MIR: Expedition 5
(EO-5)

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 55 km northeast of Arkalyk.

Following a two day solo flight Soyuz TM-8 docked with the MIR space station on September 07, 1989 manual controlled, because the Kurs rendezvous and docking system malfunctioned. Aleksandr Viktorenko took over manual control and withdrew to 20 metres, and then docked manually.

The deconserving of complex by the crew was needed. Scientific experiments in the areas of medicine, geophysics, space technology, earth observation, astronomy, materials sciences and serveral more were performed. The crew became the fifth resident crew of the MIR space station.

The module Kvant2 docked on MIR on December 06, 1989. Supplies were brought with cargo spacecrafts Progress M-1 and M-2.

The cosmonauts performed five EVAs on January 08, 1990 (2h 56m) to mount two star sensors for navigation on the Kvant module, January 11, 1990 (2h 54m) to attach tools and remove a space exposure experiment rack, January 26, 1990 (3h 02m) using the new Orlan-DMA spacesuits. The cosmonauts attached a mooring post to the outside of the airlock compartment and removed a Kurs antenna so it could not interfere with future EVAs. Fourth EVA on February 01, 1990 (4h 59m) was performed. In this EVA the Soviet "flying armchair" manoeuvring unit called "Ikar"was tested. It weighed 218 kg and had been delivered to the station aboard Kvant2. Aleksandr Serebrov donned the unit on February 01, 1990 and moved up to 33 m from the station. In case the YMK/SPK malfunctioned, during the test he was bound by a tether attached to a winch on the mooring post installed on the previous EVA. There was a fifth and final EVA on February 05, 1990 (3h 45m). In this EVA Aleksandr Viktorenko flew the YMK to a distance of 45m.