Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing
with
Soyuz TM-5 spacecraft 160 km
southeast of Dzheskasgan. Abdul
Mohmand became the first cosmonaut from
Afghanistan.
The crew had a unique makeup, with a commander (Vladimir
Lyakhov) who had been trained to fly a Soyuz TM solo in the
event a rescue ship needed to be sent to recover two cosmonauts from MIR.
Onboard the spacecraft was no
flight engineer, but two inexperienced cosmonaut
researchers.
Following a two day solo flight Soyuz TM-6 docked with
MIR-Kvant-
Soyuz TM-5 on August 31,
1988.
Scientific work with the
third resident crew was
done. This included Earth observation, materials sciences and medical research
(including observation of earthquake regions, searching for mineral
ressources). Topographic camera Kate 140, the MKS-M spectrometer, the Spektr
256 analysator and a handcamera were used during the Shamshed experiment.
Medical experiment included studying of movementproblems in minor gravitation.
Valeri
Polyakov stayed on board and became member of the
third resident
crew.
During descent they suffered a computer software problem
combined with a sensor problem. The deorbit engine on the
Soyuz TM-5 spacecraft which was to
propel them into atmospheric reentry, did not behave as expected. During an
attempted burn, the computer shut off the engines prematurely, believing the
spacecraft was out of alignment. Vladimir
Lyakhov determined that they were not, in fact, out of
alignment, and asserted that the problem was caused by conflicting signals
picked up by the alignment sensors caused by solar glare. With the problem
apparently solved, two orbits later he restarted to deorbit engines. But the
engines shut off again. The flight director decided that they would have to
remain in orbit an extra day (a full revolution of the Earth), so they could
determine what the problem was. During this time it was realised that during
the second attempted engine burn, the computer had tried to execute the program
which was used to dock with MIR several months earlier during the stay of the
second resident crew. After reprogramming the computer, the next attempt was
successful, and the crew safely landed on September 07, 1988.
