Mission parameters

• Mass: 7100 kg
• Perigee: 341 km
• Apogee: 365 km
• Inclination: 51.6°
• Period: 91.6 minutes

Mission highlights

Early in the expedition EO-2

Mir EO-2

Mir EO-2 was the second long duration expedition to the Soviet space station Mir, and it lasted from February to December 1987. The mission was divided into two parts , the division occurring when one of the two crew members, Aleksandr Laveykin, was replaced part way through the mission by...

, the module Kvant-1

Kvant-1

Kvant-1 was the second module of the Soviet space station Mir. It was the first addition to the Mir base block and contained scientific instruments for astrophysical observations and materials science experiments....

was launched to automatically dock with Mir. The docking system, known as the "Igla system", was not behaving as expected. On April 5 the EO-2 crew retreated to the Soyuz TM-2 spacecraft so that they could escape in the event the module got out of control. About 200 m out, the docking system lost its lock on Mir’s aft port antenna. The cosmonauts watched from within Soyuz-TM 2 as the Kvant/ FSM combination passed within 10 m of the station. Following an emergency spacewalk, Kvant fully docked to the station on April 11.