Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing
76 km northnortheast of Arkalyk.
It was the first mission under Russian
lead with three cosmonauts from three different countries. Two crew seats had
been sold (to Slovakia and France). This meant that Russian
Flight
Engineer
Avdeyev already aboard MIR would have to accept a double
length assignment. Following a two day solo flight the Soyuz docked with the
MIR space station on 22.02.1999.
Bella,
the first Slovak in space, carried out the Stefanik research program.
Afanasiyev and
Haigneré became together with
Avdeyev the
27th resident crew of
MIR.
First
EVA by
Afanasiyev and
Haigneré on 16.04.1999 (6h 19m) to deploy Sputnik-99
and to evaluate tools.
Afanasiyev and
Avdeyev performed a second
EVA on
23.07.1999 (6h 07m). The attempt, to unfold an antenna, failed.
A third
an final
EVA was
performed by
Afanasiyev and
Avdeyev on 28.07.1999 (5h 22m). This time the unfolding of
the antenna was successful.