| Insignia | Soyuz TM-6 patch.svg |
|---|---|
| Cospar id | 1988-075A |
| Satcat | 19443 |
| Mission duration | 114 days, 5 hours, 33 minutes, 49 seconds |
| Orbits completed | ~1,840 |
| Spacecraft | Soyuz 7K-STM No. 56 |
| Soyuz-TM | Soyuz 7K-STM No. 56 |
| Manufacturer | NPO Energia |
| Launch mass | 7,070 kilograms (15,590 lb) |
| Launch date | UTC[1] |
| Launch rocket | Soyuz-U2 |
| Launch site | Baikonur 1/5 |
| Landing date | UTC |
| Landing site | [1] 160 kilometres (99 mi) SE of Dzhezkazgan |
| Crew launching | Vladimir Lyakhov Valeri Polyakov Abdul Mohmand |
| Crew landing | Vladimir Titov Musa Manarov Jean-Loup Chrétien |
| Crew callsign | Прото́н (Proton) |
| Orbit reference | Geocentric |
| Orbit regime | Low Earth |
| Apsis | gee |
| Previous mission | Soyuz TM-5 |
| Next mission | Soyuz TM-7 |
| Programme | Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) |
| Docking target | Mir |
|---|---|
| dock | 31 August 1988, 05:40:44 UTC |
| Undocking date | 21 December 1988, 02:32:54 UTC |
Soyuz TM-6 was a crewed Soyuz spaceflight to Mir.[2] It was launched on 29 August 1988, at 04:23:11 UTC, for 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.[3]
On September 8, Soyuz TM-6 was undocked from Mir's Kvant port and redocked onto the Mir Base Block's port.[4] 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 25-day-long spaceflight which started with Soyuz TM-7.
Crew
Valeri Polyakov remained behind on Mir with cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov when Mohmand and Lyakhov returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-5.
The crew of Soyuz TM-6 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 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-TM6.htm
- ^ "Spaceflight mission report: Soyuz TM-6". www.spacefacts.de. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
- ^ D.F.S.Portree (1995). "Mir Hardware Heritage". Archived from the original on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2010.