The launch of this ship with the relief crew of 3 will take place from Baykonur on 8.01.94 at 1005 UTC. If all goes according to schedule Soyuz-TM18 will dock to Mir on 10.01.94 at abt. 1148 UTC.

Soyuz-TM17:

The present Mir-crew (Tsibliyev and Serebrov) is already involved in activities related to their oncoming relief and their return to earth on 14.01.94. On 5.01.94 they remained on board of this ship for a long time to check systems and to look for areas in which they can stow things, which have to be returned to earth.

Progress-M17:

This freighter is still flying autonomously after the separation from Mir on 11.08.93. The Russians left Progress-M17 in space to check the lifetime of the systems due to the future use by the Americans of a Soyuz-TM modification as ACVR (rescue boat) for their space station. During a manoeuvre before Christmas the station came in a lower perigee (235 KM) due to a failure in the attitude control system. TsUP lost control over the freighter and they plan to have her decayed in the end of February this year. Probably this will happen spontaneously: the present orbital elements will lead to a decay at abt 28.03.94 (+ or - 3 days).

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