Expedition EO-26

Russia

'EO' is the Russian abbreviation for 'primary expedition'

Crew & mission data:

No.:	1	2
Exp.crew:	Padalka, Gennadi	Avdeyev, Sergei
Job:	CDR	Flight Engineer
Launch vehicle:	Soyuz TM-28	Soyuz TM-28
Docking date/time:	15 Aug 1998 - 10:56:54	15 Aug 1998 - 10:56:54
Undocking date/time:	27 Feb 1999 - 22:55:11	27 Aug 1999 - 21:17:01
Landing vehicle:	Soyuz TM-28	Soyuz TM-29
Mir-mission duration:	198d 16h 31m?	379d 14h 52m?
Orbits on Mir:	3144?	6007?

EVA data:

EVAs	Date	Duration	Cosmonauts
EVA-1
EVA-2

Mission details:

Mir Expedition EO-026
Gennadiy Padalka and Sergey Avdeev have completed one month in space, continuing their mission on the Mir orbital station. On Sep 15, 1998 they put on spacesuits, depressurized the PKhO compartment of the Mir core module and entered Spektr at 2000 UTC. They reconnected some cables for the solar panel steering mechanism and closed the hatch at 2030 UTC. The PKhO was then repressurized.
Padalka and Avdeev made a spacewalk from the Kvant-2 airlock on the Mir complex on Nov 10, 1998. Hatch open was Nov 10 1924 UTC and hatch closed was Nov 11 0118 UTC. They installed a meteorite detector in preparation for the Leonid shower, and hand-launched the Sputnik-41 amateur-radio minisatellite at around 1930 UTC. Sputnik-41 is a scale model of the first satellite, PS-1, launched 41 years ago. It carries a small transmitter, and is also designated RS-18. A similar model was launched last year. Sponsors of the satellite are Aero Club de France, AMSAT-France, and the Astronautical Federation of Russia.
The Mir space station remains in orbit with Gennady Padalka and Sergey Avdeev aboard. The first of several orbit-raising burns was made on Jan 27, 1999.
Progress M-40 undocked on Feb 4, 1999 at 0959 UTC, but the attempt to deploy the Znamya-2.5 reflector ran into trouble when it caught on an antenna. Two attempts failed to deploy the antenna, and the experiment was abandoned. Progress M-40 fired its engines for the deorbit burn at 1016 UTC on Feb 5 and reentered over the Pacific.
At 1123 UTC on Feb 8, 1999 Padalka and Avdeev undocked from Mir's -X port in Soyuz TM-28, and redocked at the +X Kvant port at 1139 UTC, freeing up the front port for the planned Soyuz TM-29 docking.
Soyuz TM-29 docked with Mir on Feb 22, 1999 at 0536 UTC.
On Feb 27 EO-26 crew commander Gennady Padalka and Ivan Bella entered Soyuz TM-28 and undocked from the Kvant rear docking port at 2252 UTC, landing in Kazakstan at 0214 UTC on Feb 28.

Astrophilately covers:

EVA 10.11.98 cancel Korolev. Credit: J. Vd Dr.

Sputnik handlaunch, cancel Korolev. Credit: J. Vd Dr.

Ref.: #7(JR373,380,387,388,390), #415 - update: 20.04.19

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