Soyuz TM-3 (original) (raw)

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1987 Soviet crewed spaceflight to Mir

Soyuz TM-3

1987 USSR stamp commemorating Soviet-Syrian collaboration in the TM-3 mission.
COSPAR ID 1987-063A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no. 18222
Mission duration 160 days, 7 hours, 25 minutes, 56 seconds
Orbits completed ~2,580
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft Soyuz 7K-STM No. 53
Spacecraft type Soyuz-TM
Manufacturer NPO Energia
Launch mass 7,100 kilograms (15,700 lb)
Crew
Crew size 3
Members Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov
Launching Aleksandr ViktorenkoMuhammed Faris
Landing Yuri RomanenkoAnatoli Levchenko
Callsign Vityaz (Knight)
Start of mission
Launch date 22 July 1987, 01:59:17 (1987-07-22UTC01:59:17Z) UTC[1]
Rocket Soyuz-U2
Launch site Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date 29 December 1987, 09:16:15 (1987-12-29UTC09:16:16Z) UTC
Landing site 140 kilometres (87 mi) NE of Arkalyk
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Perigee altitude 297 kilometres (185 mi)
Apogee altitude 353 kilometres (219 mi)
Inclination 51.6 degrees
Period 91.0 minutes
Docking with Mir[2]
Docking date 24 July 1987, 03:31:23 UTC
Undocking date 29 December 1987, 05:58:00 UTC
Soyuz programme(Crewed missions)← Soyuz TM-2Soyuz TM-4

Soyuz TM-3 was the third crewed spaceflight to visit the Soviet space station Mir, following Soyuz T-15 and Soyuz TM-2. It was launched in July 1987, during the long duration expedition Mir EO-2, and acted as a lifeboat for the second segment of that expedition. There were three people aboard the spacecraft at launch, including the two man crew of the week-long mission Mir EP-1, consisting of Soviet cosmonaut Aleksandr Viktorenko and Syrian Muhammed Faris. Faris was the first Syrian to travel to space, and as of June 2021, the only one. The third cosmonaut launched was Aleksandr Aleksandrov, who would replace one of the long duration crew members Aleksandr Laveykin of Mir EO-2. Laveykin had been diagnosed by ground-based doctors to have minor heart problems, so he returned to Earth with the EP-1 crew in Soyuz TM-2.[3]

Soyuz TM-3 landed near the end of December 1987, landing both members of the EO-2 crew, as well as potential Buran pilot Anatoli Levchenko, who had been launched to Mir a week earlier aboard Soyuz TM-4.

  1. ^ "Soyuz TM-3". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  2. ^ "Soyuz TM-3". Spacefacts.de. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  3. ^ D.S.F.Portree (1995). "Mir Hardware Heritage" (PDF). NASA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2010.