The launch of this freighter was planned for 15.10.1996. Due to problems with the carrier-rocket the launch has been put back possibly to 2.11.1996.

Mir-routine: Mir's passes for our position are gradually shifting from the night to the late evening hours. So still not much traffic via VHF. Now and then the Russians use the geostationary Altair-1 (Cosmos-2054) for Mir-communications. On 5.10.1996 the crew spoke with TsUP about a lot of condenstation in a cable compartment. Possibly this problem has been resolved as they did not mention it the next day. During conversations with TsUP on 6.10.1996 the cosmonauts mentioned the dismissal of Gen. Ivanov from his command of the VKS (space forces). They supposed that this also means that Gen. Ivanov also has been relieved of his chairmanship of the State Committee for Spaceflight. This committee always selects which crew will fly and the chairman takes the oath of departing crews. General Ivanov has a long and excellent career in spaceflight and the relinquishment of his command must be a heavy blow for Russian spaceflight. At least this is my opinion, but I am sure that the cosmonauts will share this opinion with me. John Blaha: He is like his predecessor very active and from conversations in Russian as well in English with specialists on earth can be derived that he is very enthusiastic. He still has to accustom himself to the differences between his training in replicas on earth and the practice in space. On earth things in training modules have been put straight in contradiction to the situation on board. Often it takes him a long time and consultations with the earth to find things he needs for his experiments. During passes of the Mir-station during working hours it might be possible that Blaha uses the 130.165 mc while his Russian colleagues use 143.625 mc. The arrangement for the use of 130.165 mc will be made on 143.625 mc. They speak about UKW-dva , they mean 130.165 mc.

Radio-amateur traffic: The 145.550 mc is fully in use for Packet radio and often Korzun can be heard in phone with amateurs on earth. Korzun is a skilled and enthusiastic radio-amateur. It is also worth while to monitor the 437.925 and 437.950 mc for traffic via the Safex installation in the Priroda module. The 437 mc band is primary for ISM-purposes (Industrial, Scientific and Medical). In my neighbourhood this band is fully blocked by a hospital using that band for health monitoring equipment. I would be very pleased to hear experiences in this field from friends in other parts of our globe.

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