COSPAR ID 1987-063A Spacecraft type Soyuz-TM Dates 22 Jul 1987 – 29 Dec 1987 Launch date 22 July 1987 | Orbits completed ~2,580 Manufacturer NPO Energia Landing date 29 December 1987 Crew size 3 | |
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Mission duration 160 days, 7 hours, 25 minutes, 56 seconds Launch mass 7,100 kilograms (15,700 lb) | ||
Soyuz TM-3 was the third manned spacecraft to visit the Soviet space station Mir, following Soyuz-T15 and Soyuz-TM2. It was launched in July 1987, during the long duration expedition Mir EO-2, and acted as a lifeboat for the second segment of that expedition. There were three people aboard the spacecraft at launch, including the two man crew of the week-long mission Mir EP-1, consisting of Soviet cosmonaut Alexander Viktorenko and Syrian Muhammed Faris. Faris was the first Syrian to travel to space, and as of November 2010, the only one. The third cosmonaut launched was Aleksandr Aleksandrov, who would replace one of the long duration crew members Aleksandr Laveykin of Mir EO-2. Laveykin had been diagnosed by ground-based doctors to have minor heart problems, so he returned to Earth with the EP-1 crew in Soyuz TM-2.
Soyuz TM-3 landed near the end of December 1987, landing both members of the EO-2 crew, as well as potential Buran (spacecraft) shuttle pilot Anatoli Levchenko, who had been launched to Mir a week earlier aboard Soyuz TM-4.