Cargo spacecraft "Progress M-41"

Mission:

• Delivery of cargo to the orbital station "Mir"
• Progress M-41 was launched on Apr 2. The automatic cargo ship, based on the Soyuz spaceship, docked with the Mir complex two days later. A Soyuz-U (11A511U) launch vehicle placed it in a 51.6 degree parking orbit, and the onboard engines were used to carry out the rendezvous sequence.
• On the Mir orbital station, Viktor Afanasev and Jean-Pierre Haignere made a spacewalk on Apr 16, 1999 for 6h 19m during which Haignere launched by hand the Sputnik 99 amateur radio satellite. The satellite was delivered by Progress M-41 in April.

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Baikonur. Credit: J. Vd Dr.

Docking cancel Korolev. Credit: J. Vd Dr.