Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing
44 km southsoutheast of Arkalyk.
Following a two day solo flight Soyuz
TM-30 docked with the MIR space station on April 06, 2000. Sergei
Zalyotin and Aleksandr
Kaleri became the
28th and final resident
crew.
The crew of the mission was sent by MirCorp, a privately
funded company, to reactivate and repair the station. The mission was part of
an effort by MirCorp to refurbish and privatize the aging MIR space station,
which was nearing the end of its operational life. Further commercially funded
missions beyond Soyuz TM-30 were originally planned to continue the restoration
efforts of the then 14-year-old space station, but insufficient funding and
investment ultimately led to the de-orbit of the station in early
2001.
The new freighter Progress M1-2 docked with the space station on
April 27, 2000. The equalisation of the pressures between the station and the
freighter lasted long this time. Aleksandr
Kaleri said that the cargo bay of the Progress M1-2 was only
half full. The air-seal was in good order, but there had been some variations
in the air pressure, which in his opinion were caused by the differences in
temperature. In 30 minutes the pressure decreased by 4 MM mercury, and then the
decrease stopped. At last the pressure inside the station was 687 MM. The crew
still had to install the clamps between the Progress M1-2 and the Kvant1
docking port. These clamps make it impossible for the freighter to wander
away.
The only
EVA
in this mission was performed by both cosmonauts on May 12, 2000 (4h 52m). The
'germatizator-experiment', the use of a special glue to seal off cracks or
damages at the outside surface of the complex, was executed according to plan.
The following activity was the inspection of a malfunctioning solar battery on
the Kvant1 (Module-E). Problem with this solar battery was that it was
impossible to turn the panel into the most effective angle towards the sun. The
cosmonauts found out that the steering cable to the rotor of the solar battery
was burnt through during a short-circuit. The cosmonauts made images of the
cable. The last activity was the so called panorama-inspection, making images
of the outside of the complex to enable specialist to analyse the effects of
ageing of the material. The new freighter Progress-M1-2 was also inserted in
this inspection.