Mir EO-6 was the sixth long duration expedition to the space station

Space station

A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...

 Mir

Mir

Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

. The two crew members were Anatoli Soloviyov (Commander) and Aleksandr Balandin (Flight Engineer).

Crew

Mir EO-5	Name	Spaceflight	Launch	Landing	Duration
Commander	Anatoli Soloviyov	Second	11 February 1990 Soyuz TM-9 Soyuz TM-9 -Mission highlights:During docking, cosmonauts aboard Mir noticed that three of the eight thermal blankets on the descent module of the approaching Soyuz-TM 9 spacecraft had come loose from their attachments near the heat shield, yet remained attached at their top ends...	9 August 1990 Soyuz TM-9	179 days
Flight Engineer	Aleksandr Balandin	First

The backup crew for this expedition were Gennadi Manakov

Gennadi Manakov

Gennadi Mikhailovich Manakov is a former cosmonaut that commanded two Soyuz flights.Mankov was born in Yefimovka, Orenburg Oblast, Russian SFSR on June 1, 1950. He was selected as a Fluffer on September 2, 1985 and flew as Commander on Soyuz TM-10 and Soyuz TM-16, retiring on December 20, 1996. He...

 (Commander) and Gennadi Strekalov (Flight Engineer).

Crew Arrival

The two crew members arrived at Mir via Soyuz TM-9

Soyuz TM-9

-Mission highlights:During docking, cosmonauts aboard Mir noticed that three of the eight thermal blankets on the descent module of the approaching Soyuz-TM 9 spacecraft had come loose from their attachments near the heat shield, yet remained attached at their top ends...

, which launched on 11 February 1990. The Soyuz

Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...

 spacecraft docked on to the Kvant2 Complex.

Mission Highlights

While on board, the crew conducted an extensive programme of geophysical and astrophysical research, experiments on biology and biotechnology and work on space materials science. They started the commercial production of crystal in highest quality for an US electronic company. A protein grow experiment was also profitable (25 Million Rubel. A first EVA

EVA

Eva or EVA may refer to:* Eva , a given name for women** Eva , a list of people with the name EvaIt may also refer to:-In business and economics:* Earned Value Analysis, a measurement of project progress...

 was conducted on 17 July 1990, lasting 7h 16m, in which Soyuz TM-9 was repaired after 3 of 8 thermal blankets had come loose near the heat shield. Another EVA was performed on 26 July 1990 (3h 31m), in order to repair the Kvant2 Module hatch, but this failed.

Expedition Conclusion

The crew left on Soyuz TM-9 on 9 August 1990. The expedition in total lasted 179 days, 1 hour and 17 minutes. The crew completed 2833 orbits of the Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

.