Soyuz TM-18 was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome and landed 112 km north of Arkalyk. TM-18 was a two-day solo flight that docked with the Mir space station on January 10, 1994. The three cosmonauts became the 15th resident crew on board Mir. The crew did research work in space flight medicine, primarily by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov during his long-term flight, and accomplished 25 different experiments.

Soyuz TM-18
Mission typeMir crew transport
OperatorRosaviakosmos
COSPAR ID1994-001A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.22957
Mission duration182 days, 27 minutes, 1 second
Orbits completed~2,910
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSoyuz 7K-STM No. 67
Spacecraft typeSoyuz-TM
ManufacturerNPO Energia
Launch mass7,150 kilograms (15,760 lb)
Crew
Crew size3 up
2 down
MembersViktor Afanasyev
Yury Usachov
LaunchingValeri Polyakov
CallsignДербе́нт (Derbent)
Start of mission
Launch dateJanuary 8, 1994, 10:05:34 (1994-01-08UTC10:05:34Z) UTC
RocketSoyuz-U2
Launch siteBaikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing dateJuly 9, 1994, 10:32:35 (1994-07-09UTC10:32:36Z) UTC
Landing site110 kilometres (68 mi) north of Arkalyk
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Perigee altitude384 kilometres (239 mi)
Apogee altitude390 kilometres (240 mi)
Inclination51.6 degrees
Period92.29 minutes
Epoch7 February 1994390 kilometres (240 mi)[1]
Docking with Mir
Docking portKvant-1 aft
Docking date10 January 1994, 11:50:20 UTC
Undocking date9 July 1994, 07:12:59 UTC
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions)

Crew

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Position Launching crew Landing crew
Commander   Viktor Afanasyev
Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer   Yury Usachov
First spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut   Valeri Polyakov
Second and last spaceflight
None

Mission highlights

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18th expedition to Mir.

Afanasyev and Usachev spent 179 days on Mir. Dr. Polyakov was slated to return to Earth on Soyuz-TM 20 in March 1995, after more than 420 days on Mir.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ McDowell, Jonathan. "Satellite Catalog". Jonathan's Space Page. Retrieved 9 November 2013.