. SOYUZ TM17

Flight Crew

TSIBLIYEV, Vasily Vasilyevich, 39, Russian Air Force, commander SEREBROV, Alexandr Alexandrovich, civilian, flight engineer, 4th mission Previous missions: Soyuz T7 (1982); Soyuz T8 (1983); Soyuz TM8 (1989) HAIGNERE, Jean-Pierre, French Air Force, cosmonaut researcher

Flight Log

Two days after launch, Soyuz TM17 was station-keeping some 200 metres from Mir. With all docking ports occupied, the Soyuz could not immediately dock, so the crew filmed the departure of Progress M18 from the front port of Mir. TM17 took its place a short time later. Haignere’s previous training as back-up to the last French visiting mission enabled his “Altair” mission to be advanced by six months, but this also meant that there was insufficient time to develop a whole new science programme. Haignere would therefore use some of the experiments left on board by Tognini almost a year before, together with about 100 kg of new science hardware that had been delivered aboard Progress M18. Haignere also completed a programme of medical investigations during his time aboard Mir before returning to Earth with the EO-13 crew aboard TM16 on 22 July.

Settling down to their stay on Mir, the EO-14 crew prepared themselves for some of the EVA tasks that had been reassigned to them from the previous residency. Before they could begin their EVA programme, however, the station had to endure an unusually intense Perseid meteor shower, which peaked on the night of 12-13 August. The cosmonauts remained at work, although plans were available for their emergency recovery should the need arise. They also constantly monitored the hits recorded on the station around the clock, including ten window impacts that resulted in craters ranging between 1.5 and 4 mm in diameter. Impact sensors on the station recorded a particle flux of around 2,000 times greater than normal annual showers. The crew also

recorded about 240 micrometeoroids burning up in the atmosphere. NASA had delayed the STS-51 mission so that it would not fly through the shower and incur damage.

The EVA series began with two EVAs to construct the Rapana girder on top of Kvant (16 Sep for 4 hours 18 minutes and 20 Sep for 3 hours 13 minutes). This was a girder technology experiment to analyse new materials that could be incorporated into similar structures for the proposed Mir 2 programme. On their third EVA (28 Sep for 1 hour 52 minutes), the cosmonauts conducted an observation programme on the outside of Mir, finding a 5 mm hole through one of the solar arrays, surrounded by a number of panels that had been cracked several cm across. It was not possible to determine whether this damage had been caused during the recent Perseid shower. This inspection work was completed on their fourth and fifth EVAs (22 Oct for 38 minutes and 29 Oct for 4 hours 12 minutes) and in addition, the crew deployed and retrieved sample cassettes from the exterior of the station.

In October, the crew was asked to extend their mission into January, as the Energomash factory in Samara which produced the upgraded engines used on the Soyuz U vehicle would not release any more engines until it was paid, and there was no money available. This stop-start nature of the Russian programme would become a regular occurrence as the once state-driven economy and space programme gave way to the vagaries of the corporate machine. Progress M19 and M20 included Raduga sample return capsules (as had M18), the latter having launched on a former military R7, the only one available at Baikonur for its mission to keep the station supplied. In December, it was announced that Russia and the US, together with their international partners, had agreed to cooperate in the construction of what was now being called the

International Space Station. This evolution of the abandoned design studies and budget reviews of the US-led Freedom space station would include Mir as a key part of its preparations.

On 14 January, after the arrival of the next resident crew and the brief hand-over period, Tsibliyev and Serebrov undocked Soyuz TM17 for their trip home. Instead of the normal reverse away from the port, however, it was decided to fly TM17 in proximity to Kristall to take close-up images that would benefit the Shuttle-Mir programme. These images were supposed to enable NASA Shuttle pilots to become familiar with the aerials and other appendages on the module. Unfortunately, Tsibliyev failed to realise that his translation control was in stand-by mode and was unable to prevent TM17 from striking Kristall a glancing blow approximately 1 m from the spherical docking system station. Aboard Mir, the new resident crew felt no impact and a later inspection by TM18 when it was being relocated to another docking port did not reveal any serious damage.

Milestones

162nd manned space flight

76th Russian manned space flight

24th Russian and 51st flight with EVA operations

17th manned Soyuz flight to Mir

14th Mir resident crew

69th manned Soyuz flight

16th manned Soyuz TM flight