Mir Principal Expedition 9

• Mission data
• Notes
• TM-12 Docking maneuvers
• Photo gallery
• Links
• Crew portraits

Flight details of Mir Principal Expedition 9, «Мир» Экспедиция осовная 9, who launched on Soyuz TM-12. Because Sergei stayed on an extra shift, he also became part of EO-10.

Mission data

EO-9 prime crew
ЭО-9 основной экипаж

Name	Role	Origin
Anatolii Pavlovich Artsebarskii Анатолий Павлович Арцебарский	Commander Командир	Yu.A. Gagarin RGNII TsPK, USSR РГНИИ ЦПК им. Ю.А. Гагарина, Россия
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov Сергей Константинович Крикалёв	Flight Engineer Бортинженер	S.P. Korolev RSC Energiya, USSR РКК «Энергия» им. С.П. Королева, СССР
Helen Patricia Sharman	Cosmonaut-researcher Космонавт-исследователь	England/United Kingdom

EO-9 backup crew
ЭО-9 дублирующий экипаж

Name	Role	Origin
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov Адександр Александрович Волков	Commander Командир	Yu.A. Gagarin RGNII TsPK, USSR РГНИИ ЦПК им. Ю.А. Гагарина, Россия
Aleksandr Yuriyevich Kaleri Александр Юриевич Калери	Flight Engineer Бортинженер	S.P. Korolev RSC Energiya, USSR РКК «Энергия» им. С.П. Королева, СССР
Timothy Kristian Charles Mace	Cosmonaut-researcher, Космонавт-исследователь	England/United Kingdom

Flight details

Soyuz TM-12, «Союз ТМ-12»
Call-sign	Ozon-2, «Озон-2»
Mir expedition	EO-9, ЭО-9
Launch craft	Soyuz 7K-STM №62 carrying the Soyuz TM-12 spacecraft
Launched	18 May 1991 at 12:50:28 UTC
Docked	20 May 1991 at 14:30:43 UTC
Undocked	10 October 1991 at 00:55:08 UTC
Landed	10 October 1991 at 04:12:18 UTC
Mission duration	144d 15h 21m for Artsebarskii
Soyuz TM-13, «Союз ТМ-13»
Undocked	25 March 1992 at 05:26 UTC (on TM-13)
Landed	25 March 1992 at 08:51:22 UTC
Mission duration	311d 20h 01m for Sergei, who stayed on an extra shift and returned home on TM-13 (with Aleksandr Volkov and Klaus-Dietrich Flade)

Notes

The Soviet Union disintegrated in August during Artsebarskii and Krikalyov’s stay. Financial shortages saw the next two Soyuz missions (13 and 14) merged. Soyuz TM-13 (EO-10) was commanded by Aleksandr Volkov, with a Kazakh cosmonaut, Toktar Aubakirov, and Austrian, Franz Viehböck, on board. The Kazakh was not trained for long-duration missions, so he came down with Artsebarskii and Viehböck. Krikalyov agreed to stay on board with Volkov for an extra shift until the next flight, leading to erroneous media rumors of him being “stranded”. He thus became part of EO-10 with Volkov.

Soyuz TM-14 (EO-11) was finally launched on 17 March, 1992, with Aleksandr Vitkorenko, Aleksandr Kaleri and Klaus-Dietrich Flade (from the German Space Agency) aboard. Volkov, Krikalyov and Flade landed in Kazakhstan on 25 March on TM-13; Sergei, as the “last Soviet citizen”, still had his Communist party membership card. Sergei had spent 311.83 days in orbit, the longest unintended stay in space.

This would be Sergei’s last visit to Mir.

Soyuz TM-12 docking maneuvers

The table below was taken from “Orbital manoeuvres of the Mir Orbital Complex” by Phillip S. Clarke (published in The History of Mir 1986-2000 by the British Interplanetary Society).

Spacecraft	Soyuz TM-12
Launch date/time	18 May 1991 at 12.50
Docking port	−X
Docking date/time	20 May 1991 at 14:31
Initial orbit – epoch	May 18:59
Initial orbit – inclination °	51.69
Initial orbit – period (min)	88.49
Initial orbit – altitude (km)	191-209
Docking orbit – epoch	May 20:85
Docking orbit – inclination °	51.61
Docking orbit – period (min)	91.94
Docking orbit – altitude (km)	366-373
Undocking date/time	28 May 1991 at 10:10
Re-docking date/time	28 May 1991 at 10:52
Re-docking – epoch	May 28.50
Re-docking – inclination °	51.61
Re-docking – period (min)	91.90
Re-docking – altitude (km)	364-371
Docking port	+X (K)
Undocking date/time	10 October 1991 at 00:52
Descent date/time	10 October 1991 at 04:12

Photo gallery

Three more photos also sent by Luca Coren. Some informal photos of the EO-9 crew. Looks more fun than the boring “All-work-and-no-play” ISS.

Links

• Capcomespace: L’espace Sovietique: MIR 1990-91. In French, but features lots of photos and diagrams.
• CollectSpace: Where is Helen Sharman these days, the lucky lady who got to fly with Sergei? This 8 April 2004 posting at the CollectSpace forum mentions her; she is married and has children. She does not seem to have her own website, though, that I could find.

  In some correspondence I had with her the other year, she told me that she still keeps up with the space program (such as reading Spaceflight magazine), but otherwise has chosen to move on from that short chapter of her life which was otherwise unrelated to her science career. She concentrates on her new family, new professional life and prefers not to do the lecture/book circuit anymore.

• Encyclopedia Astronautica: Mir LD-3
• FPSpace: Space documentaries on DVD? “Another interesting anecdote about one of Krikalyov’s stays aboard Mir was that (he was a civilian) he was issued an Army draft notice while he was in orbit. Since he did not report as scheduled, an arrest warrant was almost issued because of his absence before it was realized by draft authorities that he was in outer space.”
• Franz Viehboeck: Austrian cosmonaut’s website gallery: “The life on Mir”, during the Soyuz TM-12 mission.
• Houston Chronicle archives:
  • “Cosmonaut coming home to new world”, 21 March 1992
  • “After 10 months, cosmonaut returns to a strange new world”, 26 March 1992
• Loty Kosmiczne: Sojuz TM-12 page (in Polish)
• The Moscow Times: “Pranks Show Lighter Side of Mir” (via Archive.org).

  Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov managed to chat to a truck driver on a road in South Africa as he flew hundreds of kilometers overhead in 1992.

  Krikalyov sneaked an amateur radio onboard Mir and used it to establish a link with the truck driver, who was heading to Kimberley.

  Despite Krikalyov’s efforts to explain that he was actually talking from high above, the South African refused to believe the cosmonaut. The driver rogered “See you in Kapstadt,” as he signed off.

• New York Times: “After 313 Days in Space, It’s a Trip to a New World”, 26 March 2002
• Spacefacts: Mir: Expedition EO-9 data page, EO-10 and EO-11
• Spaceflight magazine: “First British ride into space”, Francis French. Account of Helen’s flight.

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