Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Soyuz T-15 launched 1986

Soyuz T-15 crew: Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov

Soyuz T-15, launched March 13, 1986, was the first mission that visited and docked with two space stations during the same mission.  Commander Leonid Kizim and Flight Engineer Vladimir Solovyov arrived at Mir, the first craft to visit the new space station on March 15.  During their 55 day stay (Mir EO-1), they unloaded two Progress spacecraft (supplies and scientific equipment) since Mir was launched with little science equipment. 

On May 5, Kizim and Solovyov boarded Soyuz T-15 and undocked from MirSalyut 7 was 4000 km ahead of Mir and in a lower orbit, so Mir was lowered 13 km to help expedite the journey.  Twenty-nine hours later, Soyuz T-15 docked with Salyut 7.

The previous crew EO-4 had been assigned to conduct EVAs but since Vladimir Vasyutin became ill and had to return early to Earth, they had not been able to perform the EVAs.  As EO-5, Kizim and Solovyov completed the EVAs

On June 25, they undocked from Salyut 7, the last expedition to the space station, and headed back to Mir, reaching it on June 26.

On July 3, Kizim passed Valeri Ryumin's record for time spent in space, becoming the first person to have spent a full year in space.  They returned to Earth July 16.  Soyuz T-15 was the last mission to use the Soyuz -T spacecraft since it was replaced by the Soyuz-TM.


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