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Soyuz TM-11

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Soyuz TM-11
COSPAR ID1990-107A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.20981Edit this on Wikidata
Mission duration175 days, 1 hour, 50 minutes, 41 seconds
Orbits completed~2,735
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSoyuz 7K-STM No. 61
Spacecraft typeSoyuz-TM
ManufacturerNPO Energia
Launch mass7,150 kilograms (15,760 lb)
Crew
Crew size3
MembersViktor Afanasyev
Musa Manarov
LaunchingToyohiro Akiyama
LandingHelen Sharman
CallsignДербе́нт (Derbent)
Start of mission
Launch date2 December 1990, 08:13:32 (1990-12-02UTC08:13:32Z) UTC
RocketSoyuz-U2
End of mission
Landing date26 May 1991, 10:04:13 (1991-05-26UTC10:04:14Z) UTC
Landing sitenear Dzhezkazgan
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Perigee altitude367 kilometres (228 mi)
Apogee altitude400 kilometres (250 mi)
Inclination51.6 degrees
Period92.2 minutes
Docking with Mir
Docking date4 December 1990, 09:57:09 UTC
Undocking date26 May 1991, 06:15:59 UTC
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions)

Soyuz TM-11 was the eleventh expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir, using a Soyuz-TM crew transport vessel. The mission notably carried a Japanese television reporter from Tokyo Broadcasting System.[1]

Crew

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Position Launching crew Landing crew
Commander Soviet Union Viktor Afanasyev
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer Soviet Union Musa Manarov
Second spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut Japan Toyohiro Akiyama
First spaceflight
Reporter
United Kingdom Helen Sharman, Project Juno
First spaceflight

Mission highlights

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Soyuz TM-11 was the 11th expedition to Mir, which spent 175 days docked to the space station. Coincidentally it was launched on the same day as STS-35. As the mission carried Toyohiro Akiyama, a reporter for the Japanese television network Tokyo Broadcasting System, the spacecraft's launch shroud and its Soyuz booster were painted with the Japanese flag and advertisements for Sony, Unicharm, and Otsuka Pharmaceutical. A camera inside the descent module filmed the cosmonauts during ascent for Akiyama's network.

Viktor Afanaseyev, Musa Manarov (on his second Mir visit), and Toyohiro Akiyama were welcomed aboard Mir by Soviet cosmonauts. Akiyama's network paid for the flight. The Soviets called this their first commercial spaceflight and claimed to have earned $14 million. The journalist was scheduled to make one 10-min TV broadcast and two 20-min radio broadcasts each day. Electrical power and video and TV system incompatibilities forced the Japanese to make extensive use of converters. His equipment, which weighed about 170 kg, was delivered by Progress-M spacecraft and set up in advance by Manakov and Strekalov. On December 5 Akiyama's couch was transferred to Soyuz-TM 10. On December 8 Manakov and Strekalov commenced loading Soyuz-TM 10's descent module with film and experiment results. TBS broadcast Akiyama's landing live from Kazakhstan.

References

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  1. ^ The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-tm11.htm