Soyuz TM-22 was a Soyuz spaceflight to the Soviet space station Mir. It launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome Launch Pad 1 on September 3, 1995. After two days of free flight, the crew docked with Mir to become Mir Principal Expedition 20 and Euromir 95. Mir 20 was a harbinger of the multinational missions that would be typical of the International Space Station. After 179 days, 1 hour and 42 minutes on orbit, Reiter obtained the record for spaceflight duration by a Western European.
Crew
Mission highlights Soyuz TM-22 was a Russian transport spacecraft that transported cosmonauts to the Mir space station for a 179-day stay. It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and docked on September 5, 1995, with Mir's Kvant-2 module at the port that was vacated by Progress M-28 a day before. Soyuz TM-22 was the final mission launched on the Soyuz-U2 launch vehicle, fueled by synthetic Syntin rather than the RP-1 fuel used in other variants of the Soyuz launch vehicle. The crew's commander was Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko of the Russian Air Force. The flight engineer was Sergey Vasilyevich Avdeyev of RKK Energiya. Thomas Reiter was the first ESA cosmonaut on a long duration Mir crew as part of the European Mission "Euromir 95". While docked with Mir, the Soyuz was joined by Progress M-29, Space Shuttle Atlantis as part of STS-74 and Progress M-30. The spaceflight took two months longer than planned due to lack of funds for Soyuz TM-23.
Mir principal expedition 20 and Euromir 95 Mir 20 was the second Mir mission with the Euromir designation and an ESA cosmonaut as part of the crew. The first was Ulf Merbold with Euromir94. The objectives of Euromir95 was to study the effects of microgravity on the human body, develop materials for the space environment, to capture particles of cosmic and anthropogenic dust in low Earth orbit and to test new space equipment. Mir 20 was the second mission to include a NASA Space Shuttle docking. During that phase of the mission, Mir housed crews from four countries: Russia, Canada, Germany and the United States.
September 5–11, 1995
Soyuz-TM 22 Docks
After two days of autonomous orbital flight, on September 5, the spacecraft docked with Mir after circling from 90-120m out at the -X docking port. After an hour and a half, the crew checked the hatch seals, removed their space suits and entered the station and were welcomed by Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin of Mir Principle Expedition 19 with the traditional bread and salt. The crews then began a week of joint work that included a handover from the Mir 19 crew to familiarize Mir 20 with the status of the onboard systems and experiments.
September 11 - October 10, 1995
Mir 19 Ends Solovyev and Budarin ended their 75-day mission by departing on the Soyuz-TM 21 on September 11. Their Soyuz landed safely in Kazakhstan, 302 km northeast of Arkalyk, far away from the aiming point, however the rescue crews found Mir 19 in excellent condition.
Euromir Science Activities Begin The Mir 20 crew began activating and calibrating the Euromir 95 experiments on September 13. The 41 experiments included 18 life sciences, 5 astrophysics, 8 material science and 10 technology experiments. An average of four and a half hours per day was allotted for experimental work, the rest of the time was devoted to exercise and station maintenance. Thomas Reiter, in addition to his Euromir duties, participated in Russian experiments and in his role as flight engineer, he helped maintain the station's onboard equipment.
October 10 - November 15, 1995
Progress-M 29 arrives
Progress-M 29 was launched from the Baiknour Cosmodrome on October 8, 1995, at 18:51 UTC on a Soyuz-U rocket. The resupply ship docked with Mir on October 10, 1995, at 20:23 UTC with about 2.5 tons of fresh supplies and equipment for the Mir 20 crew including 80 kg of experimental hardware for Euromir 95.
Mir 20/Euromir 95 extended On October 6, 1995, the decision was made to extend the Mir 20 mission by 44 days at a meeting of the RSA, ESA, RSC Energia, the Russian Central Specialized Design Bureau (Soyuz rocket designer) and representatives of the Progress Plant where the Soyuz-U rocket for the launch of Mir 21 was under construction. By postponing the Soyuz TM-23 launch from January 15, 1996, to February 21, 1996, they were able to shift much of the expenditure for the vehicle processing to the next fiscal year, relieving strain on the RSA budget. This also allowed full usage of the Soyuz-TM 22 module's 180-day lifetime, allow time for more Euromir research and an extra EVA.
First Mir 20/Euromir 95 EVA Thomas Reiter became the first ESA cosmonaut to perform an EVA when he climbed through the Kvant 2 hatch on October 20 with Sergei Avdeyev. In a successful 5 hour and 11 minute EVA, they installed four elements on the ESEF: two exposure cassettes, a spacecraft environmental monitoring package and a control electronics box on the forward section of the Spektr module. One of the cassettes would be opened remotely from within the station to sample the Draconids meteor stream when the Earth passed through the tail of the Giacobini Zinner comet.
Coolant loop leak discovered and repaired On November 1, a coolant line to the core module air regeneration system was found to be leaking. Approximately 1.8L of an ethylene glycol mixture had leaked inside the Mir module. Shutting down the coolant loop required shutting down the primary carbon dioxide removal system in Kvant and the oxygen replenishment system. While they were off, the backup air scrubber using lithium hydroxide canisters similar to those used on the Space Shuttle was used to scrub the carbon dioxide. The leak was found a few days later and repaired with a putty-like substance.
Dutch Biokin Air Scrubber tested Two Dutch companies sponsored by the ESA and the Dutch National Institute for Aerospace Programs developed a 500g system to use microbes to filter air by converting airborne contaminants into harmless compounds. The system was activated by the crew on November 9, run for a week and then put in a small freezer for return to Earth on STS-74.
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