MIR: Expedition 17
(EO-17)

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 54 km northeast of Arkalyk.

Following a two day solo flight Soyuz TM-20 docked with the MIR space station on October 06, 1994. Main goal of the mission was to exchange the resident crew partly. Aleksandr Viktorenko, Yelena Kondakova and long term cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov became the 17th resident crew of the station.

During the automatic approach to MIR's front port, the spacecraft yawed unexpectedly. Aleksandr Viktorenko completed a manual docking without additional incident.

As part of the program EUROMIR 94 Ulf Merbold and the resident crew performed a scientific research program to test organism in weightlessness and long duration missions. Ulf Merbolds experiment program included 23 life sciences, 4 materials sciences, and 3 technology experiments.

On October 11, 1994 the six cosmonauts aboard MIR were unable to activate a video camera and TV lights while recharging Soyuz TM-20s batteries. A short circuit had disabled the computer which guided MIR's solar arrays, forcing the station to drain its batteries. The cosmonauts used reaction control thrusters on the Soyuz TM spacecraft docked to the station to orient it so its solar arrays would point toward the Sun, and switched on a backup computer. Normal conditions were restored by October 15, 1994. According to Yuri Antoshechkin, Deputy Flight Director for MIR Systems, speaking in December at JSC, the shortage afflicted only the MIR core module. Antoshechkin stated through an interpreter that unspecified minor crew error, coupled with a long period out of contact with monitors in the TsUP (caused by Altair/SR relay satellite "prophylactic work") during a crew sleep period, contributed to the base block discharging its batteries unnoticed, and that an automatic alarm awakened the crew when the power shortage reached a critical level.

When the crew landed, Valeri Polyakov was onboard and became the world record holder (438 days in space in one flight).