Mir News 407: Soyuz-TM26 made safe landing Program: Mir. Flight: Mir Pegase, Mir NASA-6, Mir EO-24, Mir EO-25.
The Soyuz-TM26 with on board the relieved crew of the 24th Main Expedition to Mir (Solovyov and Vinogradov) and the CNES astronaut Leopold Eyharts made a soft landing not far from the city Arkalyk in Kazakhstan on 19.02.98 at 0910 UTC. The weather in the landing area was bad, though there was a slight improvement in the hour before the landing they had to land in a blizzard. So the search- and rescue operation lasted relatively long and to avoid collision only one helicopter had been directed to the landing position.
Return operation:
Soyuz-TM26 separated from the complex at 05.52.50 UTC. During the autonomous flight all went well. In the night hours Soyuz-TM26 communicated via the eastern tracking stations in Russia. From 0805 UTC until the re-entry in the atmosphere at approx. 0847 UTC the communications could be monitored via Altair-2. The signals from and to Soyuz-TM26 were relayed via the satellite transceiver on board Mir and from there via the Altair-2 geostationary satellite. The engine which had to slow down the velocity of Soyuz-TM26 to achieve re-entry was switched on at 08.16.20 UTC. Solovyov reported the data about the impulses in meters per second and the fuel consumption (SIRT) in kilograms.
The engine was shut off after approx. 260 seconds. At 08.41.35 UTC the program for the separation of the motor compartment and the life compartment was started. The mood of the men on board the descending landing compartment was very good, they could be heard laughing. The last signal from Soyuz-TM26 which could be monitored via Altair-2 was the well known ANAN beacon. Altair-2 remained active for Mir-traffic until 0855 UTC. Musabayev is now in command of the 25th Main Expedition. Budarin reported his attempts to observe and film the descending Soyuz-TM26.
Soyuz-TM27:
On 20.02.1998 the crew of Mir will enter the Soyuz-TM27 for the redocking flight. Between 0845 and 0930 UTC Soyuz-TM27 will make an autonomous flight from the aft (Kvant-1, +X axis) port to the forward one (-X axis, P.Kh.O. -transition section).
Progress-M37:
The return of this freighter to the Mir complex (to aft docking port) is scheduled for 23.02.1998.
. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.