This freighter was on schedule to be launched on 16 or 18.03. Due to very bad weather conditions (blizzards) the launch has been put back for a while. Possibly the exact date of launch will be published on 17.03.94.

Fire on Baykonur: On 7.03.94 a heavy fire broke out in a MIK (Assembly and test complex) and spread to a Maintenance Unit Headquarters. There the fire damaged a Telemetry installation. The fire caused a damage of appr. 1.7 a 1.8 million dollars. The Russians declared that space-programs will not suffer from this event.

Progress-M17: This freighter has been flying autonomously from 11.08.93 for a duration test of its systems. The Russians planned to leave the Progress-M17 in orbit for a year and a half on request by the Americans who want to use modified versions of the Soyuz-TM-ships for ACRV (assured crew return vehicle) for the space station Alpha. A test flight with a Progress-M was useful for a lot of systems of this freighter are the same as those of the Soyuz-TM. During an orbit manoeuvre in December 1993 something went wrong and the Progress-M17 came in a very low perigee from where it decayed naturally by burning up in the Earth's atmosphere on 3.03.94 at 0406 UTC

Tracking ships: The tracking ship Cosmonaut Pavel Belyayev is floating somewhere in the Atlantic for the support of spaceflight operations which have nothing to do with the Mir-station. Nevertheless the ship now and then assists TsUP for communications with the Mir-station. This took place on 13.03- .94 at 2004 UTC and on 14.03.94 at 2045 UTC, so out of our range. We can expect that within due time we can hear Mir- radio traffic relayed by the KPB or one of the other ships.

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