high humidity and consequently a lot of condensation. Twice a day Tsibliyev can be heard reporting pulse rates, blood pressures, skin temperatures and blood oxygen saturation of all crew members.

Orbit correction: Using the engines of the Pr-M34 the orbit of the Mir-station had been corrected on 15.04.19997 at 12.46.01 UTC. Apogee and Perigee changed from 397.16/381.63 KM to 402.54/389.51 KM.

Solar orbit: Within a few days Mir will enter a so called solar orbit. During this period Mir will continuously remain in sunlight. Then it will be more difficult to control the on board temperatures. Tsibliyev said that physically the crew is able to sustain this inconvenience, but that he has some concerns about the equipment of the complex.

1st Spacewalk (EVA) Mir Main Expedition 23/ NASA 4: This EVA is (or possibly meanwhile: was) on schedule for 29.04.1997. The EVA will be executed if the repair work can be accomplished before a determined deadline.

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

Galaxy 4R carried 28 Ku-band and 28 C-band transponders. After insertion in a standard 219 x 32007 km x 7.0 deg geostationary transfer orbit, Galaxy 4R's R-4D apogee engine raised orbit to 35765 x 35792 km x 0.1 deg by April 27 and was over 67 deg W by late April. Final destination was 99 deg W. The Galaxy satellites provide US domestic telecommunications services. 4R replaces the original Galaxy 4H which failed in May 1998, putting pagers out of action across the USA. Stationed at 99 deg W. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 73 deg W in 2000. As of 5 September 2001 located at 98.99 deg W drifting at 0.016 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 76.88W drifting at 0.001E degrees per day.

Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour was launched on mission STS-100 to carry out International Space Station Flight 6A continued the outfitting of the Station. The crew of four Americans, one Russian, one Canadian and one Italian were to install an 18 meter, 1,700 kg Canadian robotic arm named Canadarm-2 on the ISS, and to transport an Italian cargo container, Raffaello, which delivered 4,500 kg of supplies and equipment to the station. Total payload of 13,744 kg consisted of:

• Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System, External Airlock, 3 EMU spacesuits - 2160 kg including 360 kg for the 3 suits
• Bay 3 Starboard: Adapter Beam with DCSU switching unit - 180kg
• Bay 5: Spacelab Pallet with Canadarm-2 SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System, 1800 kg mass), LDA, and 56 kg UHF antenna - 3256 kg
• Bay 6 Port: Adapter Beam with IMAX Camera - 238 kg
• Bay 8-12: Rafaello Module (MPLM-2) with MPLM racks and 3400 kg cargo - 7500 kg
• Sill: Canadarm RMS 303 - 410 kg

On 23 April the SSRMS station manipulator was unberthed from the SLP Spacelab pallet at 1114 GMT and latched on to the PDGF fixture on the Destiny ISS module at 1416 GMT. This was followed at 1458 GMT with the MPLM-2 Raffaello module being moved from Endeavour's payload bay by the Shuttle's RMS and berthed to the nadir port on the ISS Unity module at 1600 GMT. Over the next few days, the cargo racks on the MPLM were transferred to Destiny. Raffaello was then unberthed from Unity at 2003 GMT on April 27 and reberthed in the rear of Endeavour's bay for return to earth at 2059 GMT.

Undocking of Endeavour was delayed by a series of computer problems at the Station. Failures in the Station's command and control computers left only one of the three computers operating.

They were all restarted by April 29, and the Shuttle RMS grappled the Spacelab pallet at 2044 GMT . The station's Canadarm-2 released it at 2106 GMT, and the RMS berthed the pallet back in the Shuttle cargo bay. Endeavour undocked from the Station at 1734 GMT on April 29. The weather in Florida was bad at the planned May 1 landing time, so Endeavour landed in California. The deorbit burn was at 1502 GMT on May 1, with landing at 1610:42 GMT on runway 22 at Edwards. Endeavour returned to the Kennedy Space Center atop a Boeing 747 SCA aircraft on May 9.

Soyuz TMA-4 was ISS transport mission ISS 8S and delivered the EO-9 caretaker crew of Gennadiy Padalka and Michael Fincke, together with the ESA/Netherlands Delta mission crewmember Andre Kuipers, to the Space Station. Soyuz TMA-4 docked with the nadir port on Zarya at 05:01 GMT on April 21 and the hatches to the ISS were opened at 06:30 GMT. Another gyro on the station had shut down prior to the docking and possibly would require a maintenance spacewalk to replace its failed electronics.

After Soyuz TMA-5 docked with the ISS on October 16, the EO-9 crew handed activities over to the EO-10 crew.

The biosat combined a Vostok spherical pressurized reentry capusle and a Yantar service module. The capsule carried mice, gerbils, geckos, and snails; microorganisms in FRAGMENTER and BIOKONT-B containers; fish and algae in an OMEGAHAB aquarium; plants in FITO plant containers; and some microgravity materials experiments. Landed 82 km north of Orenburg at 03:12 GMT on 19 May. The gerbils had perished due to equipment failure; all of the geckos and half of the mice were alive