# Mir Hardware Heritage/Part 4 - Comparative Chronology of U.S. and Soviet/Russian Manned Spaceflight

| Part 4 Comparative Chronology of U.S. and Soviet/Russian Manned Spaceflight | This chronology is included to serve as a reference for the main body of this work, permitting the reader to place hardware evolution in historical context. For brevity’s sake, the chronology is incomplete up to 1970. Soviet missions are set apart by bold dates and names. Joint U.S.-Soviet/Russian missions are italicized. |
| 1961 | April 12 | Vostok 1—Yuri Gagarin completes one orbit of the Earth in 108 min. First manned spaceflight. |
| May 5 | Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7)—Alan Shepard completes a 297-mile suborbital flight lasting 14 min. |
| 1962 | February 20 | Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7)—John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth. |
| 1963 | June 14-19 | Vostok 5—Valeri Bykovski spends nearly 5 days in space. This remains a record for the longest single-person flight. During his flight, Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, passes within 10 km in Vostok 6. This is not an active rendezvous—close approach occurs because Vostok 6 was launched into an orbit which closely matched that of Vostok 5. |
| 1964 | October 12-13 | Voskhod 2—Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov spend 26 hr in orbit aboard a modified Vostok. Leonov conducts humanity’s first EVA. EVA duration—24 min. |
| 1965 | March 18-19 | Voskhod 2—Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov spend 26 hr in orbit aboard a modified Vostok. Leonov conducts humanity’s first EVA. EVA duration—24 min. |
| March 23 | Gemini 3—Virgil Grissom and John Young complete three orbits. Gemini is the first manned spacecraft capable of orbit changes. |
| December 4-18 | Gemini 7—Frank Borman and James Lovell spend nearly 14 days (longer than typical lunar mission duration) orbiting the Earth. Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford ride Gemini 6 into orbit on December 15. Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 achieve the first active rendezvous between manned spacecraft, coming to within 30 cm of each other. |
| 1966 | March 16 | Gemini 8—Neil Armstrong and David Scott dock with an unmanned Agena target vehicle. This is the first docking between vehicles in orbit. Shortly after docking, a stuck thruster on Gemini 8 forces an emergency splashdown. |
| November 28-30 | Cosmos 133—Unmanned first test of Original Soyuz. |
| December | Launch failure—A Soyuz launch vehicle carrying an unmanned Original Soyuz explodes, destroying its launch pad. The Soyuz orbital and descent modules are dragged to safety by the launch escape system. |
| 1967 | January 27 | AS-204—Fire aboard the first Apollo CSM spacecraft scheduled for manned flight kills Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee during a rehearsal on the launch pad. |
| February 7-9 | Cosmos 140—Unmanned Original Soyuz test. |
| March 10-18 | Cosmos 146—Unmanned first flight of a simplified L1 (Zond). The flight is primarily intended to test the Block D fourth stage of the Proton. The Block D restarts twice. |
| April 8-10 | Cosmos 154—Unmanned L1 test. It fails to test the high-velocity reentry characteristics of the L1 because the Block D fourth stage fails to restart. |
| April 23-24 | Soyuz 1—At the end of a trouble-plagued flight, Vladimir Komarov dies when his descent module parachute system fails. |
| September 28 | Launch failure—An L1 ejects from its four-stage Proton launch vehicle when one of the six engines in the rocket’s first stage fails to operate. The launch escape system rescues the descent module. |
| October 27- November 2 | Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188 are unmanned Soyuz spacecraft. They carry out the first automatic docking on October 30. |
| November 9 | Apollo 4—First flight of the Saturn V booster. It carries no crew. NASA declares the flight a complete success. |
| November 22 | Launch failure—An L1 ejects when the second stage of its Proton rocket fails. |
| 1968 | January 22 | Apollo 5—An uprated Saturn I rocket launches the first Apollo lunar module (LM) on a successful unmanned test flight. |
| March 2-9 | Zond 4 reaches an apogee of 400,000 km, but is lost. |
| April 4 | Apollo 6—Second unmanned test of the Saturn V rocket. The second stage shuts down prematurely after undergoing excessive vibration. The third stage refuses to restart once in orbit. Portions of the shroud linking the Apollo CSM and the third stage rip loose during ascent. |
| April 14-20 | Cosmos 212 and Cosmos 213 are unmanned Soyuz craft. They dock on April 15. |
| April 23 | Launch failure—An L1 escape system triggers inadvertently during second stage operation of its Proton rocket. |
| August 28- September 1 | Cosmos 238 is a successful unmanned Original Soyuz test. |
| September 14-21 | Zond 5 ends its unmanned circumlunar flight by making an unplanned splashdown in the Indian Ocean. |
| October 11-22 | Apollo 7—Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham are the first astronauts to fly in an Apollo spacecraft. They spend nearly 11 days in Earth orbit testing the Apollo CSM. |
| October 25-30 | Soyuz 2 and Soyuz 3—Georgi Beregevoi, in Soyuz 3, twice pproaches the unmanned Soyuz 2 spacecraft, but is unable to dock. |
| November 10-17 | Zond 6 flies around the Moon. It crashes after reentry, but its film cassettes are recovered. |
| December 21-27 | Apollo 8—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders complete ten lunar orbits. It is the first manned flight of a Saturn V rocket. |
| 1969 | January 14-18 | Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first docking between two manned spacecraft. Alexei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov conduct a spacewalk between the docked craft, leaving Boris Volynov at the controls of Soyuz 5. Vladimir Shatalov welcomes them aboard Soyuz 4. The spacecraft then return separately to the Soviet Union. |
| January 20 | Launch failure—A four-stage Proton launch vehicle malfunctions. Its L1 payload ejects. |
| April 4 | Apollo 6—Second unmanned test of the Saturn V rocket. The second stage shuts down prematurely after undergoing excessive vibration. The third stage refuses to restart once in orbit. Portions of the shroud linking the Apollo CSM and the third stage rip loose during ascent. |
| February 20 | N-1 test—The first test of the Soviet equivalent of the Saturn V ends in an explosion 70 sec after launch. Its simplified L1 payload ejects and is recovered downrange (figure 4-1). |
| March 3-13 | Apollo 9—David Scott, James McDivitt, and Russell Schweickart test the LM Spider in Earth orbit. First manned flight of the LM. |
| July 16-24 | Apollo 11—Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin become the first humans on the Moon. LM Eagle lands on July 20. Michael Collins remains in orbit aboard the CSM Columbia. |
| August 7-14 | Zond 7 carries out an unmanned circumlunar flight. It is the most successful of the L1 missions. |
| October 11-18 | Soyuz 6, Soyuz 7, and Soyuz 8—Soyuz 6 tests space station-related hardware. Soyuz 7 and 8 rendezvous, but do not dock. The crew of Soyuz 6 is Georgi Shonin and Valeri Kubasov; Soyuz 7, Anatoli Filipchenko, Viktor Gorbatko, and Vladislav Volkov; and Soyuz 8, Vladimir Shatalov and Alexei Yeliseyev.v |
| November 14-24 | Apollo 12—LM Intrepid lands on Oceanus Procellarum on November 19. Intrepid’s crew is Pete Conrad and Alan Bean. Richard Gordon remains in lunar orbit in Yankee Clipper. |
| 1970 | April 11-17 | Apollo 13—CSM Odyssey is disabled by an onboard explosion, scrubbing the third U.S. lunar landing attempt. Aquarius, the LM, serves as a lifeboat for James Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert. |
                               Figure 4-1. Saturn V (left) and N-1 (drawn to scale). Manned Moon rockets.
| June 1-19 | Soyuz 9 orbits Earth for 17 days, 17 hr, the longest manned spaceflight up to this time. Andrian Nikolayev and Vitali Sevastyanov test space station equipment, observe Earth, and carry out medical tests related to long-duration spaceflight. |
| October 20-27 | Zond 8 conducts an unmanned circumlunar flight. This is the last L1 mission. |
| November 24 | Cosmos 379 launch—First unmanned test of the T2K version of the L3 manned lunar lander in Earth orbit (figure 4-2). |
| 1971 | January 31- February 9 | Apollo 14—LM Antares lands at Fra Mauro on February 5. Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell walk on the Moon and Stuart Roosa remains in lunar orbit aboard the CSM Kitty Hawk. |
| February 26 | Cosmos 398 launch—Unmanned test in orbit of the T2K version of the Soviet L3 manned lunar lander. It maneuvered under remote control until March 3. |
| April 19 | Salyut 1/DOS-1 launch on a three-stage Proton. First space station. |
| April 22-24 | Soyuz 10—Vladimir Shatalov, Alexei Yeliseyev, and Nikolai Rukavishnikov are unable to enter Salyut 1. |
| June 6-29 | Soyuz 11—Cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patseyev, and Vladislav Volkov set a new space endurance record by spending 22 days aboard Salyut 1, the longest stay by humans in space up to this time. During reentry the air escapes from their descent module. They do not wear pressure suits, so they are killed. |
| June 27 | N-1 test—The rocket undergoes structural failure. L2 (first launched) (figure 4-3) and L3 test articles crash near the pad, and the rocket impacts downrange. |
Figure 4-2. L3 (left) and Apollo LM (drawn to scale). Manned Moon landers.
| July 26- August 7 | Apollo 15—LM Falcon lands at Hadley Rille on July 30. David Scott and James Irwin cover 27 km on their lunar roving vehicle (LRV). Alfred Worden orbits the Moon 74 times in the CSM Endeavour. |
| August 12 | Cosmos 434—This is the last of three successful unmanned tests of the T2K version of the L3 lunar lander in Earth orbit. |
| 1972 | April 16-27 | Apollo 16—LM Orion lands at Descartes on April 20. John Young and Charles Duke drive an LRV on the surface while Kenneth Mattingly orbits the Moon in CSM Casper. |
| June 26-July 2 | Cosmos 496 is an unmanned test of the Soyuz space station ferry. |
| July 29 | Salyut launch failure—The second DOS-type space station fails to reach orbit. |
                               Figure 4-3. Apollo CSM (top) and L2 (drawn to scale). Command ships for the Moon voyage.
| November 23 | N-1 test ends in a first stage explosion at 40 km altitude. The descent and orbital modules of the L2 are plucked free of the rocket by the launch escape system. This is the fourth and final N-1 test. |
| December 7-19 | Apollo 17—LM Challenger sets down at Taurus-Littrow on December 11. Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan are the last men on the Moon. Ronald Evans remains in the CSM America in orbit. This is the last human flight beyond low Earth orbit and the last flight of the successful LM spacecraft.. |
| 1973 | April 3-May 28 | Salyut 2/Almaz 1 launch—First of the primarily military Almaz-type Salyuts. Salyut 2 breaks up soon after reaching orbit. |
| May 11-22 | Cosmos 557/DOS-3 launch—Fails shortly after reaching orbit. |
| May 14 | Skylab 1—The first U.S. space station is damaged during launch atop the last Saturn V to fly. |
| May 25-June 22 | Skylab 2—Pete Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz travel to the Skylab 1 station aboard their Skylab 2 Apollo CSM. They spend part of their 28 days in orbit repairing the station, yet still manage to complete their experimental program. |
| June 15-17 | Cosmos 573 is an unmanned test of the Soyuz Ferry. |
| July 28- September 25 | Skylab 3—Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott spend 56 days in the Skylab Orbital Workshop. |
| September 27-29 | Soyuz 12—Vasili Lazarev and Oleg Makarov conduct the first manned test of the Soyuz Ferry. |
| November 16- February 8, 1974 | Skylab 4—Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue are the last U.S. crew to date to live aboard a space station. This is the longest U.S. space mission to date (84 days). |
| November 30- January 29, 1974 | Cosmos 613 is an unmanned test of the Soyuz Ferry vehicle in long-duration orbital storage. |
| December 18-26 | Soyuz 13—Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk use the Soyuz orbital module as a laboratory for conducting experiments of the kind planned for future space stations. |
| 1974 | April 3-13 | Cosmos 638 is the first unmanned test of the Soyuz modified for ASTP. The spacecraft carries the APAS-75 androgynous docking system. |
| June 24 | Salyut 3/Almaz 2 launch. |
| July 3-19 | Soyuz 14—Pavel Popovich and Yuri Artyukhin live aboard the Salyut 3 station for 16 days. |
| August 12-18 | Cosmos 672 is the second unmanned test of the ASTP Soyuz. |
| August 26-28 | Soyuz 15—Gennadi Sarafanov and Lev Demin fail to dock with Salyut 3. |
| September 23 | Salyut 3/Almaz 2 capsule reenters, is recovered. The station reenters on January 24, 1975. |
| December 2-8 | Soyuz 16—Anatoli Filipchenko and Nikolai Rukavishnikov test the ASTP Soyuz. |
| December 26 | SSalyut 4/DOS-4 launch. |
| 1975 | January 10- February 9 | Soyuz 17—Alexei Gubarev and Georgi Grechko live aboard Salyut 4. |
| April 5 | “The April 5 Anomaly” is the Soviet name for the only suborbital manned flight of the Soviet space program. A problem develops in the booster carrying the Soyuz 18a (Western designation) spacecraft, necessitating an abort late in the ascent phase of the mission. Vasili Lazarev and Oleg Makarov land unhurt 1800 km east of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. |
| May 24-July 26 | Soyuz 18—Pyotr Klimuk and Vitali Sevastyanov live for 62 days aboard Salyut 4. Called Soyuz 18b in the West. |
| July 15-July 24 | Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)—Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov, aboard Soyuz 19, dock in low Earth orbit with the last U.S. Apollo CSM. Soyuz 19 lands on July 21. Tom Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald Slayton are the last U.S. astronauts in space until 1981. |
| November 17- February 16, 1976 | Soyuz 20—Unmanned Progress-related test. Docks with Salyut 4. |
| 1976 | June 22 | Salyut 5/Almaz 3 launch. |
| July 6-August 24 | Soyuz 21—Boris Volynov and Vitali Zholobov spend 49 days on Salyut 5. |
| September 15-23 | Soyuz 22—Valeri Bykovskii and Vladimir Aksyonov conduct an Earth observation mission using the backup ASTP Soyuz. |
| October 14-16 | Soyuz 23—Vyacheslav Zudov and Valeri Rozhdestvenski are unable to dock with Salyut 5. |
| November 29- December 17 | Cosmos 869—Unmanned test of Soyuz-T. |
| December 15 | Cosmos 881 and Cosmos 882 are two Transport Logistics Spacecraft (TKS) capsules (Merkur capsules) launched atop a Proton rocket. They reenter and are recovered the same day. |
| 1977 | February 7-25 | Soyuz 24—Viktor Gorbatko and Yuri Glazkov are the last crew to stay aboard Salyut 5. |
| February 26 | Salyut 5 capsule reenters—The last Almaz Salyut station reenters on August 8, 1977. |
| July 17- February 2, 1978 | Cosmos 929 is the first flight of a TKS. It is put through unmanned maneuvering and propulsion system tests. The Merkur capsule lands in the Soviet Union after a month in orbit. The FGB is guided to destructive reentry on February 2, 1978. |
| August 4 | Launch failure destroys one Merkur capsule (the lower one) of a Proton launched dual Merkur capsule test. The top capsule is plucked free by the launch escape system. |
| September 29 | Salyut 6/DOS-5 launch. |
| October 9-11 | Soyuz 25—Vladimir Kovalyonok and Valeri Ryumin are unable to hard dock with the front port of Salyut 6. |
| December 10 | Soyuz 26—Yuri Romanenko and Georgi Grechko dock at the rear port of Salyut 6. |
| 1978 | January 10 | Soyuz 27 launch—Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Oleg Makarov dock with the Salyut 6 front port on January 10. They return to Earth in the Soyuz 26 spacecraft on January 16. |
| January 20- February 8 | Progress 1—The unmanned, Soyuz-based space station logistics support craft delivers supplies to Salyut 6. It docks at the aft port on January 22. |
| March 2-10 | Soyuz 28—Vladimir Remek (Czechoslovakia) becomes the first non-U.S., non-Soviet space traveler. Remek and Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Gubarev visit Salyut 6. This is the first flight in the Intercosmos program, which involved joint flights by Soviet cosmonauts and guest cosmonauts from countries with ties to the U.S.S.R. |
| March 16 | Soyuz 27 reentry—Grechko and Romanenko return to Earth after 96 days in space. This beats the 84-day space endurance record held by the U.S. Skylab 4 astronauts since early 1974. |
| March 30 | Cosmos 997 and Cosmos 998 are two Merkur capsules launched on a single three-stage Proton rocket. They reenter and are recovered the same day. |
| April 4-15 | Cosmos 1001—Unmanned test of Soyuz-T. |
| June 15 | Soyuz 29 launch—Vladimir Kovalyonok and Alexander Ivanchenkov travel to Salyut 6. |
| July 7-August 4 | Progress 2 |
| June 27-July 5 | Soyuz 30—Miroslaw Hermaszewski (Poland) and Pyotr Klimuk visit Salyut 6. |
| August 7-23 | Progress 3. |
| August 26 | Soyuz 31 launch—Sigmund Jahn (East Germany) and Valeri Bykovski visit Salyut 6. They return to Earth aboard Soyuz 29 on September 3. |
| October 3-26 | Progress 4. |
| November 2 | Soyuz 31 reentry—Kovalyonok and Ivanchenkov return to Earth after 139 days on Salyut 6. |
| 1979 | January 31- April 1 | Cosmos 1074 is an unmanned long-duration test flight of the Soyuz-T spacecraft. |
| February 25 | Soyuz 32 launch—Vladimir Lyakhov and Valeri Ryumin travel to Salyut 6. |
| March 12- April 5 | Progress 5. |
| April 10-12 | Soyuz 33—A main engine malfunction forces Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Georgi Ivanov (Bulgaria) to abort docking with Salyut 6. |
| May 13-June 9 | Progress 6. |
| May 22-23 | Cosmos 1100-1101—The last dual Merkur capsule test. |
| June 6 | Soyuz 34 launch—The spacecraft, which carries no crew, is intended to replace the aging Soyuz 32 spacecraft. Soyuz 32 undocks unmanned on June 13 and returns 280 kg of experiment results and disused equipment to the Soviet Union. Ryumin and Lyakhov continue work in orbit. |
| June 28-July 20 | Progress 7 |
| July 11 | Skylab reenters over Australia. |
| August 19 | Soyuz 34 reentry—Lyakhov and Ryumin return to Earth after 175 days in space. |
| December 16- March 25, 1980 | Soyuz-T 1 docks automatically with Salyut 6 in the third unmanned test of the new Soyuz derivative. |
| 1980 | March 27-April 26 | Progress 8. |
| April 9 | Soyuz 35 launch—Leonid Popov and Valeri Ryumin (making his second longduration flight in less than a year) lift off for the Salyut 6 station. They dock on April 10. |
| April 27-May 22 | Progress 9. |
| May 26 | Soyuz 36 launch—This joint Soviet-Hungarian mission marks the resumption of international flights to Salyut 6 following the Soyuz 33 main engine malfunction. Valeri Kubasov and Bertalan Farkas (Hungary) return to Earth aboard Soyuz 35. |
| June 5-9 | Soyuz-T 2—First manned test flight of Soyuz-T. Yuri Malyshev and Vladimir Aksyonov spend 2 days on Salyut 6 before returning to Earth. |
| June 29-July 19 | Progress 10. |
* July 23
| September 18-26 | Soyuz 38—Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez (Cuba) and Yuri Romanenko visit Salyut 6. |
| September 28- December 11 | Progress 11. |
| October 11 | Soyuz 37 reentry—Valeri Ryumin and Leonid Popov return to Earth after 185 days in space. |
| November 27- December 10 | Soyuz-T 3—Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov, and Gennadi Strekalov spend 13 days refurbishing the aging Salyut 6 station. |
| 1981 | January 24- March 20 | Progress 12. Last Progress to visit Salyut 6. |
| March 12 | Soyuz-T 4 launch—Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh arrive at the Salyut 6 station. |
| March 22-30 | Soyuz 39—Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Judgerdemidiyin Gurragcha (Mongolia) visit the Salyut 6 station. |
| April 12-14 | STS-1—On the first Space Shuttle mission, astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen spend 2 days testing Space Shuttle Columbia in orbit. This is the first flight by U.S. astronauts since 1975 (figure 4-4). |
| April 25 | Cosmos 1267, a TKS, is launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton rocket. On May 26 its Merkur capsule separates and lands in the Soviet Union. |
| May 14-22 | Soyuz 40—Leonid Popov and Dumitru Prunariu (Romania) fly the last of the Soyuz ferries to Salyut 6. |
| May 26 | Soyuz-T 4 reentry—Kovalyonok and Savinykh are the last cosmonauts to leave Salyut 6. |
| June 19 | The Cosmos 1267 FGB docks with Salyut 6. |
| November 12-14 | STS-2—Richard Truly and Joe Engle are forced to cut their planned 5-day Space Shuttle test mission by 3 days because of a fuel cell problem. |
| 1982 | March 22-30 | STS-3—Jack Lousma and Gordon Fullerton test Columbia. |
| April 19 | Salyut 7 launch atop a three-stage Proton rocket. |
| May 13 | Soyuz-T 5 launch—Anatoli Berezevoi and Valentin Lebedev become the first cosmonauts to dock with Salyut 7. |
| May 23-June 6 | Progress 13. |
Figure 4-4. Space Shuttle Orbiter and Soyuz-TM (drawn to scale). Current spacecraft used by humans to travel in space.
| June 24-July 2 | Soyuz-T 6—Jean-Loup Chretien (France), Vladimir Dzhanibekov, and Alexander Ivanchenkov visit Salyut 7. |
| June 27-July 4 | STS-4—Ken Mattingly and Henry Hartsfield carry out the fourth and last Space Shuttle test flight. |
| July 10-August 13 | Progress 14. |
| July 29 | The Salyut 6/Cosmos 1267 complex deorbits using Cosmos 1267’s engines. |
| August 19 | Soyuz-T 7—Leonid Popov, Alexander Serebrov, and Svetlana Savitskaya visit the Salyut 7 station. They return to Earth in Soyuz T-5 on August 27. |
| September 18- October 16 | Progress 15. |
| October 31- December 14 | Progress 16. |
| November 11-16 | 'STS-5—Vance Brand, Robert Overmyer, Joseph Allen, and William Lenoir fly Columbia on the first operational Shuttle mission. |
| December 10 | Soyuz-T 7 reentry—Lebedev and Berezevoi return to Earth after 211 days in space. |
| 1983 | March 2- September 19 | Cosmos 1443, a TKS, reaches orbit atop a three-stage Proton rocket. It docks with Salyut 7 on March 10. It undocks on August 14, and its Merkur capsule lands on August 23. On September 19 the FGB is commanded to a destructive reentry. |
| April 4-9 | STS-6—Paul Weitz, Karol Bobko, Donald Peterson, and Story Musgrave are the crew for the first flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger. |
| April 20-22 | Soyuz-T 8—Vladimir Titov, Gennadi Strekalov, and Alexander Serebrov are unable to dock with Salyut 7. |
| June 18-24 | STS-7—Robert Crippen, Frederick Hauck, Sally Ride, John Fabian, and Norman Thagard are the crew for the second flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger. |
| June 27 | Soyuz-T 9 launch—Vladimir Lyakhov and Alexander Alexandrov fly to Salyut 7. |
| August 17- September 18 | Progress 17. |
| August 30- September 5 | STS-8—Richard Truly, Dan Brandenstein, Dale Gardner, Guion Bluford, and William Thornton are the crew of Challenger. |
| September 26 | Pad Abort—Vladimir Titov and Gennadi Strekalov narrowly escape death when fire and explosion destroy their booster on the launch pad seconds before planned liftoff. The explosion consumes the launch pad. Soyuz-T 10a (as it is known in the West) constitutes a Salyut 7 refurbishment mission. |
| October 20- November 16 | Progress 18. |
| November 23 | Soyuz-T 9 reentry—Lyakhov and Alexandrov return to the Soviet Union in Soyuz-T 9 after spending 149 days in space. |
| November 28- December 8 | STS-9—John Young, Brewster Shaw, Owen Garriott, Robert Parker, Ulf Merbold, and Byron Lichtenberg work inside the joint ESA-NASA Spacelab module in Columbia’s cargo bay. Merbold is a European Space Agency astronaut from West Germany. During the flight, Columbia overflies Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Soviet manned spaceflight launch center, permitting Young to photograph the Energia launch vehicle on its launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome. |
| 1984 | February 3-11 | STS 41-B—Challenger carries aloft astronauts Vance Brand, Robert Gibson, Robert Stewart. Bruce McCandless, and Ronald McNair for the tenth mission of the Shuttle series. On February 7 and February 9, McCandless and Stewart conduct test flights of the manned manuevering unit (MMU). |
| February 8 | Soyuz-T 10 launch—Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov, and Oleg Atkov lift off for Salyut 7. This mission is sometimes called Soyuz T-10b in the West. |
| February 21-April 1 | Progress 19. |
| April 3 | Soyuz-T 11 launch—The spacecraft docks at Salyut 7’s aft port bearing Yuri Malyshev, Gennadi Strekalov, and Rakesh Sharma (India). They return to Earth in the Soyuz-T 10 spacecraft on April 11. |
| April 6-13 | STS 41-C—Bob Crippen, Dick Scobee, Terry Hart, George Nelson, and James van Hoften reach orbit aboard Challenger. They deploy the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), a Salyut-sized passive satellite, and rendezvous with and repair the Solar Maximum Mission (Solar Max) satellite. |
| April 15-May 7 | Progress 20. |
| May 7-May 26 | Progress 21. |
| May 28-July 15 | Progress 22. |
| July 17-29 | Soyuz-T 12—Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Svetlana Savitskaya, and Igor Volk visit the Salyut 7 station. Volk is a Soviet space shuttle test pilot. Immediately after return to Earth, he conducts simulated shuttle landings in a training aircraft. |
| August 14-28 | Progress 23. |
| August 30- September 5 | STS 41-D—Henry Hartsfield, Michael Coats, Judith Resnik, Richard Mullane, Steven Hawley, and Charles Walker are the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery on its maiden flight. They deploy a prototype space station solar array. |
| October 2 | Soyuz-T 11 reentry—Kizim, Solovyov, and Atkov return to Earth after 237 days in space. |
| October 5-13 | STS 41-G—Robert Crippen, Jon McBride, Sally Ride, Kathryn Sullivan, David Leestma, Marc Garneau, and Paul Scully-Power are Challenger’s seven crew members. |
| November 8-16 | STS 51-A—Rick Hauck, David Walker, Joe Allen, Anna Fisher, and Dale Gardner ride Discovery. They recover two satellites launched on STS 41-B for resale. |
| 1985 | January 24-27 | STS 51-C is the first U.S. Department of Defense-dedicated Space Shuttle light. Discovery’s crew is Thomas Mattingly, Loren Shriver, Ellison Onizuka, James Buchli, and Gary Payton. |
| March 2 | Salyut 7 career declared ended—The Soviets announce unexpectedly that the station is no longer to be staffed. They lost contact with the station in early February. By the end of March they change their minds and decide to attempt a repair mission. |
| April 12-19 | STS 51-D—Karol Bobko, Don Williams, Rhea Seddon, David Griggs, Jeff Hoffman, Charles Walker, and Jake Garn are the crew of Discovery. |
| April 29-May 6 | STS 51-B—Robert Overmyer, Frederick Gregory, Don Lind, Norman Thagard, William Thornton, Taylor Wang, and Lodewijk van den Berg fly Challenger on the STS 51-B mission. Spacelab 3 is the primary payload. |
| June 6 | Soyuz-T 13 launch and Salyut 7 rescue—Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh lift off for Salyut 7. They dock June 8. Salyut 7 is rolling, with its solar arrays pointing at random. The interior of the station is covered with frost. All of its batteries are depleted, and two are ruined. The cosmonauts determine that a sun sensor failure prevented Salyut 7 from recharging its batteries. They restore power, thaw out the station, and find that the attitude control system is still functional. This permits Progress 24 to dock on June 23, with a badly-needed cargo of replacement parts and fuel for Salyut 7. |
| June 17-24 | STS 51-G—Dan Brandenstein, John Creighton, Steve Nagel, John Fabian, Shannon Lucid, Sultan Salman Abdul Aziz Al Sa’ud (Saudi Arabia), and Patrick Baudry (France) launch three satellites and conduct proximity operations with Spartan 1. Discovery also participates in a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) test. |
| June 21-July 15 | Progress 24. |
| July 19-August 30 | Cosmos 1669—This is a test flight of Progress upgraded to service Mir. It delivers cargo to Salyut 7. |
| July 29-August 6 | STS 51-F—Gordon Fullerton, Roy Bridges, Story Musgrave, Karl Henize, Anthony England, Loren Acton, and John-David Bartoe make up Challenger’s crew. A main engine sensor problem during ascent forces the crew to execute Abort-to-Orbit contingency procedures. The low orbit reached by the Shuttle has only a minor impact on Spacelab 3’s astronomy-focused science program. |
| August 27- September 3 | STS 51-I—Joe Engle, Dick Covey, Mike Lounge, James van Hoften, and September 3 Bill Fisher make up the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery. They rendezvous with the Leasat 3 satellite, stranded in low Earth orbit since its kick motor malfunctioned after deployment on STS 51-D. Bill Fisher and James van Hoften successfully repair the Leasat. |
| September 17 | Soyuz-T 14 launch—Carries Vladimir Vasyutin, Georgi Grechko, and Alexander Volkov to Salyut 7. Vladimir Dzhanibekov returns to Earth with Georgi Grechko in Soyuz–T 13 on September 26. Vasyutin, Volkov, and Savinykh remain on the station. |
| September 27 | Cosmos 1686 is a transitional vehicle between the TKS and dedicated space station modules. It docks at Salyut 7’s front port on October 2. It is an FGB with a Merkur capsule heavily modified to house scientific instruments. |
| October 3-7 | STS 51-J is a dedicated Department of Defense mission. It is the first flight of the fourth orbiter, Atlantis, and the twenty-first flight of the Shuttle program. Its crew was Karol Bobko, Ronald Grabe, David Hilmers, Robert Stewart and William Pailes. |
| October 30- November 6 | STS 61-A is the fourth Spacelab mission, and the first chartered by another country (West Germany). Ernst Messerschmid and Reinhard Furrer, from West Germany, Wubbo Ockels, representing the European Space Agency, and Americans Henry Hartsfield, Steve Nagel, Bonnie Dunbar, James Buchli, and Guion Bluford make up Challenger’s eight-person crew, the largest ever to fly into space on a single spacecraft. |
| November 26- December 3 | STS 61-B—Brewster Shaw, Bryan O’Connor, Sherwood Spring, Mary Cleave, Jerry Ross, Charles Walker, and Mexican astronaut Rodolfo Neri-Vela make up the crew of Atlantis. During EVAs, Spring and Ross conduct space structure assembly exercises. |
| November 21 | Soyuz-T 14 reentry—Mission commander Vladimir Vasyutin became seriously ill aboard Salyut 7 in late October. On this date Vasyutin, Volkov, and Savinykh return to Earth, cutting short their mission, which had been planned to continue until at least January 1986. Savinykh spent 216 days in space; the others, 65 days. |
| 1986 | January 12-18 | STS 61-C—Columbia makes the twenty-fourth flight of the Space Shuttle program. Its crew is Robert Gibson, Charles Bolden, George Nelson, Steven Hawley, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Robert Cenker, and Bill Nelson. |
| January 28 | STS 51-L—At liftoff on an unusually cold Florida morning, an O-ring in the right solid rocket booster (SRB) of Space Shuttle Challenger is crushed when SRB segments shift at main engine ignition. This is not unusual, but the unusually low temperatures mean that the O-ring fails to reseat itself to form a seal against the SRB’s hot exhaust gases. Flames open and rapidly expand a hole in the O-ring seal. About 70 sec after liftoff, the booster stack—SRBs and external tank—begins to disintegrate. About 73 sec after liftoff, Space Shuttle Challenger breaks up. Challenger lacks escape systems. Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ron McNair, Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory Jarvis perish. This is the last U.S. manned spaceflight until September 1988. |
| February 19 | Mir launch. |
| March 13 | Soyuz-T 15 launch—Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov become the first cosmonauts to board Mir on March 15. They activate Mir’s systems and commence systems checks. |
| March 19-April 21 | Progress 25 is the first Progress vehicle to service Mir. It incorporates improvements pioneered by Cosmos 1669. |
| April 23-June 23 | Progress 26. |
| May 5-June 25 | Soyuz-T 15 transfer to Salyut 7—Kizim and Solovyov undock from Mir on May 5. They dock their Soyuz T-15 spacecraft with the rear port of the Salyut 7-Cosmos 1686 complex on May 6. They salvage equipment from Salyut 7 for use on Mir. They also perform two EVAs to assemble a 12-m beam. They undock from Salyut 7 on June 25 and fly back to Mir. |
| May 21-30 | Soyuz-TM 1—First flight of the latest version of Soyuz. It docks unmanned with Mir on May 23, then undocks and returns to Earth. |
| June 26-July 16 | Soyuz-T 15 transfer to Mir and reentry—Kizim and Solovyov deliver to Mir equipment recovered from Salyut 7. They then mothball the station and return to Earth. |
| 1987 | January 16- February 25 | Progress 27. |
| February 5 | Soyuz-TM 2 launch—Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Laveikin travel to Mir. |
| March 3-March 28 | Progress 28. |
| March 31 | Kvant launch—The Soviets launch Kvant, the first Mir space station module, atop a Proton rocket. Kvant fails to dock with Mir on April 5 because of a docking transponder problem. On April 9 it achieves soft dock, but cannot make hard dock. Laveikin and Romanenko perform an unrehearsed EVA to investigate the problem. They discover a foreign object jammed in the docking mechanism. Kvant achieves hard dock April 12. Its FSM detaches on April 13 and undergoes uncontrolled reentry on August 25, 1988. |
| April 21-May 11 | Progress 29. |
| May 15 | Energia—The Soviets launch the first Energia rocket. It carries the unmanned 80-ton Polyus space platform. An FGB-based propulsion/service module is designed to complete orbital insertion and provide attitude control and orbit maintenance. An attitude control problem prevents the orbital insertion burn. |
| May 19-July 19 | Progress 30. |
| July 22 | Soyuz-TM 3 launch—Alexander Viktorenko, Alexander Alexandrov, and Mohammed Faris (Syria) dock at the Kvant port on July 24. Alexandrov remains onboard Mir, and Laveikin returns to Earth with Victorenko and Faris in Soyuz-TM 2 on July 30. |
| August 3- September 23 | Progress 31. |
| September 23- November 19 | Progress 32. |
| November 20- December 19 | Progress 33. |
| December 21 | Soyuz-TM 4 launch—Anatoli Levchenko, Musa Manarov, and Vladimir Titov arrive at Mir. Levchenko, a pilot for the Soviet space shuttle, returns to Earth in Soyuz-TM 3 on December 29 with Alexandrov and Romanenko. Within half an hour of touchdown, Levchenko takes the controls of a Tu-154 aircraft to test whether his flight proficiency has been hampered by spending a week in space. Romanenko spent 326 days in space. Manarov and Titov remain on Mir, beginning a 365-day stay in space. |
| 1988 | January 20-March 4 | Progress 34. |
| March 23-May 5 | Progress 35. |
| May 13-June 5 | Progress 36. |
| June 7 | Soyuz-TM 5 launch—Bulgarian cosmonaut Alexandr Alexandrov and Russian cosmonauts Viktor Savinykh and Anatoli Solovyov travel to the Mir station. They return to Earth in Soyuz-TM 4 on June 17, leaving Soyuz-TM 5 for Manarov and Titov. |
| July 18- August 12 | Progress 37. |
| August 29 | Soyuz-TM 6 delivers Vladimir Lyakhov, Valeri Polyakov, and Abdul Ahad Mohmand (Afghanistan) to the Mir station. Polyakov remains on Mir with Manarov and Titov, while Mohmand and Lyakhov depart in Soyuz-TM 5 on September 6. They discard the orbital module before firing the main engine, a practice begun with the early flights of the Soyuz-T. This practice permits the spacecraft to burn more fuel for orbital maneuvers; with no orbital module to deorbit, less fuel need be retained for the deorbit burn at the end of the mission. Orientation sensor and software problems force them to remain aloft an extra day in their cramped descent capsule with neither docking apparatus nor sanitary facilities. After this the orbital module is retained until after a successful deorbit burn. |
| September 9- November 23 | Progress 38. |
| September 29- October 3 | STS-26—Frederick Hauck, Richard Covey, John Lounge, George Nelson, and David Hilmers reach orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. They deploy a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS). This is the first launch of American astronauts since January 1986. Return-to-flight modifications include more stringent launch-commit criteria, SRB redesign, and escape apparatus. |
| November 15 | Buran—The first Buran reusable space shuttle lifts off on an Energia launch vehicle. The test flight carries no crew. Touchdown is on a runway at Baikonur Cosmodrome, a few km from its launch pad (figure 4-5). |
| November 26- December 21 | Soyuz-TM 7 launch—Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev, and Jean-Loup Chretien (France) arrive at Mir aboard Soyuz-TM 7. The French spationaute spends 25 days on Mir before returning to Earth with Manarov and Titov in Soyuz-TM 6 on December 21. Polyakov remains behind with Volkov and Krikalev. |
| December 2-6 | STS-27 is a Department of Defense Space Shuttle mission. The crew of Atlantis for this flight is Robert Gibson, Guy Gardner, Richard Mullane, Jerry Ross, and William Shepherd. |
| December 25- February 7, 1989 | Progress 39. |
| 1989 | February 10- March 5 | Progress 40. |
| March 12-18 | STS-29—Michael Coats, John Blaha, James Buchli, Robert Springer, and James Bagian are the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery. They deploy a TDRS. |
| March 16- April 25 | Progress 41. |
Figure 4-5. Soyuz rocket (left), Space Shuttle (center), and Energia-Buran (right) (drawn to scale). Rockets currently used to launch manned spacecraft into orbit.
| April 27 | Soyuz-TM 7 reentry—Polyakov, Krikalev, and Volkov return to Earth. Mir is left unmanned because of delays in the arrival of expansion modules for its lateral ports. |
| May 4-8 | STS-30—David Walker, Ronald Grabe, Norman Thagard, Mary Cleave, and Mark Lee launch the Venus-bound Magellan interplanetary probe from Atlantis’s payload bay. |
| August 8-13 | STS-28—Brewster Shaw, Richard Richards, David Leestma, James Adamson, and Mark Brown are the crew of Columbia for a Department of Defense mission. |
| August 23- December 1 | Progress-M 1—First flight of an advanced Progress incorporating many Soyuz-TM features. |
| September 5 | Soyuz-TM 8 launch—The spacecraft docks with Mir’s aft port with cosmonauts Alexandr Serebrov and Alexandr Viktorenko aboard. |
| October 18-23 | STS-34—Donald Williams, Michael McCulley, Shannon Lucid, Ellen Baker, and Franklin Chang-Diaz deploy the Galileo Jupiter probe from the cargo bay of Atlantis |
| November 22-27 | STS-33—Frederick Gregory, John Blaha, Story Musgrave, Kathryn Thornton, and Manley Carter are the crew of Discovery for this Department of mission. |
| November 26 | Kvant 2 launch atop a Proton rocket. It docks with Mir’s front port on December 6, and is berthed at a lateral port on December 8. |
| December 20- February 9, 1990 | Progress-M 2. |
| 1990 | January 9-20 | STS-32—Columbia recovers the LDEF, which was launched on STS 41-C in 1984. Its crew is Daniel Brandenstein, James Wetherbee, Bonnie Dunbar, G. David Low, and Marsha Ivins. |
| February 11 | Soyuz-TM 9 launch—Carries cosmonauts Anatoli Solovyov and Alexandr Balandin. They relieve Serebrov and Viktorenko, who depart in Soyuz TM-8 on February 19. During approach, Serebrov and Viktorenko spotted damage to the thermal blankets on Soyuz-TM 9. Balandin and Solovyov make an unscheduled EVA to repair their spacecraft on July 17. |
| February 28- March 4 | STS-36 is a Department of Defense mission using Atlantis. Its crew is John Creighton, John Casper, David Hilmers, Richard Mullane, and Pierre Thuot. |
| February 28- April 28 | Progress-M 3. |
| April 24-29 | STS-31—Loren Shriver, Charles Bolden, Steven Hawley, Bruce McCandless, and Kathryn Sullivan are the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery. They deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. |
| May 5-May 27 | Progress 42. |
| May 31 | Kristall launch—The module docks with Mir’s forward port on June 10, and is berthed at a lateral port the following day. |
| August 1 | Soyuz-TM 10 launch—The transport spacecraft docks with Mir on August 3 carrying cosmonauts Gennadi Manakov and Gennadi Strekalov. |
| August 9 | Soyuz-TM 9 reentry—Balandin and Solovyov return to Earth after about 6 months in space. |
| August 15- September 20 | Progress-M 4. |
| October 6-10 | STS-41—Richard Richards, Robert Cabana, Bruce Melnick, William Shepherd, and Thomas Akers deploy the Ulysses solar polar probe from Discovery’s cargo bay. |
| November 15-20 | STS-38—For this Department of Defense mission, Atlantis’s crew is Richard Covey, Frank Culbertson, Robert C. Springer, Carl Meade, and Charles Gemar. |
| September 27- November 28 | Progress-M 5—After undocking from Mir and completing its deorbit burn, it detaches a Raduga recoverable capsule. The capsule, the first of its kind, carries 100 kg of space-made materials and experiment results from the Mir station. Progress-M 5 burns up as planned, and the capsule is recovered in the Soviet Union. |
| December 2-10 | STS-35—Vance Brand, Guy Gardner, Jeffrey Hoffman, John Lounge, Robert Parker, Samuel Durrance, and Ronald Parise operate a payload of astronomy instruments in Columbia’s cargo bay. |
| December 2 | Soyuz-TM 11 launch—It docks with Mir on December 4 carrying cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Viktor Afanaseyev, and Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama. Akiyama returns to Earth with Manakov and Strekalov aboard Soyuz-TM 10 on December 10. |
| 1991 | January 14- March 16 | Progress-M 6. |
| February 7 | Salyut 7/Cosmos 1686 reenters over Argentina. |
| March 19-May 7 | Progress-M 7 nearly collides with Mir during two docking attempts at the aft port on March 21. Manarov and Afanaseyev dock manually at Mir’s aft port on March 26, permitting Progress-M 7 to dock at the front port on March 28. On April 25 they perform an EVA to repair the damaged aft rendezvous antenna. |
| April 5-11 | STS-37—Atlantis carries the Gamma Ray Observatory into space. Its crew consists of Steven Nagel, Kenneth Cameron, Jerry Ross, Jerome Apt, and Linda Godwin. Ross and Apt perform an EVA to free a stuck antenna on the Gamma Ray Observatory. |
| April 28-May 6 | STS-39—Michael Coats, L. Blaine Hammond, Gregory Harbaugh, Donald McMonagle, Guion Bluford, Lacy Veach, and Richard Hieb are Discovery’s crew. |
| May 7 | Progress-M 7 deorbits and detaches a recoverable capsule carrying 115 kg of space-made materials and experiment results from Mir. The capsule fails to operate correctly and is lost. |
| May 18 | Soyuz-TM 12 launch—The transport docks with Mir on May 20 carrying Sergei Krikalev, Anatoli Artsebarski, and British cosmonaut Helen Sharman. The two Soviet cosmonauts relieve Manarov and Afanaseyev, who return to Earth in Soyuz-TM 11 with Sharman on May 26. |
| May 30-August 16 | Progress-M 8. |
| June 5-14 | STS-40 is the Spacelab Life Sciences 1 mission. Columbia carries Bryan O’Connor, Sidney Gutierrez, M. Rhea Seddon, James Bagian, Tamara Jernigan, F. Drew Gaffney, and Millie Hughes-Fulford into space. |
| August 2-11 | STS-43—John Blaha, Michael Baker, Shannon Lucid, G. David Low, and James C. Adamson are the crew of Atlantis. |
| August 20- September 30 | Progress-M 9. Deploys a recoverable capsule, which is successfully recovered. |
| September 12-18 | STS-48—John Creighton, Kenneth Reightler, James Buchli, Mark Brown, and Charles Gemar are the crew of Discovery. They deploy the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. |
| October 2 | Soyuz-TM 13 launch—Russian cosmonaut Alexandr Volkov, Kazakh cosmonaut Toktar Aubakirov, and Austrian cosmonaut Franz Viehboeck leave Earth for Mir. Aubakirov, Viehboeck, and Anatoli Artsebarski return to Earth on October 10 in Soyuz-TM 12, leaving Soyuz TM-13, Volkov, and Sergei Krikalev at the Mir station. |
| October 17- January 20, 1992 | Progress-M 10. Deploys a recoverable capsule. |
| November 24- December 1 | STS-44—Frederick Gregory, Terrence Henricks, Story Musgrave, Mario Runco, James Voss, and Thomas Hennen perform unclassified Department of Defense experiments aboard Atlantis. |
| 1992 | January 22-30 | STS-42—Discovery carries International Microgravity Laboratory 1. Its crew is Ronald Grabe, Stephen Oswald, David Hilmers, Norman Thagard, William Readdy, Ulf Merbold, and Roberta Bondar. |
| January 25- March 13 | Progress-M 11. |
| March 17 | Soyuz-TM 14 launch—Alexandr Viktorenko, Alexandr Kaleri, and Klaus-Dietrich Flade (Germany) leave Kazakh territory for Mir (Russian territory). Flade returns to Earth in Soyuz TM-13 with Krikalev and Volkov on March 25. Krikalev spent 311 days on Mir. |
| March 24-April 2 | STS-45—Charles Bolden, Brian Duffy, Kathryn Sullivan, David Leestma, C. Michael Foale, Dirk Frimout, and Byron Lichtenberg operate the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS) 1 payload in Atlantis’s payload bay. |
| April 19-June 27 | Progress-M 12. |
| May 7-16 | STS-49 is the first flight of the Shuttle Endeavour. Its crew is Daniel Brandenstein, Kevin Chilton, Pierre Thuot, Kathryn Thornton, Richard Hieb, Thomas Akers, and Bruce Melnick. Thuot, Hieb, Thornton, and Akers perform a series of four EVAs to test space station assembly methods and to capture and repair the Intelsat VI satellite. |
| June 25-July 9 | STS-50—Columbia carries U.S. Microgravity Laboratory 1. Its crew is Richard Richards, Kenneth Bowersox, Bonnie Dunbar, Ellen Baker, Carl Meade, Lawrence DeLucas, and Eugene Trinh. |
| June 30-July 24 | Progress-M 13. |
| July 27 | Soyuz-TM 15 launch—Docks with Mir on July 29 carrying cosmonauts Anatoli Solovyov, Sergei Avdeyev, and Michel Tognini (France). Tognini returns to Earth with Viktorenko and Kaleri on August 10 in Soyuz-TM 14. Their Earth-landing system malfunctions, so the capsule lands hard and comes to rest upside down, trapping the crew until it can be turned over. |
| July 31-August 8 | STS-46—Atlantis deploys the Italian-built Tethered Satellite System and ESA’s EURECA experiment carrier on the STS-46 mission. Claude Nicollier (ESA), Franco Malerbo (Italy), Marsha Ivins, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Loren Shriver, Andrew Allen, and Jeffrey Hoffman are its crew. |
| August 15- October 20 | Progress-M 14 carries in its modified tankage compartment the VDU thruster package, to be mounted at the end of the Sofora truss assembled in July 1991 by Krikalev and Artsebarski. Progress-M 14’s Raduga capsule is recovered on October 20. |
| September 12-20 | STS-47—Endeavour carries Spacelab-J into orbit. Mamoru Mohri (Japan), Mae Jemison, N. Jan Davis, Jerome Apt, Mark Lee, Curtis Brown, and Robert Gibson are its crew. This is the fiftieth Space Shuttle mission. |
| October 22- November 1 | STS-52—Lacy Veach, James Wetherbee, Steven MacLean (Canada), Michael Baker, Tamara Jernigan, and William Shepherd are the crew of Columbia. They deploy the LAGEOS 2 satellite atop an Italian Research Interim Stage and operate the Canadian Experiments (CANEX) 2 package. |
| October 27- February 7, 1993 | Progress-M 15. On February 4, 1993, the spacecraft backs away from Mir and deploys Znamya, a 20-m solar mirror, from its orbital module. The test lasts about 5 hr. |
| December 2-9 | STS-53 is the last largely Department of Defense-dedicated mission. David Walker, Robert Cabana, Guion Bluford, James Voss, and Michael Richard Clifford are its crew. |
| 1993 | January 9-20 | STS-32—Columbia recovers the LDEF, which was launched on STS 41-C in 1984. Its crew is Daniel Brandenstein, James Wetherbee, Bonnie Dunbar, G. David Low, and Marsha Ivins. |
| January 24 | Soyuz-TM 16 launch—Docks with the APAS-89 androgynous port on Mir’s Kristall module to test it in preparation for U.S. Shuttle (and possible Buran shuttle) visits to Mir. Its crew is Gennadi Manakov and Alexandr Poleshchuk. They replace Solovyov and Avdeyev, who return to Earth in Soyuz-TM 15 on February 1. |
| February 21- March 27 | Progress-M 16. |
| March 31 | Progress-M 17 launch. Docks at Kvant port on April 2. Progress-M 17 is earmarked for a long-duration orbital experiment. See September 13, 1993 entry. |
| April 8-17 | STS-56—Ellen Ochoa, Steve Oswald, Kenneth Cameron, Michael Foale, and Kenneth Cockrell release and retrieve the SPARTAN 201 free-flying payload, and operate the ATLAS 2 package in Discovery’s payload bay. |
| April 26-May 6 | STS-55 is the Spacelab D2 mission. Columbia’s crew comprises German astronauts Ulrich Walter and Hans Schlegel, and U.S. astronauts Terrence Henricks, Jerry Ross, Steve Nagel, Bernard Harris, and Charles Precourt. |
| May 22-July 4 | Progress-M 18. Its Raduga capsule is successfully recovered. |
| June 21-July 1 | STS-57—Endeavour carries the first commercial Spacehab module. Its crew is Ron Grabe, Brian Duffy, David Low, Janice Voss, Nancy Sherlock, and Jerry Wisoff. |
| July 1 | Soyuz-TM 17 launch—Alexandr Serebrov, Vasili Tsibliyev, and Jean-Pierre Haignere (France) arrive at Mir on July 3. Tsibliyev and Serebrov spell Poleshchuk and Manakov, who return to Earth with Hagniere in Soyuz-TM 16 on July 22. |
| August 10- October 13 | Progress-M 19—Carries a Raduga capsule. |
| September 12-22 | STS-51—Discovery deploys the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite. Its crew is Frank Culbertson, William Readdy, James Newman, Daniel Bursch, Carl Walz. |
| September 13 | Progress-M 17 undocks—The spacecraft moves to a storage orbit 10 km below Mir. |
| October 11- November 21 | Progress-M 20—Carries a Raduga capsule. |
| October 18- November 1 | STS-58 is the Spacelab Life Sciences 2 mission. Columbia’s crew is John Blaha, M. Rhea Seddon, Shannon Lucid, Rick Searfoss, Bill MacArthur, David Wolf, and Martin Fettman. |
| December 2-12 | STS-61—Space Shuttle Endeavour makes rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope. Through a series of five space walks, astronauts Story Musgrave, Jeffrey Hoffman, Kathryn Thornton, and Tom Akers repair Hubble. Crew members also include Claude Nicollier (ESA), Richard Covey, and Kenneth Bowersox. STS-61 is the fifty-ninth flight of the Space Shuttle program. |
| 1994 | January 8 | Soyuz-TM 18 launch—Yuri Usachyov, Viktor Afanaseyev, and Valeri Polyakov dock with Mir on January 10. Usachyov and Afanaseyev replace Serebrov and Tsibliyev, who undock in Soyuz-TM 17 on January 14. They fly around Mir and inspect a NASA JSC-built rendezvous and docking target installed on Kristall in anticipation of Shuttle visits to Mir. Soyuz-TM 17 accidentally strikes Kristall, causing no apparent damage. Usachyov and Afanaseyev were replaced aboard Mir by the Soyuz-TM 18 crew in July 1994. Polyakov, a medical doctor, is to live aboard Mir for 14 mo. |
| January 28- March 23 | Progress-M 21. |
| February 3-11 | STS-60—N. Jan Davis, Charles Bolden, Ken Reightler, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ron Sega, and Sergei Krikalev (Russia) are the crew of the first joint U.S.-Russian piloted mission. Krikalev is the first Russian since 1965 to reach space in a vehicle other than a Soyuz. Discovery carries Spacehab 2 and the Wake Shield Facility. |
| March 3 | Progress-M 17, in orbit since April 1993, reenters over South America. |
| March 4-18 | STS-62—John Casper, Andrew Allen, Pierre Thuot, Charles Gemar, and Marsha Ivins are the crew of Columbia, which carries the second U.S. Microgravity Payload. |
| March 22-May 23 | Progress-M 22. |
| April 9-20 | STS-59—Endeavour carries the first Space Radar Laboratory. Its crew comprises Sidney Gutierrez, Kevin Chilton, Linda Godwin, Jay Apt, Michael Clifford, and Thomas Jones. |
| May 22-July 2 | Progress-M 23—Deploys a Raduga capsule. |
| July 1 | Soyuz-TM 19 launch—Docks with Mir on July 3 carrying rookies Yuri Malenchenko and Talgat Musabayev. Supplies and repair parts for the station fill its third seat. |
| July 8-23 | STS-65—Space Shuttle Columbia carries the International Microgravity Laboratory-2 payload. Commander Robert Cabana speaks with the Russian cosmonauts on Mir by radio. Other crew members are James Halsell, Richard Hieb, Carl Walz, Leroy Chiao, Donald Thomas, and Chiaki Naito-Mukai (Japan). |
| July 9 | Soyuz-TM 18 landing—Usachyov and Afanaseyev return to Earth, leaving Polyakov aboard with Malenchenko and Musabayev. |
| August 25- October 4 | Progress-M 24. Malenchenko docks the cargo ship by remote control from a control post inside Mir after two failed automatic approaches. During the second approach, on August 30, the spacecraft struck Mir’s forward docking port 2-4 times. No damage was discovered during a September 9 EVA. |
| September 9-20 | STS-64—Richard Richards, L. Blaine Hammond, Jerry Linenger, Susan Helms, Carl Meade, and Mark Lee are Discovery’s crew. They deploy and retrieve the Spartan 201 satellite and use lasers to study Earth’s environment. Lee and Meade conduct a 6 hr, 51 min spacewalk to test SAFER, a self-rescue maneuvering unit. |
| September 30- October 11, 1994 | STS-68—Endeavour, on the 65th flight of the Shuttle program, carries aloft the second Space Radar Laboratory. Michael Baker, Terrence Wilcutt, Steven Smith, Thomas Jones, Daniel Bursch, and Jeff Wisoff are its crew. |
| October 3 | Soyuz-TM 20 launch. Docking takes place early on October 6. The spacecraft carries four-time Mir visitor Alexandr Viktorenko, rookie Yelena Kondakova, and ESA cosmonaut Ulf Merbold. Kondakova is the third Russian woman in space, and the first scheduled for a long-duration flight. Merbold, a veteran of two Space Shuttle flights, is the first non-Russian/non-American to fly on both U.S. and Russian craft. |
| November 4 | Soyuz-TM 19 landing. Malenchenko, Musabayev, and Merbold land uneventfully in northern Kazakhstan 3.5 hours after separating from the Mir station. |
| November 11- | Progress-M 25. Docking at the aft port on November 13 occurred without incident. |