Expedition EO-21

Crew & mission data: No.: 1 2 3 Exp.crew:  Onufriyenko, Yuri  Usachyov, Yuri  Lucid, Shannon Job:  CDR  Flight Engineer  Research cosmonaut Launch vehicle:  Soyuz TM-23  Soyuz TM-23  STS-76 Docking date/time:  23 Feb 1996 - 14:20:35  23 Feb 1996 - 14:20:35  24 Mar 1996 - 02:34:05 Undocking date/time:  02 Sep 1996 - 04:20:00  02 Sep 1996 - 04:20:00  26 Sep 1996 Landing vehicle:  Soyuz TM-23  Soyuz TM-23  STS-79 Mir-mission duration:  193d 19h 07m?  193d 19h 07m?  188d 04h 00m? Orbits:  3066?  3066?  2977?

EVA data:

Mission details:

• Mir Expedition EO-21
• Soyuz TM-23 docked with Mir at 1420:35 on Feb 23, 1996. The new crew of Yuri Onufrienko and Yuri Usachyov are working aboard the station. The Mir complex is in a 390 x 398 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
• On Feb 22 at 0726 UTC the Progress M-30 cargo ship undocked, and it was deorbited over the Pacific at 1428 UTC.
• On Feb 29 the previous crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter undocked from Mir in Soyuz TM-22.
• EO-21 astronauts Yuriy Onufrienko and Yuriy Usachyov made a spacewalk on Mar 15, 1996. They left the Kvant-2 airlock at 0104 UTC and installed a second Strela crane on the Mir base block. The Strela is used to move spacewalkers and their equipment from one side of the station to another. The existing one wouldn't reach the Kristall module, which the new one will allow. The spacewalkers also went to the Kvant (37KE) module and did preparatory work for attaching a new solar array. Duration of the space walk was 5h 51m.
• Shuttle STS-76 docked with Mir on March 24, 1976.
• After STS-76 undocking on March 29, Mission Specialist-4, Dr. Shannon Lucid, remains aboard the Mir complex and is now Mir EO-21 Kosmonavt-Issledovatel' (Cosmonaut-Researcher).
• Priroda module (spacecraft No. 77KSI) docked with Mir at 1243 UTC on Apr 26, 1996. This is the first time one of the 77KS modules has docked on the first attempt.
• All modules of station "Mir"  (except for "Kvant" ) was first docked to front port and latter the own manipulator arm pivoted the module at the proper radial port.
  On Apr 27, Priroda was due to be rotated from the -X port to the +Z port. Kristall is at -Z, Kvant-2 at +Y, Spektr at -Y, and Kvant at +X. The Soyuz TM-23 craft is docked to the +X port of Kvant, and the Stikovochnoy Otsek (Docking Module) is attached at the -Z port of Kristall.
• Progress M-31 docked at the -X port on Mir at 0854 UTC on May 7, 1996. On Apr 27 the Priroda module was rotated from -X to +Z. The batteries used to power Priroda on its trip to Mir have been removed from the module and will be placed in Progress M-31 for disposal during reentry.
• Yuri Onufrienko Yuri Usachyov made a second spacewalk on May 20, 1996 at 2250 UTC. The cosmonauts removed the US/Russian Mir Cooperative Solar Array (MCSA) from its location on the exterior of the 316GK Stikovochnoy Otsek (Docking Compartment) and carried it to the other end of the complex using the Strela-2 crane. The MCSA was attached to the 37KE Kvant module, opposite another panel which was added last year. The EVA concluded at 0410 UTC on May 21 after 5h 20m.
• The third spacewalk began on May 24 at 2047 UTC. Onufrienko and Usachyov completed the installation of the MCSA and connected it electrically. The spacewalk was concluded on May 25 at 0230 UTC. The MCSA panel was deployed from its initial folded configuration on May 25.
• Onufrienko and Usachyov made their 4th spacewalk from 1820 UTC to 2240 UTC on May 30, 1996. They installed the European MOMS-2 earth resources camera on the Priroda module's science platform. Flight engineer-2 Shannon Lucid remained inside the complex.
• The Mir EO-21 crew's 5th EVA took place at 1656 UTC on Jun 6 and lasted 3 hr 34 min. Onufrienko and Usachyov installed experiments to study the space environment on the outer surface of the station.
• EVA-6 took place on Jun 13, and involved the filming of the second part of a commercial for Pepsi-Cola. It lasted 5 hr 42 min.
• The Mir complex lowered its orbit on Jul 2, 1996 and Jul 4 to prepare for the arrival of Soyuz TM-24 with the new Mir crew. Mir is now in a 376 x 390 km x 51.6 deg orbit; in June it had been in a 326 x 429 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The ferry ship will be launched by a Soyuz-U rocket instead of the uprated Soyuz-U2 usually used, and the Soyuz-U isn't powerful enough to reach Mir′s standard orbit.
• Progress M-32 docked with the Mir complex at the forward (-X) docking port at 2203 UTC on Aug 02. The old cargo ship, Progress M-31, undocked from the same port on Aug 01 at 1645 UTC and was deorbited over the south Pacific later that day.
• The Progress M-32 cargo craft undocked from Mir on Aug 18 at 0934 UTC in order to free up a docking port for Soyuz TM-24. It will remain in orbit and will redock with Mir on Sep 3.
• Soyuz TM-24 docked with Mir′s front port at 14:50:21 GMT on August 19; Mir was in a 375 x 390 km x 51.6 deg orbit. It carries the EO-22 crew of Valeriy Korzun and Aleksandr Kaleri of the Russian Space Agency (RKA) and Claudie Andre-Deshays of the French space agency CNES.
• Soyuz TM-23 undocked from Mir on September 02 at 04:20 GMT, and landed 100 km SW of Akmola in Kazakstan with Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachyov and Claudie Andre-Deshays.

Astrophilately covers:

Cosmic Mail: Cover with new red Mir boardcancel, docking date boardcancel: 230296 and undocking date boardcancel: 020996, signed by the complete crew TM-23 and STS-76.

Cosmic Mail: Cover with new red and blue Mir boardcancel, docking STS-76 boardcancel: 240396, signed by the EO-21 and STS-76 crew.

Cover with 3 Mir boardcancels, special 35y anniversairy Gagarin cancel and date cancel 120496, signed by the EO-21 crew.

Cosmic Mail: Cover with new red Mir boardcancel, docking Priroda boardcancel: 260496, signed by the EO-21 crew.

Cosmic Mail: Cover with new red Mir boardcancel, docking Progress M-31 boardcancel: 070596, letter send to crew on Mir.