Soyuz TM-6

1988 Soviet crewed spaceflight to Mir

Soyuz TM-6
Spacecraft properties


COSPAR ID	1988-075A
SATCAT no.	19443
Mission duration	114 days, 5 hours, 33 minutes, 49 seconds
Orbits completed	~1,840


Spacecraft	Soyuz 7K-STM No. 56
Spacecraft type	Soyuz-TM
Manufacturer	NPO Energia
Launch mass	7,070 kilograms (15,590 lb)


Crew
Crew size	3
Launching	Vladimir Lyakhov Valeri Polyakov Abdul Mohmand
Landing	Vladimir Titov Musa Manarov Jean-Loup Chrétien
Callsign	Прото́н (Proton)


Start of mission
Launch date	29 August 1988, 04:23:11 (1988-08-29UTC04:23:11Z) UTC^[1]
Rocket	Soyuz-U2
Launch site	Baikonur 1/5


End of mission
Landing date	21 December 1988, 09:57:00 (1988-12-21UTC09:58Z) UTC
Landing site	^[1] 160 kilometres (99 mi) SE of Dzhezkazgan


Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth


Docking with Mir
Docking date	31 August 1988, 05:40:44 UTC
Undocking date	21 December 1988, 02:32:54 UTC

Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) ← Soyuz TM-5 Soyuz TM-7 →

Soyuz TM-6 was a crewed Soyuz spaceflight to Mir.^[2] It was launched on 29 August 1988, at 04:23:11 UTC, for the station's third long-duration expedition, Mir EO-3. The three-person crew that was launched consisted of Research Doctor Valeri Polyakov, who became part of the EO-3 crew, as well as the two crew members of the week-long mission Mir EP-3, which included the first ever Afghan cosmonaut, Abdul Ahad Mohmand.^[3]

On September 8, Soyuz TM-6 was undocked from Mir's Kvant port and redocked onto the Mir Base Block's port.^[4] It remained there until December, when it brought Titov and Manarov of the EO-3 crew back to Earth. It also landed French astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien, ending his 25-day-long spaceflight which started with Soyuz TM-7.

Crew


Position	Launching crew	Landing crew
Commander	Vladimir Lyakhov Mir EP-3 Third spaceflight	Vladimir Titov Mir EO-3 Third spaceflight
Research Doctor/Flight Engineer	Valeri Polyakov Mir EO-3 / Mir EO-4 First spaceflight	Musa Manarov Mir EO-3 First spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut	Abdul Mohmand Mir EP-3 First spaceflight	Jean-Loup Chrétien Mir Aragatz Second spaceflight

Valeri Polyakov remained behind on Mir with cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov when Mohmand and Lyakhov returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-5.

The crew of Soyuz TM-6 had a unique makeup, with a commander (Vladimir Lyakhov) who had been trained to fly a Soyuz-TM solo in the event a rescue ship needed to be sent to recover two cosmonauts from Mir, no flight engineer, and two inexperienced cosmonaut-researchers. One was Valeri Polyakov, who would remain aboard Mir with Titov and Manarov to monitor their health during the final months of their planned year-long stay. The other was Intercosmos cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, from Afghanistan.

Mission parameters

Mass: 7070 kg
Perigee: 195 km
Apogee: 228 km
Inclination: 51.6°
Period: 88.7 minutes

References

^ ^a ^b "Mir EO-3". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
^ The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-TM6.htm
^ "Spaceflight mission report: Soyuz TM-6". www.spacefacts.de. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
^ D.F.S.Portree (1995). "Mir Hardware Heritage" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2010.

Soyuz programme

Main topics

Soyuz (rocket family)
Soyuz (spacecraft)
Baikonur Cosmodrome
- Site 1/5
- Site 31/6
Soyuz abort modes
Cosmonaut ranks and positions

Past missions
(by spacecraft type)

Soyuz 7K-OK (1966–1970)	Kosmos 133† Soyuz 7K-OK No.1† (uncrewed) Kosmos 140 Soyuz 1† Kosmos 186 188 212 213 238 Soyuz 2 (uncrewed) 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Soyuz 7K-L1 (1967–1970) (Zond lunar programme)	Kosmos 146 154† Zond 1967A† 1967B† Zond 4 1968A† 1968B† 5 6 1969A† Zond-M 1† M 2† Zond 7 8 9 10
Soyuz 7K-L1E (1969–1970)	Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1† Kosmos 382
Soyuz 7K-LOK (1971–1972)	Soyuz 7K-LOK No.1† No.2†
Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971)	Soyuz 10† 11†
Soyuz 7K-T (1972–1981)	Kosmos 496 573 Soyuz 12 Kosmos 613 Soyuz 13 Kosmos 656 Soyuz 14 15† 17 18a† 18 20 (uncrewed) 21 23† 24 25† 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 (uncrewed landing) 33† 34 (uncrewed launch) 35 36 37 38 39 40
Soyuz 7K-TM (1974–1976)	Kosmos 638 672 Soyuz 16 19 (Apollo–Soyuz) 22
Soyuz 7K-S (1974–1976)	Kosmos 670 772† 869†
Soyuz-T (1978–1986)	Kosmos 1001† 1074 Soyuz T-1 (uncrewed) T-2 T-3 T-4 T-5 T-6 T-7 T-8† T-9 T-10a† T-10 T-11 T-12 T-13 T-14 T-15
Soyuz-TM (1986–2002)	Soyuz TM-1 (uncrewed) TM-2 TM-3 TM-4 TM-5 TM-6 TM-7 TM-8 TM-9 TM-10 TM-11 TM-12 TM-13 TM-14 TM-15 TM-16 TM-17 TM-18 TM-19 TM-20 TM-21 TM-22 TM-23 TM-24 TM-25 TM-26 TM-27 TM-28 TM-29 TM-30 TM-31 TM-32 TM-33 TM-34
Soyuz-TMA (2002–2012)	Soyuz TMA-1 TMA-2 TMA-3 TMA-4 TMA-5 TMA-6 TMA-7 TMA-8 TMA-9 TMA-10 TMA-11 TMA-12 TMA-13 TMA-14 TMA-15 TMA-16 TMA-17 TMA-18 TMA-19 TMA-20 TMA-21 TMA-22
Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2016)	Soyuz TMA-01M TMA-02M TMA-03M TMA-04M TMA-05M TMA-06M TMA-07M TMA-08M TMA-09M TMA-10M TMA-11M TMA-12M TMA-13M TMA-14M TMA-15M TMA-16M TMA-17M TMA-18M TMA-19M TMA-20M
Soyuz MS (2016–present)	Soyuz MS-01 MS-02 MS-03 MS-04 MS-05 MS-06 MS-07 MS-08 MS-09 MS-10† MS-11 MS-12 MS-13 MS-14 (uncrewed test flight) MS-15 MS-16 MS-17 MS-18 MS-19 MS-20 MS-21 MS-22 (uncrewed landing) MS-23 (uncrewed launch) MS-24

Current missions

MS-25

Future missions

2024
- MS-26

Uncrewed missions are designated as Kosmos instead of Soyuz; exceptions are noted "(uncrewed)".
The † sign designates failed missions. Italics designates cancelled missions.

v t e Interkosmos programme
Satellites	Interkosmos 1 Interkosmos 2 Interkosmos 3 Interkosmos 4 Interkosmos 5 Interkosmos 6 Interkosmos 7 Interkosmos 8 Interkosmos 9 Interkosmos 10 Interkosmos 11 Interkosmos 12 Interkosmos 13 Interkosmos 14 Interkosmos 15 Interkosmos 16 Interkosmos 17 Interkosmos 18 Interkosmos 19 Interkosmos 20 Interkosmos 21 Interkosmos 22 Interkosmos 23 Interkosmos 24 Interkosmos 25 Interkosmos 26
Manned flights	Soyuz 28 Soyuz 30 Soyuz 31 Soyuz 33 Soyuz 36 Soyuz 37 Soyuz 38 Soyuz 39 Soyuz 40 Soyuz T-6 Soyuz T-11 Soyuz TM-3 Soyuz TM-5 Soyuz TM-6 Soyuz TM-7

v t e Human spaceflights to Mir
1986–1990	Soyuz T-15 Soyuz TM-2 Soyuz TM-3 Soyuz TM-4 Soyuz TM-5 Soyuz TM-6 Soyuz TM-7 Soyuz TM-8 Soyuz TM-9 Soyuz TM-10 Soyuz TM-11
1991–1995	Soyuz TM-12 Soyuz TM-13 Soyuz TM-14 Soyuz TM-15 Soyuz TM-16 Soyuz TM-17 Soyuz TM-18 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz TM-20 STS-63 Soyuz TM-21 STS-71 Soyuz TM-22 STS-74
1996–2000	Soyuz TM-23 STS-76 Soyuz TM-24 STS-79 STS-81 Soyuz TM-25 STS-84 Soyuz TM-26 STS-86 STS-89 Soyuz TM-27 STS-91 Soyuz TM-28 Soyuz TM-29 Soyuz TM-30

v t e ← 1987 Orbital launches in 1988 1989 →
January	Kosmos 1908 Kosmos 1909, Kosmos 1910, Kosmos 1911, Kosmos 1912, Kosmos 1913, Kosmos 1914 Gorizont No.25L Progress 34 Kosmos 1915 Meteor-2 No.20
February	USA-29 Kosmos 1916 USA-30 Kosmos 1919, Kosmos 1917, Kosmos 1918 Kosmos 1920 Kosmos 1921 Sakura 3a Kosmos 1922
March	Zhongxing-1 Kosmos 1923 Kosmos 1924, Kosmos 1925, Kosmos 1926, Kosmos 1927, Kosmos 1928, Kosmos 1929, Kosmos 1930, Kosmos 1931 Molniya-1 No.65 Spacenet 3R, Telecom 1C Kosmos 1932 Kosmos 1933 IRS-1A Molniya-1 No.64 Kosmos 1934 Progress 35 Kosmos 1935 San Marco 5 Kosmos 1936 Gorizont No.26L
April	Kosmos 1937 Kosmos 1938 Foton No.4L Kosmos 1939 Transit-O 23, Transit-O 32 Kosmos 1940 Kosmos 1941
May	Ekran No.31L Kosmos 1942 Progress 36 Kosmos 1943 Intelsat VA F-13 Kosmos 1944 Kosmos 1945 Kosmos 1946, Kosmos 1947, Kosmos 1948 Molniya-3 No.49 Kosmos 1949 Kosmos 1950 Kosmos 1951
June	Soyuz TM-5 Kosmos 1952 Kosmos 1953 Meteosat 3, PAS-1, OSCAR-13 Nova 2 Kosmos 1954 Kosmos 1955 Kosmos 1956
July	Okean-O1 No.5 Kosmos 1957 Fobos 1 Unnamed Fobos 2 SROSS-B Kosmos 1958 Progress 37 Kosmos 1959 INSAT-1C, ECS-5 Meteor-3 No.3 Resurs-F1 No.30 Kosmos 1960
August	Kosmos 1961 Fanhui Shi Weixing I-02 Kosmos 1962 Molniya-1 No.66 Kosmos 1963 Gorizont No.28L Kosmos 1964 Kosmos 1965 Transit-O 25, Transit-O 31 Soyuz TM-6 Kosmos 1966
September	USA-31 USA-32 Kosmos 1967 Fengyun I-01 GStar-3, SBS-5 Kosmos 1968 Progress 38 Kosmos 1969 Kosmos 1970, Kosmos 1971, Kosmos 1972 Sakura 3b Ofek-1 Kosmos 1973 NOAA-11 Molniya-3 No.51 STS-26 (TDRS-3)
October	Kosmos 1974 Kosmos 1975 Kosmos 1976 Gran' No.34L Kosmos 1977 Kosmos 1978 TDF 1
November	USA-33 Unnamed Buran 1K1 (37KB No.3770) Kosmos 1979 Kosmos 1980 Kosmos 1981 Soyuz TM-7 Kosmos 1982
December	STS-27 (USA-34) Kosmos 1983 Ekran-M No.12L Skynet 4B, Astra 1A Kosmos 1984 Zhongxing-2 Molniya-3 No.52 Kosmos 1985 Progress 39 Molniya-1 No.63 Kosmos 1986
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).