American space tourist, 2007-2008. Son of astronaut Owen Garriott, raised in Nassau Bay, Texas. Sold first computer game at 16; made millions in computer games. Paid $30 million for a flight to the International Space Station. 1 spaceflight, 11.9 days in space. Flew to orbit on Soyuz TMA-13 (2008).

The 7K-OK simulator consists of a mock-up of the BO living compartment and SA re-entry capsule only. The interiors are not yet fitted out with equipment, and development of the optical equipment to allow the cosmonauts to train with simulated dockings is proceeding very slowly. Mishin has promised a dozen times to speed up the work on the trainers, but produced nothing. Meanwhile Mishin is proceeding to train his cosmonaut team for Soyuz flights in September. It is said that he has other leaders, including Burnazyan and Keldysh, on his side.

This was a very difficult time for TsKBEM. All work at the bureaus came to a complete halt after the loss of Soyuz 11 and N1 6L. Simultaneous expert commissions investigated the loss of N1 6L and Soyuz 11. TsKBEM was seen as responsible for every failure. A virtually legal process ensued to fix guilt. Every design decision was examined and questioned. Additional Details: here....

Civilian maritime navigation satellite. Positioned in plane 11 of constellation. Signals at 150,00 MHz and 400.00 MHz. Carried COSPAS/SARSAT search and rescue package. Location of vessels in the Soviet merchant marine and fishing fleet; work within the international space search and rescue system for locating vessels and aircraft in distress (COSPAS-SARSAT).

This ship with on board the relief crew and the Frenchman Haignere docked to Mir (forward docking port) on 3.07.93 at 1624 UTC. The docking took place in the automatic mode (Kurs-system). Before Soyuz-TM17 began her final approach the freighter Progress-M17 had to undock. So a few minutes before the final approach Progress-M17 undocked and was brought in a safe distance from Mir. This happened before Mir, Soyuz-TM17 and Progress-M17 came in our range. During the pass in orb. 42169, 1607-1612 UTC, radio traffic could be monitored on 121.750 mc and 143.625 mc. Serebrov reported that he would obey the order to go into the landing module immediately. Neither of the crews commented the final approach. There had been a long transmission via Altair, which ended a few minutes before docking. Good images of the complex (by Soyuz-TM17's cameras) and the docking port could be seen. During the pass in orb. 42170, 1742 UTC, it was obvious that all was well: the hatches had been opened and the first meeting between the 2 crews had already taken place. Mir started to transmit to TsUP the video recordings of the approach and the welcome of the new crew. All cosmonauts, also Tsibliyev, Serebrov and Haignere, could be heard via 143.625 mc. During this pass Mir also transmitted on 145.550 mc. Via the digital memory microphone Polishchuk could be heard with a greeting of P. and Manakov to a conference of radio-amateurs in (probably) St. Petersburg. During the next pass (orb. 42171, 1915 UTC, Mir transmitted on 145.550, 143.625 and 144.475 mc. After a CQ-call in Russian and English, Haignere spoke in French with the radio-amateur Francis, FC1OKN.

Altair: From 4.07 until 22.07.93 Haignere, in co-operation with his Russian colleagues, will conduct experiments in the framework of the French scientific program Altair.

Spacewalks: If all goes according to previous planning the new crew (the 14th main expedition to the Mir station) will make 3 spacewalks.

Progress-M17: This freighter still flew autonomously in the night from 3 to 4.07.93 and was visually observed by Mr. Wim Holwerda (Working group artificial satellites) during Mir's pass in orb. 42174, 2227 UTC, at abt. 8 KM behind Mir. Wim also saw the 3d stage of the rocket which gave Soyuz-TM17 the last 'push' on 1.07.93. Progress-M17 carries a return capsule. In a next Mir-report I hope to tell somewhat about the fate of Progress-M17 and that capsule.

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

The launch of this freighter has been put back again and is now on schedule for 22.07.1996. The Progress-M32 has to deliver new supplies of water, fuel, oxygen, food, etc. to the Mir-space station. The reason for this delay are two failures with the Soyuz-U rocket, which also is used for the launches of Progress-M ships.

Soyuz-U: Within the period of some weeks 2 launches of reconnaissance satellites with the carrier Soyuz-U failed. The first time this was on Baykonur on 13.05. 49 seconds after lift off the payload fairing came loose and the control-system gave the command for self-destruction. The commission to investigate the accident failed to find a unanimous conclusion. 4 different possibilities had been suggested even the rather bizarre idea that a big bird collided with the rocket. Normally all launches of analogue rockets are suspended until the experts know for sure the cause of the accident. This time they did not wait until a definite conclusion and launched another spy-satellite, now from Plesetsk using the rocket Soyuz-U. And again exactly after 49 seconds the fairing came loose and rocket and satellite were destroyed. This time the commission started a thorough investigation, which is still going on. So possibly the launch of the freighter Progress-M32 will be put back again.

Mir-routine: Life goes on: the 2 Russians and Shannon Lucid are still in a very good mood. They do not seem to worry about the 'rocket' problems. The relief crew for Onufriyenko and Usachov has to fly with the Soyuz-TM24 on 14.08.1996. This crew consists of the Russians Manakov and Vinogradov and de French cosmonaut Claudie Andree-Deshays. For this launch a modified rocket, the Soyuz-U2 is needed. Financial problems might put a spoke in the wheel. During the last week Shannon Lucid worked with the Glove box. She met some problems with contacts and switches but resolved these by the help of an expert at TsUP Moscow. Shannon Lucid will be relieved by John Blaha during the 4th Shuttle-Mir docking mission STS-79 by Atlantis in the beginning of August.

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

Second flight using RD-0210 Phase 2 engines. Geizer military communications satellite. The Blok DM upper stage inserted the Geizer into geosynchronous orbit at 06:20 GMT on July 5. Stationed at 80 deg E. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 80 deg E in 2000. As of 6 September 2001 located at 79.81 deg E drifting at 0.014 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 79.73E drifting at 0.022W degrees per day.

The shuttle was launched using external tank ET-119 and solid motors RSRM-93. Cameras revealed that large chunks of foam were still shed from the external tank during the ascent to orbit. However examination of the heat shield using a new extension and sensors attached to the shuttle's robot arm revealed no significant damage. Discovery docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the Destiny module of the ISS at 14:52 GMT on 6 July. On July 7 the Leonardo cargo module was moved from the shuttle payload bay by the robot arm and docked to the Unity Module of the ISS between 09:42 and 11:50 GMT. The crew then began unloading the spare parts and supplies in the module to the station. A series of three EVAs conducted on 8 to 12 July tested the new equipment and techniques for repairing the shuttle heat shield in case of damage, and did some preliminary installations on the exterior of the ISS to pave the way for continued station assembly missions. On 14 July, the station's SSRMS robot moved the Leonardo module from the station back to the shuttle cargo bay between 13:08 and 14:50 GMT. The shuttle separated from the ISS, and fired its engines at 12:07 GMT on 17 July to make a 92 m/s deorbit maneuver. Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center at 13:14 GMT. European astronaut Reiter was left behind to make up part of the EO-13 resident crew on the station.