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Soyuz TM-19
Part of Mir
Mir EO-16
Mir EO-16
Credit: www.spacefacts.de
Mir Expedition EO-16. Soyuz TM-19 docked at the rear port of the Kvant module (vacated by Progress M-23 on July 2) at 13:55:01 GMT on July 3. Soyuz TM-19 undocked from Mir at 07:29 GMT on November 4. The Soyuz instrument module (PAO, priborno-agregatniy otsek) fired its deorbit engine, and was jettisoned together with the orbital module (BO, bitovoy otsek) at 10:51 GMT, with entry interface for the descent module (SA, spuskaemiy apparat) at 10:54. It landed 170 km north-east of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan on 1994 November 4 at 11:18 GMT.

AKA: Agat (Agate);Mir EO-16. Launched: 1994-07-01. Returned: 1994-11-04. Number crew: 2 . Duration: 125.95 days.

Mir Expedition EO-16. Soyuz TM-19 docked at the rear port of the Kvant module (vacated by Progress M-23 on July 2) at 13:55:01 GMT on July 3. Soyuz TM-19 undocked from Mir at 07:29 GMT on November 4. The Soyuz instrument module (PAO, priborno-agregatniy otsek) fired its deorbit engine, and was jettisoned together with the orbital module (BO, bitovoy otsek) at 10:51 GMT, with entry interface for the descent module (SA, spuskaemiy apparat) at 10:54. It landed 170 km north-east of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan on 1994 November 4 at 11:18 GMT.

Narrative (adapted from D S F Portree's Mir Hardware Heritage, NASA RP-1357, 1995)

Soyuz TM-19 arrived at Mir with the Principal Expedition 16 crew of Yuri Malenchenko and Talgat Musabayev on 3 July. Valeri Polyakov, who had arrived on Mir with the Principal Expedition 15 crew, remained aboard on his long-duration mission. The EO-15 crew returned uneventfully aboard Soyuz TM-18 on 9 July.

Progress M-24 arrived at Mir on 27 August but ran into problems. The freighter's first automatic docking attempt failed. During the second attempt, on August 30, Progress M-24 bumped into Mir's forward longitudinal port two to four times at low speed, then drifted away. The Agat crew was running low on supplies, so the Russians gave consideration to mothballing Mir in late September in the event Progress M-24 could not dock. Ground controllers stated that the station had sufficient propellant to operate in unmanned mode for 4 months. On September 2 Malenchenko took manual control of Progress M-24 using a control panel on Mir. A TV on Mir displayed an image of the station's front port transmitted from cameras on Progress M-24; the same image appeared on screens in the TsUP. In an impressive demonstration of remote piloting, Malenchenko docked Progress M-24 without additional incident. The technique had been tested using Progress M-15 and Progress M-16 during Principal Expedition 13 (1993).

Malenchenko and Musabayev opened the Kvant 2 EVA airlock outer hatch on September 9 to begin humanity's 100th spacewalk. During the spacewalk, which lasted 5 hr, 4 min, they inspected the docking port struck by Progress M-24—it proved to be undamaged—and mended a thermal blanket torn when Soyuz TM-17 struck the station on January 14. They also prepared equipment for moving the Kristall solar arrays to Kvant, and affixed test materials to Mir's exterior.

On September 14 cosmonauts Musabayev and Malenchenko carried out assembly work connected with the ongoing effort to move Kristall's solar arrays to supports on Kvant. They also inspected the Sofora girder. The EVA lasted 6 hr, 1 min.

On 6 October, 1994, Mir Principal Expedition 17 (Alexandr Viktorenko and Yelena Kondakova) arrived at Mir together with ESA astronaut Ulf Merbold aboard Soyuz TM-20, Valeri Polyakov was again to remain aboard on his record duration flight. During final approach, Soyuz TM-20 yawed unexpectedly. He assumed manual control and completed docking without incident. Kondakova, the mission rookie, was the third Russian female cosmonaut and the first female to take part in a long duration flight. Ulf Merbold was a physicist and veteran of two U.S. Space Shuttle missions. The month-long Euromir 94 experiment program was considered a precursor to the ESA Columbus module planned for the joint U.S.-Russia-ESA-Japan-Canada space station. Merbold's program was planned rapidly, final agreement between ESA and Russian having been concluded in November 1992. It was also constrained by funding limitations—ESA budgeted only about $60 million for Euromir 94. Because of these limitations, Merbold relied heavily on equipment left on Mir by earlier French, Austrian, and German visitors to the station, as well as the Czech-built CSK-1 materials processing furnace. He also used equipment delivered by Progress M-24 and Soyuz TM-20. Merbold's experiment program included 23 life sciences, 4 materials sciences, and 3 technology experiments.

On October 11 the six cosmonauts aboard Mir were unable to activate a video camera and TV lights while recharging Soyuz TM-20's batteries. A short circuit had disabled the computer which guided Mir's solar arrays, forcing the station to drain its batteries. The cosmonauts used reaction control thrusters on the Soyuz TM-spacecraft docked to the station to orient it so its solar arrays would point toward the Sun, and switched on a backup computer. Normal conditions were restored by October 15. According to Yuri Antoshechkin, Deputy Flight Director for Mir Systems, speaking in December at JSC, the shortage afflicted only the Mir core module. Antoshechkin stated through an interpreter that unspecified minor crew error, coupled with a long period out of contact with monitors in the TsUP (caused by Altair/SR relay satellite "prophylactic work") during a crew sleep period, contributed to the base block discharging its batteries unnoticed, and that an automatic alarm awakened the crew when the power shortage reached a critical level.

Ground teams rescheduled Merbold's experiments to allow completion of those interrupted by the power problems, and moved experiments using large amounts of electricity to the end of Merbold's stay. In addition, the Czech-built CSK-1 furnace malfunctioned, forcing postponement of five of Merbold's experiments until after his return to Earth.

On November 3 Malenchenko, Musabayev, and Merbold undocked in Soyuz TM-19 and withdrew to a distance of 190 m. They then activated its Kurs system, which successfully guided the spacecraft to an automatic docking with Mir's aft port. The cosmonauts then went back into Mir. The test was a response to the Progress M-24 docking problems. If it had failed, the Soyuz TM-19 cosmonauts would have made an emergency return to Earth.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on an 11-day atmospheric research mission on November 3. French astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy was aboard as a mission specialist. In remarks made after Atlantis' launch, ESA Director-General Jean- Marie Luton stated that there was "a French astronaut flying on an American Space Shuttle to perform experiments from U.S., French, German, and Belgian scientists....Meanwhile, on Russia's Mir space station, ESA astronaut Ulf Merbold is completing a month-long mission, the longest in European spaceflight. By the end of the decade, this level of cooperation will be routine aboard the international space station."

On November 4 Merbold again squeezed into the Soyuz- TM 19 descent module, together with the EO-16 crew of Malenchenko and Musabayev, and 16 kg of the life sciences samples he collected during his stay on the station. Additional samples -- including materials processing samples to be produced when the Principal Expedition 17 cosmonauts carry out the experiments Merbold was to have conducted during his stay -- were to be returned to Earth by Space Shuttle Atlantis in mid-1995. Soyuz TM-19 undocking, deorbit burn, reentry, and landing occurred without significant incident.


More at: Soyuz TM-19.

Family: Manned spaceflight. People: Malenchenko, Musabayev. Spacecraft: Soyuz TM.
Photo Gallery

Mir EO-16Mir EO-16
Credit: www.spacefacts.de



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