Success
Soyuz TM-8
Human Exploration
Soviet Space Program(CCCP)Government
Soyuz-U2
LEOorbit
Soyuz TM-8 was the eighth mission and the fifth long-duration expedition to Mir space station. The mission began on September 5, 1989, 21:38:03 UTC, launching Commander Alexander Viktorenko and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Serebrov into orbit. They docked with Mir two days later. During their stay there, cosmonauts performed five EVAs, various station maintenance tasks, and carried out scientific experiments in medicine, geophysics, space technology, earth observation, astronomy etc. The crew returned after 166 days in orbit, landing safely back on Earth on February 19, 1990, 04:36:18 UTC.
Tuesday, September 5, 1989 at 9:38 PM
Mission details
The Soyuz programme is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. It was the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok and Voskhod programmes.
Nov 28, 1966 — ongoing
Mir was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996.
Feb 20, 1986 — Mar 23, 2001
Orbital Attempt
#3,446
CCCP Mission
#2,294
Pad Launch
#282
Location Launch
#913
Designator
1989-071
Launch Window
NET
Sep 5, 1989, 9:38 PM
Schedule Changes
1 update
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian crewed spaceflights are launched from Baikonur.
Timezone
Asia/Qyzylorda
Local Launch Time
Sep 6, 1989, 3:38 AM
Total Launches
1,563
Total Landings
0
Coordinates
45.9650, 63.3050
Soyuz-U2 Specs
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.
Length
34.54 m
Diameter
2.95 m
Launch Mass
298 t
LEO Capacity
7,050 kg
Reusable
No
Maiden Flight
1982
Fastest Turnaround
4d
Total Launches
71
Successful
71
Failed
0
Consecutive Success
71
Maiden flight: Dec 23, 1982
Soviet Space Program
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.
Founded
1931
Total Launches
2,456
Successful
2,288
Failed
168
Pending
0
Consecutive Success
17