Soyuz TM-4

Soyuz TM-4 was the fourth manned spacecraft to dock with the space station Mir. It was launched in December 1987, and carried the first two crew members of the third long duration expedition, Mir EO-3. These crew members, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, would stay in space for just under 366 days, setting a new spaceflight record. The third astronaut launched by Soyuz TM-4 was Anatoli Levchenko, who returned to Earth about a week later with the remaining crew of Mir EO-2. Levchenko was a prospective pilot for the Soviet Space shuttle Buran. The purpose of his mission, named Mir LII-1, was to familiarize him with spaceflight.^[1]

It was the fourth Soyuz TM spacecraft to be launched (one of which wasn't manned), and like other Soyuz spacecraft, it was treated as a lifeboat for the station's crew while docked. In June 1988, part way through EO-3, Soyuz TM-4 was swapped for Soyuz TM-5 as the station's lifeboat. The mission which swapped the spacecraft was known as Mir EP-2, and had a three-person crew.^[2]

Crew

Position	Launching crew	Landing crew
Commander	Vladimir Titov Mir EO-3 Third spaceflight	Anatoly Solovyev Mir EP-2 First spaceflight
Flight Engineer	Musa Manarov Mir EO-3 First spaceflight	Viktor Savinykh Mir EP-2 Third spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut	Anatoli Levchenko Mir LII-1 First spaceflight	Aleksandr Aleksandrov Mir EP-2 First spaceflight

Titov and Manarov were members of the long duration mission Mir EO-3, and returned to Earth just over a full year later, in Soyuz TM-6. Levchenko, on the other hand, returned to Earth about a week later in Soyuz TM-3.

In June 1988, Soyuz TM-4 landed the three-man crew of Mir EP-2, after their 9-day stay on the station; that crew included the second Bulgarian astronaut Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov.^[2]

Backup crew

Mission parameters

• Mass: 7070 kg
• Perigee: 337 km
• Apogee: 357 km
• Inclination: 51.6°
• Period: 91.5 minutes

Mission highlights

4th manned spaceflight to Mir. Manarov and Titov (know by their callsign as the "Okeans") replaced Romanenko and Alexandrov. Anatoli Levchenko was a cosmonaut in the Buran shuttle program. Levchenko returned with Romanenko and Alexandrov in Soyuz TM-3.

Before departing Mir, Romanenko and Alexandrov demonstrated use of EVA equipment to the Okeans. The Okeans delivered biological experiments, including the Aynur biological crystal growth apparatus, which they installed in Kvant-1. The combined crews conducted an evacuation drill, with the Mir computer simulating an emergency.^[3]

Titov and Manarov conducted part of an ongoing survey of galaxies and star groups in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum using the Glazar telescope on Kvant. The survey required photography with exposure times up to 8 min. Even small cosmonaut movements could shake the complex. This produced blurring of astronomical images, so all cosmonaut movements had to be stopped during the exposures.

References

Soyuz human spaceflight programme
Main topics	Soyuz (rocket family) Soyuz (spacecraft) Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5 Site 31/6 List of Soyuz missions List of Soviet manned space missions List of Russian manned space missions
Current missions	Soyuz MS-02 MS-03
Future missions	2017 Soyuz MS-04 MS-05 MS-06 MS-07 2018 Soyuz MS-08 MS-09 MS-10
Past missions (by spacecraft type)	Soyuz 7K-OK (1966–1970) Kosmos 133† Soyuz 7K-OK No.1† Kosmos 140 Soyuz 1† Kosmos 186 188 212 213 238 Soyuz 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Soyuz 7K-L1 (1967–1970) (Zond lunar programme) Kosmos 146 154† Zond 1967A† 1967B† Zond 4 1968A† 1968B† 5 6 1969A† Zond-M 1† M 2† Zond 7 8 9 10 Soyuz 7K-L1E (1969–1970) Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1† Kosmos 382 Soyuz 7K-LOK (1971–1972) Soyuz 7K-LOK No.1† No.2† Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971) Soyuz 10† 11† Soyuz 7K-T (1972–1981) Kosmos 496 573 Soyuz 12 Kosmos 613 Soyuz 13 Kosmos 656 Soyuz 14 15† 17 18a† 18 20 (uncrewed) 21 23† 24 25† 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 (uncrewed landing) 33† 34 (uncrewed launch) 35 36 37 38 39 40 Soyuz 7K-TM (1974–1976) Kosmos 638 672 Soyuz 16 19 (Apollo–Soyuz Test Project) 22 Soyuz 7K-S (1974–1976) Kosmos 670 772† 869† Soyuz-T (1978–1986) Kosmos 1001† 1074 Soyuz T-1 (uncrewed) T-2 T-3 T-4 T-5 T-6 T-7 T-8† T-9 T-10a† T-10 T-11 T-12 T-13 T-14 T-15 Soyuz-TM (1986–2002) Soyuz TM-1 (uncrewed) TM-2 TM-3 TM-4 TM-5 TM-6 TM-7 TM-8 TM-9 TM-10 TM-11 TM-12 TM-13 TM-14 TM-15 TM-16 TM-17 TM-18 TM-19 TM-20 TM-21 TM-22 TM-23 TM-24 TM-25 TM-26 TM-27 TM-28 TM-29 TM-30 TM-31 TM-32 TM-33 TM-34 Soyuz-TMA (2002–2012) Soyuz TMA-1 TMA-2 TMA-3 TMA-4 TMA-5 TMA-6 TMA-7 TMA-8 TMA-9 TMA-10 TMA-11 TMA-12 TMA-13 TMA-14 TMA-15 TMA-16 TMA-17 TMA-18 TMA-19 TMA-20 TMA-21 TMA-22 Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2016) Soyuz TMA-01M TMA-02M TMA-03M TMA-04M TMA-05M TMA-06M TMA-07M TMA-08M TMA-09M TMA-10M TMA-11M TMA-12M TMA-13M TMA-14M TMA-15M TMA-16M TMA-17M TMA-18M TMA-19M TMA-20M Soyuz MS (2016–present) Soyuz MS-01
Uncrewed missions are designated with Kosmos numbers; crewed missions get a Soyuz number. Failed missions are denoted with a † symbol. Cancelled missions are in italics.

Human spaceflights to Mir
Soyuz T-15 Soyuz TM-2 Soyuz TM-3 Soyuz TM-4 Soyuz TM-5 Soyuz TM-6 Soyuz TM-7 Soyuz TM-8 Soyuz TM-9 Soyuz TM-10 Soyuz TM-11 Soyuz TM-12 Soyuz TM-13 Soyuz TM-14 Soyuz TM-15 Soyuz TM-16 Soyuz TM-17 Soyuz TM-18 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz TM-20 STS-63 Soyuz TM-21 STS-71 Soyuz TM-22 STS-74 Soyuz TM-23 STS-76 Soyuz TM-24 STS-79 STS-81 Soyuz TM-25 STS-84 Soyuz TM-26 STS-86 STS-89 Soyuz TM-27 STS-91 Soyuz TM-28 Soyuz TM-29 Soyuz TM-30