Soyuz TM-3

This article is about the spacecraft. For the expedition which it launched, see Mir EO-2.
Soyuz TM-3
Mission duration 160 days, 7 hours, 25 minutes, 56 seconds
Orbits completed ~2,580
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type Soyuz-TM
Manufacturer NPO Energia
Launch mass 7,100 kilograms (15,700 lb)
Crew
Crew size 3
Members Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov
Launching Alexander Viktorenko
Muhammed Faris
Landing Yuri Romanenko
Anatoli Levchenko
Callsign Vityaz (Knight)
Start of mission
Launch date 22 July 1987, 01:59:17 UTC[1]
Rocket Soyuz-U2
Launch site Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date 29 December 1987, 09:16:15 UTC
Landing site 140 kilometres (87 mi) NE of Arkalyk
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Perigee 297 kilometres (185 mi)
Apogee 353 kilometres (219 mi)
Inclination 51.6 degrees
Period 91.0 minutes
Docking with Mir


Soyuz programme
(Manned missions)
 Soyuz TM-2 Soyuz TM-4

Soyuz TM-3 was the fourth manned spacecraft to visit the Soviet space station Mir. It was launched in July 1987, during the long duration expedition Mir EO-2, and acted as a lifeboat for the second segment of that expedition. There were three people aboard the spacecraft at launch, including the two man crew of the week-long mission Mir EP-1, consisting of Soviet cosmonaut Alexander Viktorenko and Syrian Muhammed Faris. Faris was the first Syrian to travel to space, and as of November 2010, the only one. The third cosmonaut launched was Aleksandr Aleksandrov, who would replace one of the long duration crew members Aleksandr Laveykin of Mir EO-2. Laveykin had been diagnosed by ground-based doctors to have minor heart problems, so he returned to Earth with the EP-1 crew in Soyuz TM-2.[2]

Soyuz TM-3 landed near the end of December 1987, landing both members of the EO-2 crew, as well as potential Buran (spacecraft) shuttle pilot Anatoli Levchenko, who had been launched to Mir a week earlier aboard Soyuz TM-4.

Crew

Position Launching crew Landing crew
Commander Soviet Union Alexander Viktorenko
Mir EP-1
First spaceflight
Soviet Union Yuri Romanenko
Mir EO-2
Third spaceflight
Flight Engineer Soviet Union Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov
Mir EO-2
Second spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut Syria Muhammed Faris
Mir EP-1
First spaceflight
Soviet Union Anatoli Levchenko
Mir LII-1
First spaceflight

Mission parameters

Mir with Kvant module and Soyuz TM-3 supply ship

References

  1. "Soyuz TM-3". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  2. D.S.F.Portree (1995). "Mir Hardware Heritage". NASA. Retrieved 11 November 2010.