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.
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COSPAR ID | 1988-075A ![]() |
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SATCAT no. | 19443 |
Mission duration | 114 days, 5 hours, 33 minutes, 49 seconds |
Orbits completed | ~1,840 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | Soyuz-TM |
Manufacturer | NPO Energia |
Launch mass | 7,070 kilograms (15,590 lb) |
Crew | |
Crew size | 3 |
Launching | Vladimir Lyakhov Valeri Polyakov Abdul Mohmand |
Landing | Vladimir Titov Musa Manarov Jean-Loup Chrétien |
Callsign | Прото́н (Proton) |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 29 August 1988, 04:23:11 (1988-08-29UTC04:23:11Z) UTC[1] |
Rocket | Soyuz-U2 |
Launch site | Baikonur 1/5 |
End of mission | |
Landing date | 21 December 1988, 09:57:00 (1988-12-21UTC09:58Z) UTC |
Landing site | [1] 160 kilometres (99 mi) SE of Dzhezkazgan |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Docking with Mir | |
Docking date | 31 August 1988, 05:40:44 UTC |
Undocking date | 21 December 1988, 02:32:54 UTC |
![]() Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) |
On September 8, Soyuz TM-6 was undocked from Mir's Kvant port and redocked onto the Mir Base Block's port.[3] 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.
Position | Launching crew | Landing crew |
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Commander | ![]() Mir EP-3 Third spaceflight |
![]() Mir EO-3 Third spaceflight |
Research Doctor/Flight Engineer | ![]() Mir EO-3 / Mir EO-4 First spaceflight |
![]() Mir EO-3 First spaceflight |
Research Cosmonaut | ![]() Mir EP-3 First spaceflight |
![]() Mir Aragatz Second spaceflight |
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.
Soyuz programme | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Main topics |
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Past missions (by spacecraft type) |
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Current missions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Future missions |
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Uncrewed missions are designated as Kosmos instead of Soyuz; exceptions are noted "(uncrewed)". The † sign designates failed missions. Italics designates cancelled missions. |
Interkosmos programme | ||
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Satellites |
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Manned flights |
Human spaceflights to Mir | ||
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1986–1990 | ![]() | |
1991–1995 | ||
1996–2000 |
← 1987 · Orbital launches in 1988 · 1989 → | |
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Kosmos 1908 | Kosmos 1909 · Kosmos 1910 · Kosmos 1911 · Kosmos 1912 · Kosmos 1913 · Kosmos 1914 | Gorizont No.25L | Progress 34 | Kosmos 1915 | Meteor-2 No.20 | USA-29 | Kosmos 1916 | USA-30 | Kosmos 1919 · Kosmos 1917 · Kosmos 1918 | Kosmos 1920 | Kosmos 1921 | Sakura 3a | Kosmos 1922 | Zhongxing-1 | Kosmos 1923 | Kosmos 1924 · Kosmos 1925 · Kosmos 1926 · Kosmos 1927 · Kosmos 1928 · Kosmos 1929 · Kosmos 1930 · Kosmos 1931 | Molniya-1 No.65 | Spacenet 3R · Telecom 1C | Kosmos 1932 | Kosmos 1933 | IRS-1A | Molniya-1 No.64 | Kosmos 1934 | Progress 35 | Kosmos 1935 | San Marco 5 | Kosmos 1936 | Gorizont No.26L | Kosmos 1937 | Kosmos 1938 | Foton No.4L | Kosmos 1939 | Transit-O 23 · Transit-O 32 | Kosmos 1940 | Kosmos 1941 | Ekran No.31L | Kosmos 1942 | Progress 36 | Kosmos 1943 | Intelsat VA F-13 | Kosmos 1944 | Kosmos 1945 | Kosmos 1946 · Kosmos 1947 · Kosmos 1948 | Molniya-3 No.49 | Kosmos 1949 | Kosmos 1950 | Kosmos 1951 | Soyuz TM-5 | Kosmos 1952 | Kosmos 1953 | Meteosat 3 · PAS-1 · OSCAR-13 | Nova 2 | Kosmos 1954 | Kosmos 1955 | Kosmos 1956 | Okean-O1 No.5 | Kosmos 1957 | Fobos 1 | Unnamed | Fobos 2 | SROSS-B | Kosmos 1958 | Progress 37 | Kosmos 1959 | INSAT-1C · ECS-5 | Meteor-3 No.3 | Resurs-F1 No.30 | Kosmos 1960 | Kosmos 1961 | Fanhui Shi Weixing I-02 | Kosmos 1962 | Molniya-1 No.66 | Kosmos 1963 | Gorizont No.28L | Kosmos 1964 | Kosmos 1965 | Transit-O 25 · Transit-O 31 | Soyuz TM-6 | Kosmos 1966 | USA-31 | USA-32 | Kosmos 1967 | Fengyun I-01 | GStar-3 · SBS-5 | Kosmos 1968 | Progress 38 | Kosmos 1969 | Kosmos 1970 · Kosmos 1971 · Kosmos 1972 | Sakura 3b | Ofek-1 | Kosmos 1973 | NOAA-11 | Molniya-3 No.51 | STS-26 (TDRS-3) | Kosmos 1974 | Kosmos 1975 | Kosmos 1976 | Gran' No.34L | Kosmos 1977 | Kosmos 1978 | TDF 1 | USA-33 | Unnamed | Buran 1K1 (37KB No.3770) | Kosmos 1979 | Kosmos 1980 | Kosmos 1981 | Soyuz TM-7 | Kosmos 1982 | STS-27 (USA-34) | Kosmos 1983 | Ekran-M No.12L | Skynet 4B · Astra 1A | Kosmos 1984 | Zhongxing-2 | Molniya-3 No.52 | Kosmos 1985 | Progress 39 | Molniya-1 No.63 | Kosmos 1986 | |
Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( | ). Crewed flights are indicated in underline. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in (brackets). |