Soyuz TM-20

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Human Exploration

Low Earth Orbit 1/5 Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Soyuz TM-20 was the 20th mission and the 17th long-duration expedition to Mir space station. The mission began on October 3, 1994, 22:42:30 UTC, launching Commander Alexander Viktorenko, Flight Engineer Yelena Kondakova and Research Cosmonaut Ulf Merbold into orbit. They docked with Mir two days later. During their stay there, cosmonauts performed two EVAs, carried out various scientific experiments. Station crew was visited by several Progress resupply spacecrafts, and welcomed aboard the Soyuz TM-21 crew. During this mission the first rendezvous maneuver of the Space Shuttle STS-63 with the Mir space station was performed. The mission concluded with a safe landing back on Earth on March 22, 1995, 04:04:05 UTC.

Soyuz-U

Family:
Configuration: 2

The Soyuz-U2 was a Soviet, later Russian, carrier rocket. It was derived from the Soyuz-U, and a member of the R-7 family of rockets. It featured increased performance compared with the baseline Soyuz-U, due to the use of syntin propellant, as opposed to RP-1 paraffin, used on the Soyuz-U.

Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    34.54 m
  • Diameter
    2.95 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    298.0 T
  • Thrust
Family
  • Name
    Soyuz-U
  • Family
  • Variant
    2
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Soyuz-U2
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
    7050.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Soyuz TM-20


In-active Human Rated Crew On-board: 3 Crew Capacity: 3
Destination: Mir
Serial Number: Soyuz TM 11F732A51 #69

Soyuz TM-20 was a Soyuz spacecraft which launched on 3 October 1994 22:42 UTC. It transported two members of the Expedition 17 crew and one German astronaut to Mir. The Expedition 17 crew consisted of Alexander Viktorenko and Yelena Kondakova. The German was ESA astronaut Ulf Merbold.

Soyuz TM Details

Crew


Aleksandr Viktorenko

Commander - configurations.Country.None - ( RFSA )

Status: Deceased

Date of Birth: March 29, 1947
Date of Death: Aug. 10, 2023

Yelena Kondakova

Flight Engineer - configurations.Country.None - ( RFSA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: March 30, 1957
Age: 67

Ulf Merbold

Research Cosmonaut - configurations.Country.None - ( ESA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: June 20, 1941
Age: 83

Soviet Space Program

Soviet Space Program

(CCCP)

Founded: 1931 Successes: 2288 Failures: 168 Pending: 0

Agency Type:

The Soviet space program, was the national space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) actived from 1930s until disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Soviet Union's space program was mainly based on the cosmonautic exploration of space and the development of the expandable launch vehicles, which had been split between many design bureaus competing against each other. Over its 60-years of history, the Russian program was responsible for a number of pioneering feats and accomplishments in the human space flight, including the first intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7), first satellite (Sputnik 1), first animal in Earth orbit (the dog Laika on Sputnik 2), first human in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1), first woman in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6), first spacewalk (cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on Voskhod 2), first Moon impact (Luna 2), first image of the far side of the Moon (Luna 3) and unmanned lunar soft landing (Luna 9), first space rover (Lunokhod 1), first sample of lunar soil automatically extracted and brought to Earth (Luna 16), and first space station (Salyut 1). Further notable records included the first interplanetary probes: Venera 1 and Mars 1 to fly by Venus and Mars, respectively, Venera 3 and Mars 2 to impact the respective planet surface, and Venera 7 and Mars 3 to make soft landings on these planets.

WIKI

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

1/5


Electron
Success
2 days, 8 hours ago
Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Launch of a yet to identified satellite to SSO for an undisclosed customer. The customer is suspected to be Low Earth Orbit communication satellite c…


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 17 hours ago
Dragon CRS-2 SpX-31
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

31st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commer…


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
2 days, 20 hours ago
Ionosfera-M 1 & 2
Cosmodrome Site 1S - Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation

Ionosfera is a constellation of four ionospheric and magnetospheric research satellites developed by for Roscosmos for the project Ionozond. The s…


H3-22
Success
3 days, 12 hours ago
DSN 3 (Kirameki 3)
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

DSN 3, also known as Kirameki 3, is a geostationary communications satellite to be used for military communications by the Japanese military.


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week ago
Kosmos 2579 (Bars-M No. 6)
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identity uncertain. Bars-M is the second incarnation of the Bars project, which was started in the mid 1990ies to develop a success…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 10-13
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Starlink Group 9-9
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 20 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 2
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Shenzhou 19
Launch Area 4 (SLS-1 / 921) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Eighth crewed flight to the Chinese space station.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
Starlink Group 10-8
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 22 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
2 weeks ago
NROL-167
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Fourth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office t…