Soyuz TM-20

Launch & orbit data: Designation  23288 / 94063A Launch date - time  03 Oct 1994 - 22:42:30 UT Launch site  Baikonur, LC1 Launch vehicle  Soyuz 11A511U2 OKB name - S/N°  Soyuz 7K-STM (11F732) s/n° 69 Mass (kg)  7.150 Flight Crew  Viktorenko, Aleksandr (CDR) Kondakova, Yelena (FE) Merbold, Ulf (CR) Call Sign  Vityaz (Knight) Earth orbit on :    - Perigee / Apogee  390 x 396 km    - Inclination  51.65 deg    - Period  92.42 min

Docking & landing data: Docking date - time  06 Oct 1994 - 00:28:15 UT Target spacecraft/port  Mir/fore Undocking date - time  22 Mar 1995 - 00:43:08 UT Deorbit burn date - time  22 Mar 1995 - 03:08:14 UT separate: 03:37 UT re-enter: 03:40 UT Landing date - time  22 Mar 1995 - 04:04:05 UT Landing location  54 km NE of Arkalyk (50° 31' N, 67° 21' E) Flight Duration (d:hr:min)  169:05:22 Nbr orbits   Landing crew  Poliakov, Viktorenko, Kondakova  (crew TM-18 & TM-20)

Launch Crew (EO-17):

Backup Crew

The Mir station seen against space during one of the Shuttle-Mir missions. - Credit: NASA.

• Launch from Baikonur; landing 54 km northeast of Arkalyk; docking on MIR spacestation; exchange of resident crew partly; Viktorenko, Kondakova and long-term cosmonaut Polyakov became 17th resident crew of the station; scientific research program to test organism in weightlessness and long duration missions; when crew landed, Polyakov was onboard and is now world record holder (438 days in space in one flight)
• Mir Expedition EO-17. Docked at the Mir forward port at 00:28 on 1994 October 6. The Mir crew of Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov boarded Soyuz TM-20 on January 11, and undocked from Mir's front port at 09:00 GMT. The spacecraft withdrew to about two hundred metres from Mir and then redocked in a test of the automatic Kurs system, which had failed in Progress M-24's attempted docking. Redocking came at 09:25 GMT. Soyuz TM-20 landed 22 km northeast of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan at 04:04 GMT on March 22, 1995.