On 21.11.97 at 2132 UTC Mir was hit by the umptieth computer failure. This happened to be the computer which had been delivered by Shuttle Atlantis and installed during the combined flight of Atlantis and Mir in September 1997. In the night from 21 to 22.11 Solovyov and Vinogradov were on duty and during every possible pass they discussed the problems with TsUP. On 22 and 23.11 a number of systems remained off to reduce power consumption. Again radio traffic during some passes in the night from 22 to 23.11. For the repair the crew used the 2d new computer which had been brought to Mir by the freighter Progress-M36. On 24.11 the computer and other systems worked flawlessly which enabled the crew to work on the sub-satellite Inspektor, still on board Progress-M36. Inspektor will be launched from the departing Progress-M36 on 17.12.97.

Solidarnostj:

(Due to a failure of my own computer - solidarity of my PC with the colleague on board Mir? - I could not distribute a Mir-report about the failure of the Ts.V.M. on board Mir, so I passed this news on to friends in UK and the USA. They could not obtain additional information and for an official confirmation we had to wait until Monday 24.11.)

Altair-2:

This satellite is operational again after a period of maintenance of the ground facilities for this geostationary satellite. On 21.11 there were good TV and phone communications during orbit 67167. From traffic during this session could be derived that the EVA's which had been scheduled for the beginning of December 1997 possibly would be put back until January 1998. (Meanwhile this has been confirmed: the EVA's take place on 5 and 9.01.1998) This means that the repair of the antenna for the 145.985 mc will be postponed also.

Inspektor:

This week the crew will prepare the sub-satellite Inspektor for an inspection flight on 17.12.97. During the departure of Progress-M36 the freighter will jettison the Inspektor. The Inspektor has to fly around the Progress-M36 for video images of that ship and after that the satellite will inspect the outer surface of the Mir-complex.

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