COSPAR ID 1993-005A Spacecraft type Soyuz-TM Apogee 394,000 m Launch date 24 January 1993 Rocket Soyuz-U2 | Orbits completed ~2,790 Manufacturer NPO Energia Dates 24 Jan 1993 – 22 Jul 1993 Landing date 22 July 1993 | |
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Mission duration 179 days, 43 minutes, 45 seconds Launch mass 7,150 kilograms (15,760 lb) Operator Roscosmos State Corporation Members Gennadi Manakov, Aleksandr Poleshchuk | ||
The Soyuz-TM crew transports (T - транспортный - Transportnyi - meaning transport, M - модифицированный - Modifitsirovannyi- meaning modified) were fourth generation (1986–2002) Soyuz spacecraft used for ferry flights to the Mir and ISS space stations. It added to the Soyuz-T new docking and rendezvous, radio communications, emergency and integrated parachute/landing engine systems. The new Kurs rendezvous and docking system permitted the Soyuz-TM to maneuver independently of the station, without the station making "mirror image" maneuvers to match unwanted translations introduced by earlier models' aft-mounted attitude control.
Soyuz TM-16 was the sixteenth expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir.
Mission highlights
16th expedition to Mir.
First Soyuz without a probe and drogue docking system since 1976. It carried an APAS-89 androgynous docking unit different from the APAS-75 unit used for ASTP in 1975, yet similar in general principles. Soyuz-TM 16 used it to dock with an androgynous docking port on the Kristall module. This was a test of the docking system in preparation for dockings by the Space Shuttles with Mir.