Soyuz TM-19 was a crewed

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис ...

spaceflight to

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

. It launched on 1 July 1994, at 12:24:50 UTC.

Crew

Mission highlights

Commander Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Musabayev, both spaceflight rookies, were to have been launched with veteran

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

Gennadi Strekalov Gennady Mikhailovich Strekalov (russian: Генна́дий Миха́йлович Стрека́лов; 26 October 1940 – 25 December 2004) was an engineer, cosmonaut, and administrator at Russian aerospace firm RSC Energia. He flew into sp ...

, who would have returned to Earth with Viktor Afanasyev and

Yuri Usachov Yury Vladimirovich Usachov (russian: Юрий Владимирович Усачёв; born October 9, 1957) is a former cosmonaut who resides in Star City, Moscow. Usachov is a veteran of four spaceflights, including two long duration missions on b ...

Soyuz TM-18 Soyuz TM-18 was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome and landed 112 km north of Arkalyk. TM-18 was a two-day solo flight that docked with the ''Mir'' space station on January 10, 1994. The three cosmonauts became the 15th resident crew on board ...

after a few days on Mir. However, the cancellation of one of two

Progress-M Progress-M (russian: Прогресс-М, GRAU indices 11F615A55 and 11F615A60), also known as Progress 7K-TGM, is a Russian, previously Soviet spacecraft which is used to resupply space stations. It is a variant of the Progress spacecraft, or ...

cargo ships scheduled to resupply

during the Agat crew's stay meant that Strekalov's couch had to carry supplies. The result was the first all-rookie Soyuz flight since

Soyuz 25 Soyuz 25 (russian: Союз 25, ''Union 25'') was an October, 1977, Soviet crewed space flight, the first to the new Salyut 6 space station, which had been launched 10 days earlier. However, the mission was aborted when cosmonauts Vladimir Koval ...

in October of 1977. Docking occurred without incident on July 3. Both cosmonauts and Doctor

Valeri Polyakov Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov (russian: Валерий Владимирович Поляков, born Valeri Ivanovich Korshunov, russian: Валерий Иванович Коршунов, 27 April 1942 – 7 September 2022) was a Soviet and Rus ...

(who had arrived on Soyuz TM-18) became the 16th resident crew; many technical problems with the station arose during this expedition, necessitating a previously-untried manual supply docking by Malenchenko. On November 3, Malenchenko, Musabayev and Merbold undocked in Soyuz TM-19 and backed 190m from Mir. They then activated the Kurs automatic approach system, which successfully redocked the spacecraft. The cosmonauts then transferred back to Mir. The test was related to the difficulties

Soyuz TM-20 Soyuz TM-20 was the twentieth expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir. It launched Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Viktorenko Aleksandr Stepanovich Viktorenko (; born 29 March 1947) is a Soviet/Russian cosmonaut. He was selected as a cosmon ...

and

Progress M-24 Progress M-24 (russian: Прогресс М-24, italic=yes) was a Russian uncrewed cargo spacecraft which was launched in 1994 to resupply the Mir space station; causing minor damage to the station as the result of a collision during a failed attem ...

experienced during their automatic approaches. Final undocking and reentry occurred the following day without incident.

Mission accomplishments

*Docked with

*Partial crew exchange *Conducted medical experiments *Conducted materials experiments *Malenchenko and Musabayev perform EVA on 09.09.1994 (5h 6m) to repair station's external insulation *Both cosmonauts repeat EVA on 14.09.1994 (6h 1m) for same purpose *First successful manual docking of a

Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension w ...

supply ship

Notes

{{Orbital launches in 1994 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 1994