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Soyuz TM-9
(Mir EO6)

Crew:
    Anatoliy Solovyov [2], Commander
    Aleksandr Balandin [1], Flight Engineer

Backup Crew:
    Gennadi Manakov
    Gennadi Strekalov

Launch:
    Location: Baikonur, Site 1/5
    Date: 11 February 1990
    Time: 06:16:00 UTC

Landing:
    Date: 9 August 1990
    Time: 07:33:57 UTC
    Location: 67° 17' N, 50° 51' E

Docking:
    Kvant, 13 February 1990 06:38 UTC - 21 February 1990 03:56 UTC
    fore unit of Mir, 21 February 1990 04:15 UTC - 28 May 1990 11:45 UTC
    Kvant, 28 May 1990 12:11 UTC - 3 July 1990 22:07 UTC
    fore unit of Mir, 3 July 1990 22:31 UTC - 9 August 1990 04:09 UTC

Duration: 179 days, 1 hours, 17 minutes, 57 seconds

Call Sign: Rodnik (Spring - water spring)

Mir Mission Designation: EO-6

Thermal protection sheets on the capsule came loose. On 17 July 1990, Solovyov and Belandin went out to repair the insulation. With the job mostly complete, and running low on oxygen, they reentered Mir through the Kvant-2 module. The airlock hatch would not close properly. Fortunately, the design of Kvant-2 allowed the men to use the middle compartment as an airlock to reenter. Another spacewalk on 25 July finally ot the hatch to close properly.

The lesson learned from this was that on all future hatch designs, the hatch opened inwardly so that cabin air pressure could hold a hatch closed in the event of a latching failure.

crew
Crew

 


Page last modified: 20 June 2022 16:58:58.