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Mir Crew is Ready for Tuesday Liftoff
By Anatoly Zak
Staff Writer
posted: 03:46 pm ET
03 April 2000
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mir_update_000403 The Mir crew is ready to go. Ground personnel at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan are finishing preparations for the launch of the Soyuz TM-30 spacecraft planned for Tuesday 1:01:26 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (05:01:26 GMT). The spacecraft will carry the 28th long-duration crew to Russia's Mir space station. The representatives of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviacosmos) said on Monday that all prelaunch operations were going according schedule. The State Commission, overseeing the launch, is expected to reconvene at 7:30 p.m. EDT (23:30 GMT) on Monday at Baikonur to give a go ahead for the fueling of the Soyuz launch vehicle. The fueling process is expected to start around 8 p.m. EDT on Monday (Tuesday, 00:00 GMT). Following old tradition, the crew will give a prelaunch readiness report to the Chairman of the State Commission. This is a largely ceremonial event; the Russian equivalent of a crew walkout at Cape Canaveral before space shuttle launches. The event will take place at 9:45 p.m. EDT Monday (Tuesday, 01:45 GMT) right outside of the Soyuz processing building of Area 2 at Baikonur. Minutes later, the crew will board a bus which will deliver them to the launch pad of Area 1, a few miles away. Cosmonauts are expected to take their seats in the reentry capsule of the Soyuz spacecraft around 10:25 EDT (Tuesday, 02:25 GMT). According to the latest information from Rosaviacosmos, the separation of the Soyuz spacecraft from the third stage of the launch vehicle is scheduled for 1:10:15 a.m. EDT (05:10:15 GMT) on Tuesday. Three engine firings over the next two days should bring the Soyuz within docking distance with the Russian orbiting outpost. The docking between Mir and Soyuz TM-30 is planned for 2:33 a.m. EDT (06:33 GMT) on April 6. The Mir space station was abandoned last August after Rosaviacosmos ran out of government money to continue piloted operations on board. Recently, Western investors came forward with funds to revive the station as a privately run enterprise.
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