Soyuz TM-5 was a crewed

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис ...

spaceflight to

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

. It was launched on June 7, 1988, carrying the

Mir EP-2 Mir EP-2 was a visiting expedition to the Mir space station conducted in June 1988 by cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev, Viktor Savinykh and Aleksandr Aleksandrov. Launched aboard the Soyuz TM-5 spacecraft, the crew spent ten days in space before ret ...

mission's three-person crew. This week-long stay on

occurred during the third long-duration Mir expedition, Mir EO-3. The crew of EP-2 returned to Earth aboard

Soyuz TM-4 Soyuz TM-4 was a crewed Soyuz spaceflight to Mir. It was launched on 21 December 1987, and carried the first two crew members of the third long duration expedition, Mir EO-3. These crew members, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, would stay in spa ...

, while the TM-5 spacecraft remained docked to Mir, acting as the lifeboat for the long-duration crew. On September 7, 1988, the TM-5 spacecraft undocked from Mir, and landed

Mir EP-3 Mir EP-3 was a week-long manned spaceflight to the Soviet space station Mir, during the long-duration expedition Mir EO-3. It was the sixth manned spaceflight to Mir, and was launched with the spacecraft Soyuz TM-6. This spacecraft also carried Va ...

mission's two-person visiting crew. The de-orbit procedures for Soyuz were revised after this flight, as multiple issues almost prevented the descent module's safe de-orbit and landing.

Crew

Launch

Soyuz TM-5 launched on 1988 June 7 and arrived at Mir on June 9 carrying the second Bulgarian in space, Alexandrov (not to be confused with the Soviet cosmonaut of the same name). He became the first Bulgarian to reach a Soviet space station (Georgi Ivanov failed to reach

Salyut 6 Salyut 6 (russian: Салют-6; lit. Salute 6), DOS-5, was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth station of the Salyut programme. It was launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket. Salyut 6 was the first space station to recei ...

Soyuz 33 Soyuz 33 (russian: Союз 33, ''Union 33'') was an April, 1979, Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-33.htm It was the ninth mission to the ...

in 1979—Alexandrov was his backup). Their launch had been advanced by 2 weeks late in the planning stages to improve lighting conditions for the Rozhen astronomical experiment.

Landing

On September 5 cosmonauts Lyakhov and Mohmand undocked from Mir. They jettisoned the

orbital module The orbital module is a compartment of some space capsules used only in orbit. It is separated from the crewed reentry capsule before reentry. The orbital module provides 'habitat' space to use in orbit, while the reentry capsule tends to be focu ...

and made ready for deorbit burn to return to Earth. During descent, the spacecraft experienced a computer software problem combined with a sensor problem. This caused their landing to be delayed by a full day. The Descent Module, where they spent this 24-hour period, had no sanitary facilities. Consequently, they soiled themselves. They would not have been able to redock with Mir because they had discarded the docking system along with the orbital module. Reentry occurred as normal on September 7. Following this incident, the Soviets decided that on future missions, they would retain the orbital module until after deorbit burn, as they had done on the Soyuz Ferry flights.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soyuz TM-05 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 1988 1988 in the Soviet Union Bulgaria–Soviet Union relations