Soyuz TM-8
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| Soyuz TM-8 | |
| Mission statistics | |
|---|---|
| Mission name | Soyuz TM-8 |
| Spacecraft mass | 7150 kg |
| Crew size | 2 |
| Call sign | Ви́тязь (Vityaz - Knight) |
| Launch date | September 5, 1989 21:38:03 UTC Gagarin's Start |
| Landing | February 19, 1990 04:36:18 UTC 55 km NE of Arkalyk |
| Mission duration | 166 days 06 hours 58 minutes 15 seconds |
| Number of orbits | ~2,680 |
| Apogee | 392 km |
| Perigee | 390 km |
| Orbital period | 92.4 minutes |
| Orbital inclination | 51.6° |
Soyuz TM-8 was the eighth expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir.
[edit] Crew
- Alexander Viktorenko (2) - Russian
- Aleksandr Serebrov (3) - Russian
(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.
[edit] Mission highlights
The Soyuz launch vehicle was painted with advertisements. During the Soyuz spacecraft's final approach to Mir (4 metre distance), the Kurs rendezvous and docking system malfunctioned, so Viktorenko took over manual control and withdrew to 20 metres, and then docked manually. The spacecraft spent 166 days attached to Mir.
On 1989 September 29 the cosmonauts installed equipment in the docking system in preparation for the arrival of Kvant 2, the first of Mir’s 20-tonne add-on modules. On September 30 a powerful flare burst out on the Sun, and initial predictions indicated that the cosmonauts could receive many times the maximum permissible level of radiation. In the event, the cosmonauts received only about as much radiation as they would normally receive in 2 weeks of flight.
It was announced on October 10 that problems with a batch of computer chips pushed back the launch of Mir’s second add-on module by at least 40 days from the planned October 16 launch date. The major focus of Viktorenko and Serebrov’s mission was to receive, check out, and activate the module, so their schedule underwent heavy revision.
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