Soyuz TM-6
Soyuz TM-6 was the sixth crewed spacecraft to visit the Soviet Space Station Mir.[2] It was launched in August 1988, during the station's third long-duration expedition, Mir EO-3. The three-person crew that was launched consisted of Research Doctor Valeri Polyakov, who became part of the EO-3 crew, as well as the two crew members of the week-long mission Mir EP-3, which included the first ever Afghan cosmonaut, Abdul Ahad Mohmand.
COSPAR ID | 1988-075A |
---|---|
SATCAT no. | 19443 |
Mission duration | 114 days, 5 hours, 33 minutes, 49 seconds |
Orbits completed | ~1,840 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | Soyuz-TM |
Manufacturer | NPO Energia |
Launch mass | 7,070 kilograms (15,590 lb) |
Crew | |
Crew size | 3 |
Launching | Vladimir Lyakhov Valeri Polyakov Abdul Mohmand |
Landing | Vladimir Titov Musa Manarov Jean-Loup Chrétien |
Callsign | Прото́н (Proton) |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | August 29, 1988, 04:23:11 UTC[1] |
Rocket | Soyuz-U2 |
Launch site | Baikonur 1/5 |
End of mission | |
Landing date | December 21, 1988, 09:57:00 UTC |
Landing site | [1] 160 kilometres (99 mi) SE of Dzhezkazgan |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Docking with Mir | |
Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) |
On September 8, Soyuz TM-6 was undocked from Mir's Kvant port and redocked onto the Mir Base Block's port.[3] It remained there until December, when it brought Titov and Manarov of the EO-3 crew back to Earth. It also landed French astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien, ending his week-long spaceflight which started with Soyuz TM-7.
Crew
Position | Launching crew | Landing crew |
---|---|---|
Commander | Vladimir Lyakhov Mir EP-3 Third spaceflight |
Vladimir Titov Mir EO-3 Third spaceflight |
Research Doctor/Flight Engineer | Valeri Polyakov Mir EO-3 / Mir EO-4 First spaceflight |
Musa Manarov Mir EO-3 First spaceflight |
Research Cosmonaut | Abdul Mohmand Mir EP-3 First spaceflight |
Jean-Loup Chrétien Mir Aragatz Second spaceflight |
Dr. Valeri Polyakov remained behind on Mir with cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov when Mohmand and Lyakhov returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-5.
Its crew had a unique makeup, with a commander (Vladimir Lyakhov) who had been trained to fly a Soyuz-TM solo in the event a rescue ship needed to be sent to recover two cosmonauts from Mir, no flight engineer, and two inexperienced cosmonaut-researchers. One was Dr. Valeri Polyakov, who would remain aboard Mir with Titov and Manarov to monitor their health during the final months of their planned year-long stay. The other was Intercosmos cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, from Afghanistan.
Mission parameters
References
- "Mir EO-3". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
- The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-TM-6.htm
- D.F.S.Portree (1995). "Mir Hardware Heritage" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2010.