The redocking of this 'old' supply ship at the Mir complex did not take place on 17.08. During the first 3 passes of both objects it was obvious that Progress-M35 was continuing her autonomous flight. During the second pass the deputy head of mission control, Viktor Blagov, told the crew about changes in the work schedule for the next 2 days. The IVA would remain on schedule for 20.08.97.

Reason postponement: The data for the approach of Progress-M35 today transmitted by TsUP to the Progress-M35 turned out to be wrong and Progress-M35's OBC shut itself off. At deadline for this report the docking of Progress-M35 at Mir was (still) planned for 18.08 at 1257 UTC.

Soyuz-TM26: The redocking of this transport ship from the aft to the forward docking port took place on 15.08.97 between 13.29.20 and 14.13.04 UTC. At 1327 UTC, so just before separation, radio traffic from Soyuz-TM26 via Altair-2 could be heard. The safety clamps of the docking mechanism had been loosened and the program was proceeding according to plan. At 13.29.20 UTC Solovyov reported the separation and the fact that Soyuz-TM26 was slowly moving away from Mir. S. steered Soyuz-TM26 in the manual mode to be able to adjust the attitude of the ship in such a way that Vinogradov and Foale could make good images of the 'damage areas'.

At 13.29.51 UTC Altair-2 transmitted an image of the whole complex seen by a camera of the ship. At 13.35.59 UTC S. reported the proceedings of the flight. He asked Foale whether he already was doing his photo- and video work and asked him for instructions to adjust the ship's attitude for the best images. Communications via Altair-2 ceased at 13.42.58 UTC, but a few minutes later S. could be heard via 121.750 mc (1401-1409 UTC). 4 minutes later S. accomplished a perfect docking at the forward (P.Kh.O. - transition section) port of the complex.

Back on board Mir S. told TsUP that the images they had made were very good and certainly useful for analyses. In a conversation with Earth Foale told that they intended to transmit these images to TsUP on 18.08 and he was sure that TV stations all over the world would retransmit these. (The TV shots which already had been shown by TV stations came from short direct links with Russian tracking stations.)

Elektron: Already on the day of the return of the relieved crew Vinogradov succeeded in restoring the Elektron oxygen generator in Kvant-1. It was very difficult to reach the spot where he had to clean Elektron. A white-brown jelly-like substance had stopped up a pipe inside Elektron and had to be cleaned. After purging this pipe he was able to restart Elektron and after 1 orbit Solovyov reported that Elektron was working normally. As far as could be derived from radio traffic Elektron still does thus far.

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