Soyuz TM-12

Soyuz TM-12

COSPAR ID	1991-034A
SATCAT no.	21311
Mission duration	144 days, 15 hours, 21 minutes, 50 seconds
Orbits completed	~2,260
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Soyuz 7K-STM No. 62
Spacecraft type	Soyuz-TM
Manufacturer	NPO Energia
Launch mass	7,160 kilograms (15,790 lb)
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Anatoly Artsebarsky
Launching	Sergei Krikalev Helen Sharman
Landing	Toktar Aubakirov Franz Viehböck
Callsign	Озо́н (Ozone)
Start of mission
Launch date	18 May 1991, 12:50:28 (1991-05-18UTC12:50:28Z) UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-U2
End of mission
Landing date	10 October 1991, 04:12:18 (1991-10-10UTC04:12:19Z) UTC
Landing site	61 kilometres (38 mi) SW of Arkalyk
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee altitude	389 kilometres (242 mi)
Apogee altitude	397 kilometres (247 mi)
Inclination	51.6 degrees
Period	92.4 minutes
Docking with Mir
Docking date	20 May 1991, 14:30:43 UTC
Undocking date	9 October 1991, 20:55:08 UTC
Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) ← Soyuz TM-11 Soyuz TM-13 →

Soyuz TM-12 was the 12th expedition to Mir, and included the first Briton in space,^[1] Helen Sharman.

Crew

Position	Launching crew	Landing crew
Commander	Anatoly Artsebarsky Only spaceflight
Flight Engineer	/ Sergei Krikalev Second spaceflight	Toktar Aubakirov Only spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut	Helen Sharman Only spaceflight (Project Juno)	Franz Viehböck Only spaceflight

Mission highlights

The Mir crew welcomed aboard Anatoli Artsebarski, Sergei Krikalev (on his second visit to the station), and British cosmonaut-researcher Helen Sharman, who was aboard as part of Project Juno, a cooperative venture partly sponsored by British private enterprise. Sharman's experimental program, which was designed by the Soviets, leaned heavily toward life sciences, her speciality being chemistry. A bag of 250,000 pansy seeds was placed in the Kvant-2 EVA airlock, a compartment not as protected from cosmic radiation as other Mir compartments. Sharman also contacted nine British schools by radio and conducted high-temperature superconductor experiments with the Elektropograph-7K device. Sharman commented that she had difficulty finding equipment on Mir as there was a great deal more equipment than in the trainer in the cosmonaut city of Zvezdny Gorodok. Krikalev commented that, while Mir had more modules than it had the first time he lived on board, it did not seem less crowded, as it contained more equipment. Krikalev also noted that some of the materials making up the station's exterior had faded and lost color, but that this had no impact on the station's operation.

The spacecraft spent 144 days docked to Mir. While it was in orbit, the failed coup d'état against Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991 rocked the Soviet Union, setting in motion events which led to the end of the Soviet Union on 26 December.

In popular culture

Out of the Present, a 1995 film documentary focused on cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev's stay on Mir, features the arrival of Soyuz TM-12.

References

• v
• t
• e

Soyuz programme

• List of Soyuz missions
• List of Soviet human spaceflight missions
• List of Russian human spaceflight missions

Main topics

• Soyuz (rocket family)
• Soyuz (spacecraft)
• Baikonur Cosmodrome
  • Site 1/5
  • Site 31/6
• Soyuz abort modes
• Cosmonaut ranks and positions

Past missions
(by spacecraft type)

Soyuz 7K-OK (1966–1970)	Kosmos 133† Soyuz 7K-OK No.1† (uncrewed) Kosmos 140 Soyuz 1† Kosmos 186 188 212 213 238 Soyuz 2 (uncrewed) 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Soyuz 7K-L1 (1967–1970) (Zond lunar programme)	Kosmos 146 154† Zond 1967A† 1967B† Zond 4 1968A† 1968B† 5 6 1969A† Zond-M 1† M 2† Zond 7 8 9 10
Soyuz 7K-L1E (1969–1970)	Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1† Kosmos 382
Soyuz 7K-LOK (1971–1972)	Soyuz 7K-LOK No.1† No.2†
Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971)	Soyuz 10† 11†
Soyuz 7K-T (1972–1981)	Kosmos 496 573 Soyuz 12 Kosmos 613 Soyuz 13 Kosmos 656 Soyuz 14 15† 17 18a† 18 20 (uncrewed) 21 23† 24 25† 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 (uncrewed landing) 33† 34 (uncrewed launch) 35 36 37 38 39 40
Soyuz 7K-TM (1974–1976)	Kosmos 638 672 Soyuz 16 19 (Apollo–Soyuz) 22
Soyuz 7K-S (1974–1976)	Kosmos 670 772† 869†
Soyuz-T (1978–1986)	Kosmos 1001† 1074 Soyuz T-1 (uncrewed) T-2 T-3 T-4 T-5 T-6 T-7 T-8† T-9 T-10a† T-10 T-11 T-12 T-13 T-14 T-15
Soyuz-TM (1986–2002)	Soyuz TM-1 (uncrewed) TM-2 TM-3 TM-4 TM-5 TM-6 TM-7 TM-8 TM-9 TM-10 TM-11 TM-12 TM-13 TM-14 TM-15 TM-16 TM-17 TM-18 TM-19 TM-20 TM-21 TM-22 TM-23 TM-24 TM-25 TM-26 TM-27 TM-28 TM-29 TM-30 TM-31 TM-32 TM-33 TM-34
Soyuz-TMA (2002–2012)	Soyuz TMA-1 TMA-2 TMA-3 TMA-4 TMA-5 TMA-6 TMA-7 TMA-8 TMA-9 TMA-10 TMA-11 TMA-12 TMA-13 TMA-14 TMA-15 TMA-16 TMA-17 TMA-18 TMA-19 TMA-20 TMA-21 TMA-22
Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2016)	Soyuz TMA-01M TMA-02M TMA-03M TMA-04M TMA-05M TMA-06M TMA-07M TMA-08M TMA-09M TMA-10M TMA-11M TMA-12M TMA-13M TMA-14M TMA-15M TMA-16M TMA-17M TMA-18M TMA-19M TMA-20M
Soyuz MS (2016–present)	Soyuz MS-01 MS-02 MS-03 MS-04 MS-05 MS-06 MS-07 MS-08 MS-09 MS-10† MS-11 MS-12 MS-13 MS-14 (uncrewed test flight) MS-15 MS-16 MS-17 MS-18 MS-19 MS-20 MS-21 MS-22 (uncrewed landing) MS-23 (uncrewed launch) MS-24

Current missions

• MS-25

Future missions

• 2024
  • MS-26

Uncrewed missions are designated as Kosmos instead of Soyuz; exceptions are noted "(uncrewed)".
The † sign designates failed missions. Italics designates cancelled missions.