MIR: Expedition 13
(EO-13)

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 140 km east of Dzheskasgan.

Following a two day solo flight Soyuz TM-16 docked with the MIR space station on January 26, 1993.
It was the first Soyuz without a probe and drogue docking system since 1976. It carried an APAS-89 androgynous docking unit different from the APAS-75 unit used for ASTP in 1975, yet similar in general principles. Soyuz TM-16 used it to dock with an androgynous docking port on the Kristall module. This was a test of the docking system in preparation for dockings by space shuttles with MIR.

Main goal of this mission was the crew exchange. Gennadi Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk became the 13th MIR resident crew. The cosmonauts worked on experiments in biology, astronomy, materials science and 140 experiments in earth science.

Gennadi Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk performed the first EVA on April 19, 1993 (5h 25m). They installed solar array electric drives on the sides of Kvant. These would later receive the collapsible solar arrays from Kristall. Aleksandr Poleshchuk climbed down the length of Kvant2 to the base of the Strela telescoping boom attached to the base block. Gennadi Manakov then fixed himself to the end of the boom, at which point Aleksandr Poleshchuk swung the boom to move him to the installation site on Kvant. A container holding one of the electric drives was transferred using the boom. With difficulty the cosmonauts attached the drive to one of the frameworks which had been assembled on opposite sides of Kvant in 1991 by Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov. Aleksandr Poleshchuk noticed that one of two control handles for the Strela boom had come off and floated away. A new handle would have to be sent up from Earth before work could continue.

The second EVA, planned for April 23, 1993, was cancelled.

Another EVA by Gennadi Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk occurred on June 18, 1993 (4h 33m). The cosmonauts repaired the boom, and then installed the second solar array electric drive.

In a unique manoeuver on July 03, 1993 Progress M-18 undocked from MIR, clearing the port for the docking only minutes later of Soyuz TM-17 with the MIR-14 crew of Vasili Tsibliyev and Aleksandr Serebrov and French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré.

Finally the crew made Earth observation with special cameras. Supplies were brought with the cargo space ships Progress M-16 - M-18 to the MIR space station.