COSPAR ID 1997-038A Apogee 249,000 m Launch date 5 August 1997 | Orbits completed ~3,220 Manufacturer RKK Energia Dates 5 Aug 1997 – 19 Feb 1998 Landing date 19 February 1998 | |
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Mission duration 197 days, 17 hours, 34 minutes, 36 seconds Launch mass 7,150 kilograms (15,760 lb) Operator Roscosmos State Corporation Members | ||
Soyuz TM-26 is a Russian spacecraft that ferried cosmonauts and supplies to the Mir, the Russian space station. It was the 32nd expedition to Mir. It was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome on August 5, 1997. The main mission was to transport two specially-trained cosmonauts to repair or salvage the troubled space station.
TM-26 docked with Mir on August 7 by manual control. The crew repaired the power cable and harness/connectors in the severely damaged Spektr module and restored much of the lost power; they also repaired and replaced the oxygen generators in Mir. The hole(s) in that module that caused total depressurization of the module could not be located during their spacewalk inside that module.
During the flight a Television advertisement starring Vasily Tsibliyev was filmed on the station. The ad, for Tnuva's brand on UHT milk, was the first ad to be filmed in space.