. SOYUZ TM22

Flight Crew

GIDZENKO, Yuri Pavlovich, 33, Russian Air Force, commander AVDEYEV, Sergei Vasilyevich, 39, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM15 (1992)

REITER, Thomas, 37, German Air Force, cosmonaut researcher

Flight Log

The next resident crew arrived at Mir on 5 September. Thomas Reiter, a German ESA astronaut, was flying the EuroMir95 mission, and had received complete training for an extended mission. He was also qualified for assignment as a Soyuz flight engineer and for EVAs using the Orlan DMA pressure garment. The EuroMir95 mission included an EVA and a programme of 41 experiments that incorporated 18 biomedical, 10 technical and 8 materials-processing experiments. On 17 October, it was announced that the mission had been extended by another three weeks and that a second EVA was planned for Reiter. This agreement was also in part due to financial difficulties in the Russian programme, in particular problems with paying workers to complete the fabrication of launchers and spacecraft. The resulting delays meant that the launch of the next resident crew had to be put back, so Reiter’s eventual 44-day mission extension gave him a 179-day stay aboard Mir.

For the first EVA (20 Oct 1995, 5 hours 16 minutes), Reiter accompanied Avdeyev to install the European Science Exposure Facility (ESEF) and to exchange experiment cassettes on a Russian experiment designed to trap ambient particle debris and to record the velocity, mass and trajectory of each impact particle. The second EVA (8 Dec 1995,29 minute IVA) was conducted by both Russian cosmonauts from inside the base block docking node, to transfer the docking drogue from the —Z port to the +Z port in order to receive Priroda, the final Mir module, the following year. During this EVA, Reiter remained inside the Soyuz TM22 Descent Module for safety reasons. For the final excursion (8 Feb 1996, 3 hours 6 minutes), Reiter was accompanied by

Gidzenko. The pair had been trained for this excursion by radio instructions from the ground, as a third EVA was not part of the original flight plan. The first task was to move the SDPK MMU (used in early 1990) outside the Kvant —Z hatch in order to make more room inside the airlock area. They also removed dust collectors, but were unable to remove a faulty antenna as they did not have the required tools.

Once again, maintenance and repair tasks took priority over science, one of the problems being the sheer amount of equipment and unwanted hardware being built up

on the station. Indeed, Reiter finally found his centrifuge after mislaying it for two months. This residency was visited by STS-74, the second Shuttle docking mission, in November. The Shuttle also delivered the Russian-supplied Docking Module, enabling the docking facility to be moved further away from the main modules for better vision during future Shuttle dockings. On 20 February 1996, the base block of the Mir station reached the milestone of a decade in orbit, and it looked as though (funds permitting) the station would be maintained for some years, perhaps past the turn of the century, by which point the ISS would be in orbit and operational. During the flight, Reiter compiled an educational video called Riding High, which docu­mented his life aboard the station, as well as the visit of Atlantis, his EVAs and the science research programme. ESA was pleased with the results from the two EuroMir missions and planned a 45-day EuroMir97 with Reiter’s back-up Christer Fuglesang. However, support and funding from ESA member states was not forthcoming and the mission was not flown, partly due to the desire to progress beyond Mir to ISS, where ESA would have its own science module – Columbus.

Milestones

181st manned space flight 81st Russian manned space flight 74th Soyuz manned mission 21st Soyuz TM manned mission 20th main Mir crew

27th Russian and 58th flight with EVA operations

1st EVA by two flight engineers

1st EVA by German cosmonaut

Final manned launch of Soyuz U2 launch vehicle

Avdeyev celebrates his 40th birthday in space (1 Jan)