MIR: Expedition 3
(EO-3)

Launch from Baikonur; landing with Soyuz TM-6-spacecraft 80 km northeast of Arkalyk.

Docking on MIR; Titov and Manarov became third resident crew of MIR. Both performed three EVAs. First EVA on 26.02.1988 (4h 25m) replacing a segment on a solarcell. Second EVA on 30.06.1988 (5h 10m) in which the replacment of a detectorblock on the Kvant-1 module failed. New tolos were delivered to the station and with this the same work was then successful on 20.10.1988 (4h 12m).

In the first week of the mission they performed biological experiments (with onions and fishes for example) and installed the Aynur biological crystal growth apparatus, which they had delivered to the station, into Kvant-1. Titov and Manarov conducted part of an ongoing survey of galaxies and star groups in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum using the Glazar telescope on Kvant. The survey required photography with exposure times up to 8 min.

Other work included Earth obeservation and experiments on the fields of materials sciences, meteorology, space technology, physiology, psychology, medical sciences and astronomical research, using the Marija-reasearch apparatus.

With the arrive of Soyuz TM-6 crew Valeri Polyakov became an additional resident crew-member. He was a medical doctor and in the following time medical experiments were more intensive.

All in all the crew performed more than 2000 experiments.