| Mir EO-14 | |||||
1 July 1993 14:38 GMT. Landing Date: 1994-01-14 08:24:26. Flight Time: 196.74 days. Alternate Name: Soyuz TM-17 (Serebrov, Tsibliyev). Flight Up: Soyuz TM-17. Flight Back: Soyuz TM-17. Call Sign: Sirius (Sirius ). Crew: Serebrov, Tsibliyev. Backup Crew: Afanasyev, Usachyov. Program: Mir. Mir Expedition EO-14. Carried Vasili Tsibliyev, Alexander Serebrov, Jean-Pierre Haignere to Mir; returned Serebrov, Tsibliyev to Earth. Progress M-18 undocked from Mir's front port at around 17:25 GMT on July 3, and Soyuz TM-17 docked at the same port only 20 minutes later at 17:45 GMT. The EO-14 crew landed at 08:18 GMT on Jan 14 in the Soyuz TM-17 spaceship. The EO-14 expedition lasted 196 days 18hr 45 m, the 7th longest spaceflight. Narrative (adapted from D S F Portree's Mir Hardware Heritage, NASA RP-1357, 1995) In a unique manoeuvre on July 3, Progress M-18 undocked from Mir, clearing the port for the docking only minutes later of Soyuz TM-17 with the EO-14 crew of Vasili Tsibliyev and Alexandr Serebrov. The EO-13 crew returned to earth aboard Soyuz TM-16 on July 22. Progress M-18 remained docked to the station in a systems longevity test. The night of August 12-13, the Perseid meteor shower peaked. The Perseids occur every year at this time, but in 1993 an unusually high peak was predicted. Because of this, the U.S. delayed launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, which was scheduled to be in orbit at this time. The EO-14 crew continued to work aboard Mir, but Russia took precautions: planes and helicopters stood by for the possible emergency return of Soyuz TM-17. During the shower, the cosmonauts mounted an around-the-clock watch, and observed about 240 meteoroids burning up in the atmosphere beneath Mir. They also noted ten window impacts, which produced craters from 1.5 to 4 mm across. Mir impact sensors noted a particle flux of up to 2000 times the normal mean rate during the Perseid shower. Mir sustained no readily apparent consequential damage from the meteoroids, but the Russians decided to mount EVAs to inspect Mir’s exterior nonetheless. The EO-14 cosmonauts spent 4 hr, 18 min outside Mir assembling the Rapana girder on top of Kvant on September 16. This was a girder assembly experiment with implications for Mir 2 space station development. Tsibliyev and Serebrov spent a further 3 hr, 13 min completing assembly of Rapana on September 20. On September 28 the EO-14 cosmonauts spent 1 hr, 52 min carrying out miscellaneous tasks and inspecting Mir’s exterior in the first phase of the Panorama program. They spotted a 5-mm hole through one of the solar arrays. The hole was surrounded by an area of cracks several cm across. The cosmonauts were unable to determine if a Perseid meteoroid was the impactor. The cosmonauts spent 38 min conducting the Panorama inspection of Mir and performing miscellaneous tasks on October 22. The EO-14 cosmonauts spent 4 hrs on October 29 inspecting Mir as part of the Panorama program and conducting miscellaneous tasks. By the end of Panorama they had inspected the entire skin of Mir. Panorama revealed many small impact sites on Mir, though no hull penetrations. During one of their EVAs, a piece of metal of indeterminate origin drifted past the working cosmonauts. On November 21, 1993 Progress M-19 docked to the station. On January 10, 1994 Progress M-19 departed and Mir Principal Expedition 15 (Viktor Afanaseyev, Yuri Usachyov, Valeri Polyakov) arrived aboard Soyuz TM-18. Tsibliyev and Serebrov boarded Soyuz TM-17 on 14 January for the return home. Soyuz TM-17 struck Mir during the customary inspection fly-around prior to deorbit burn. Tsibliyev and Serebrov were conducting proximity operations with Mir. Among other things, they were photographing a NASA JSC-built docking target they had installed during one of their EVAs. They were unable to arrest Soyuz TM-17’s forward movement because of an improperly set switch, and so struck Kristall two glancing blows with its descent module. The blows temporarily disabled Mir’s orientation system. Masterful piloting by Tsibliyev prevented Soyuz TM-17 from striking Mir’s antennas and solar arrays. After the incident, the EO-14 cosmonauts and ground controllers checked over Soyuz TM-17, while the EO-15 crew on Mir checked over Kristall. They found no damage. Normal Mir operations resumed, and Soyuz TM-17 made a normal re-entry. Mir EO-14 Chronology
Bibliography and Further Reading
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