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Mir EP-3

Short-term expedition to Mir space station

Field	Value
name	Mir EP-3
mission_type	Mir visiting crew
mission_duration	8.85 days (launch to landing)
crew_size	Two
crew_members	Vladimir Lyakhov
Abdul Ahad Mohmand
crew_callsign	Proton
space_station	Mir
start_date
end_date
arrival_craft	Soyuz TM-6
departure_craft	Soyuz TM-5
previous_mission	EP-2
next_mission	EP-4
programme	Mir Visiting Expeditions

Abdul Ahad Mohmand

Mir EP-3 was a week-long crewed spaceflight to the Soviet space station Mir, during the long-duration expedition Mir EO-3. It was the sixth crewed spaceflight to Mir, and was launched with the spacecraft Soyuz TM-6. This spacecraft also carried Valeri Polyakov, who would stay aboard Mir after the crew of EP-3 returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-5. The crew of EP-3, also known as the Soyuz TM-6 crew, consisted of Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Lyakhov as commander, and the first Afghan to visit space, Abdul Ahad Mohmand.

Background

The nine-year Soviet–Afghan War was coming to a close, with the final troop withdrawal starting in May 1988. It was decided by the Glavcosmos chairman that the Afghan's spaceflight would be moved earlier than originally planned, so that it would occur before the Soviet military completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Crew

Position	Name	Launch	Duration	Notes
	Commander	Soviet Union Vladimir Lyakhov	Third	29 August 1988
Soyuz TM-6	7 September 1988
Soyuz TM-5	8.8 days
	Flight Engineer	Afghanistan Abdul Ahad Mohmand	First		First Afghan cosmonaut

Lyakhov had been on two spaceflight before, both of which were long-duration missions. The first was launched and landed with the spacecraft Soyuz 32, and lasted for 175 days; it was the third long-duration expedition on the space station Salyut 6, called Salyut 6 EO-3. His second spaceflight was launched and landed with the spacecraft Soyuz T-9, and lasted for 145 days; it was the second long-duration expedition aboard the space station Salyut 7, which was called Salyut 7 EO-2.

Mission highlights

Mohmand's main objective was to photograph and make observations of Afghanistan from space. These photographs would be used to map the country's inaccessible mountainous regions, assess water and glacial run-off, as well as to find possible sources of oil and gas in lowland regions.

Problems during descent

Lhakhov and Mohmand depart Mir on 6 September in Soyuz TM-5. Even though the TM-5 spacecraft had only been launched a few months earlier, for Mir EP-2, it was thought to be better to leave the resident crew with the most recent Soyuz spacecraft.

During descent they suffered a computer software problem combined with a sensor problem. The deorbit engine on the TM-5 spacecraft which was to propel them into atmospheric reentry, did not behave as expected. During an attempted burn, the computer shut off the engines prematurely, believing the spacecraft was out of alignment.

References

"Mir EP-3". [[Encyclopedia Astronautica]].
David Michael Harland. (February 2005). "The story of Space Station Mir". [[Springer-Verlag]].
(February 2007). "Praxis manned spaceflight log 1961-2006". Praxis Publishing.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

mir 1988-in-the-soviet-union afghanistan–soviet-union-relations 1988-in-spaceflight

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