MIR: Expedition 25
(EO-25)

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 40 km southeast of Dzhezkasgan.

Following a two day solo flight Soyuz TM-27 docked with the MIR space station on January 31, 1998. Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin together with astronaut Andrew Thomas became the 25th resident crew of MIR. First in the focus was the French mission "PEGASE". The crew worked on common scientific experiments.

A planned EVA of Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin on March 03, 1998 was cancelled, because the hatch could not be opened and all wrenches broke.

The first EVA was performed by Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin on April 01, 1998 (6h 40m). Main objective was to repair the damaged Spektr solar panel. Handrails were installed near the panel but the crew could not complete the work before the scheduled time ran out.

The second spacewalk occurred on April 06, 1998 (4h 23m). The crew succeeded in completing repair of the damaged Spektr solar panel. However the EVA was cut short when Mission Control in error commanded the MIR to drift. This was then misdiagnosed as a depletion of fuel of the VDU orientation engine, and the crew was ordered back into the station.

Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin performed the third EVA on April 11, 1998 (6h 25m). The cosmonauts began a series of three EVAs to install the new VDU station orientation engine (delivered by Progress M-38) into the Sofora boom. On this first spacewalk they disconnected the old engine (in use for six years) and pushed it into space.

The fourth EVA by the same cosmonauts was conducted on April 17, 1998 (6h 32m). The main goal of this EVA was the dismantling and pushing away the old VDU (the external thruster in the top of the Sofora boom).

The fifth and final spacewalk again by Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin occurred on April 22, 1998 (6h 21m). Two truss structures on the Kvant module and the new Sofora VDU station orientation engine assembly was unlatched from Progress M-38.

Meanwhile the crew unloaded the unmanned transporters Progress M-38 und M-39. On June 04, 1998 the Discovery (STS-91) docked with the MIR. With this mission the US crew member Andrew Thomas returned to Earth.

Common work with the visiting crew of STS-91 (June 04, - June 08, 1998) was done.