Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing
168 km southeast of Dzheskasgan.
Following a two day solo flight Soyuz
TM-25 docked with the MIR space station on February 12, 1997. Within meters of
automatic approach to the station, a slight misalignment was noted, and the
commander of the module had to dock it by manual steering. Vasili
Tsibliyev and Aleksandr
Lazutkin became together with Jerry
Linenger the
23rd MIR resident
crew. The crew performed common scientific experiments together with
Reinhold
Ewald during the mission EUROMIR 97.
On the 14th day
a fire onboard the MIR broke out in a lithium perchlorate cartridge in the
Kvant module used to generate extra oxygen on MIR. The cosmonauts were able to
quench it. An
EVA
by Vasili
Tsibliyev and Jerry
Linenger was performed on April 29, 1997 (4h 48m). They
retrieved some sample collection experiments from the outside of the complex.
Later an oxygen cleaning aparature failed. The crew was visited by the
STS 84 crew (May 17, - May 22,
1997).
The robot cargo ship Progress M-34 undocked from MIR at 10:22
UTC on June 24,1997 to perform a redocking test using
recently developed remote-control procedures which are replacing the old
automatic systems that Russia can no longer afford to buy from Ukraine. At
09:10
UTC on June 25, 1997, MIR
Commander
Tsibliyev was remotely commanding the approach of Progress to
the Kvant (37KE) module when the Progress went off course and collided with a
solar array on the Spektr module and then the module itself. A large hole was
made in the solar panel, and one of Spektr's radiators was badly buckled. A
small breach in Spektr's hull appears to have been made and the module began to
depressurize. This was not a slow leak - the crew heard a hissing sound and
felt their ears pop. They closed the hatch on the core module transfer section
that leads to Spektr by 09:38
UTC. The Spektr module was thereafter fully
depressurized. It remains docked to MIR with its docking hatch open. The
electrical connection between Spektr's solar panels and the main station was
broken off, also cutting off the power supply from the solar panels on the
Kristall module.
MIR lost power and attitude control on July 16, 1997
when a cable was accidentally disconnected, but the crew were able to use the
Soyuz to reorient the station and restore the situation.
Spares were
brought with the Progress M-35 cargo spacecraft to the space station.
Commander Vasili
Tsibliyev developed heart problems. The Soyuz landing rockets
failed to fire on touchdown, so the crew performed one of the roughest landings
in space history.
