A Chronology of mission events in orbit and on the ground. Mir existed for fifteen years growing from the original 20 tonne core module to a massive 130+ tonnes.
| Date |
Time (UTC) |
Event |
| 1988 Jan 20 |
22:51 |
Progress 34 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 185 x 258 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination |
| 1988 Jan 23 |
00:09 |
Progress 34 docks at the Mir complex Kvant docking port - orbit is 334 x 355 kilometres |
| 1988 Feb 26 |
09:30 |
Titov and Manarov begin a space walk to remove two sections from the solar panel erected by Romanenko and Laveikin 1987 June 16 - they replace them with new cells, some of which are instrumented in order to study their degradation, the retrieved sections will be studied |
| 1988 Feb 26 |
13:55 |
Titov and Manarov complete their space walk after 4 hours 25 minutes (only three minutes longer than planned) |
| 1988 Mar 4 |
03:40 |
Progress 34 undocks from Mir |
| 1988 Mar 4 |
06:45 |
Progress 34 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry and burns up as a result of frictional heating over the Pacific Ocean after some 40 minutes |
| 1988 Mar 23 |
21:05 |
Progress 35 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 184 x 262 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination |
| 1988 Mar 25 |
22:21 |
Progress 35 docks at the Mir complex Kvant docking port - orbit is 318 x 347 kilometres |
| 1988 May 5 |
01:36 |
Progress 35 undocks from Mir |
| 1988 May 5 |
06:01 |
Progress 35 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry and burns up as a result of frictional heating over the Pacific Ocean after some 40 minutes |
| 1988 May 13 |
00:30 |
Progress 36 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 185 x 246 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination |
| 1988 May 15 |
02:13 |
Progress 36 docks at the Mir complex Kvant docking port - orbit is 318 x 347 kilometres |
| 1988 Jun 5 |
11:11 |
Progress 36 undocks |
| 1988 Jun 5 |
20:28 |
Progress 36 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry and burns up as a result of frictional heating over the Pacific Ocean some 40 minutes later |
| 1988 Jun 7 |
14:03 |
Soyuz TM-5 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 198 x 216 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination with cosmonauts Anatoli Solovyov, Viktor Savinikh and Aleksadr Aleksandrov (of Bulgaria) aboard |
| 1988 Jun 9 |
15:57 |
Soyuz TM-5 docks with the Mir complex Kvant port - orbit is 333 x 359 kilometres |
| 1988 Jun 17 |
06:20 |
Soyuz TM-4 undocks from Mir with Solovyov, Savinikh and Aleksandrov aboard - it then performs a fly-around inspection of the Mir complex |
| 1988 Jun 17 |
09:22 |
Soyuz TM-4 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry |
| 1988 Jun 17 |
10:13 |
Soyuz TM-4 lands - 205 kilometres south-east of Dzhezhkazgan |
| 1988 Jun 17 |
|
Immediately after landing in Soyuz TM-4, cosmonaut Anatoli Levchenko is taken by helicopter to the airport at Baikonur - from there, while still recovering from the effects of being in orbit, he pilots a Tu-154 civil airliner to Moscow in a simulation of a space shuttle re-entry and landing |
| 1988 Jun 18 |
10:11 |
Soyuz TM-5 undocks from Mir with Titov and Manarov aboard |
| 1988 Jun 18 |
10:27 |
After Mir has completed a 180 degree rotation, Soyuz TM-5 docks with Mir forward port |
| 1988 Jun 30 |
05:33 |
Titov and Manarov begin a space walk to replace a detector unit in one of Kvant x-ray telescopes |
| 1988 Jun 30 |
10:43 |
Titov and Manarov complete space walk after 5 hrs 10 minutes, not having completed their task due to a broken tool which prevented them unfastening the detector |
| 1988 Jul 18 |
21:13 |
Progress 37 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 187 x 256 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination |
| 1988 Jul 20 |
22:33 |
Progress 37 docks at the Mir complex Kvant docking port - orbit is 318 x 347 kilometres |
| 1988 Aug 12 |
08:31 |
Progress 37 undocks from Mir |
| 1988 Aug 12 |
12:51 |
Progress 37 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry and burns up as a result of frictional heating over the Pacific Ocean after some 40 minutes |
| 1988 Aug 25 |
05:00 |
Approximate time - Kvant orbital tug (launched 1987 Mar 31) re-enters the Earth atmosphere as a result of air drag - it is destroyed by frictional heating |
| 1988 Aug 29 |
04:23 |
Soyuz TM-6 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 195 x 228 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination with cosmonauts Valery Lyakhov, Valery Poliakov (a medical doctor) and Abduk Mohmand (from Afghanistan) aboard |
| 1988 Aug 31 |
05:41 |
Soyuz TM-6 docks with the Mir complex Kvant port - orbit is 333 x 359 kilometres |
| 1988 Sep 5 |
23:55 |
Soyuz TM-5 undocks from Mir with Lyakhov and Mohmand aboard |
| 1988 Sep 6 |
01:20 |
Approximate time - Soyuz TM-5 prepares to fire its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry but it fires late and the crew shuts it down down |
| 1988 Sep 6 |
04:30 |
Approximate time - Soyuz TM-5 fires its manoeuvring engine again in an attempt to complete the re-entry manoeuvre - it fails to fire properly and long enough, leaving Soyuz TM-5 in orbit |
| 1988 Sep 7 |
00:49 |
Soyuz TM-5 lands - 160 kilometres south-east of Dzhezhkazgan |
| 1988 Sep 7 |
01:01 |
Soyuz TM-5 fires its manoeuvring engine again in an attempt to complete the re-entry manoeuvre - it is successful |
| 1988 Sep 8 |
01:05 |
Soyuz TM-6 undocks with Titov, Manarov and Poliakov aboard |
| 1988 Sep 9 |
01:25 |
After Mir has completed a 180 degree rotation, Soyuz TM-6 docks with the forward port |
| 1988 Sep 9 |
23:34 |
Progress 38 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 186 x 246 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination |
| 1988 Sep 12 |
01:21 |
Progress 38 docks at the Mir complex Kvant docking port - orbit is 337 x 363 kilometres |
| 1988 Oct 20 |
06:59 |
Titov and Manarov begin a space walk to complete work on replacing a detector unit in one of Kvant x-ray telescopes which they began during a space walk 1988 June 30, and set up a bracket for use during a later space walk by a Soviet-French crew - they use the new Orlan-DMA space suits for the first time |
| 1988 Oct 20 |
11:19 |
Titov and Manarov complete space walk after 4 hours 20 minutes |
| 1988 Nov 23 |
12:12 |
Progress 38 undocks from Mir |
| 1988 Nov 23 |
18:26 |
Progress 38 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry and burns up as a result of frictional heating over the Pacific Ocean after some 40 minutes |
| 1988 Nov 26 |
15:49 |
Soyuz TM-7 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 194 x 235 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination with cosmonauts Aleksandr Volkov, Sergei Krikalyov and Jean-Loup Chretien (of France) aboard |
| 1988 Nov 28 |
17:15 |
Soyuz TM-7 docks with the Mir complex Kvant port - orbit is 337 x 369 kilometres |
| 1988 Dec 9 |
09:57 |
Volkov and Chretien begin a space walk to instal several items of technical equipment on the outside of Mir |
| 1988 Dec 9 |
16:07 |
Volkov and Chretien complete space walk after 6 hours 10 minutes |
| 1988 Dec 21 |
02:32 |
Soyuz TM-6 undocks from Mir with Titov, Manarov and Chretien aboard |
| 1988 Dec 21 |
06:44 |
Soyuz TM-6 lands - 180 kilometres south-east of Dzhezhkazgan |
| 1988 Dec 21 |
06:48 |
Originally-planned landing time for Soyuz TM-6 - a computer problem causes a three hour delay |
| 1988 Dec 21 |
09:12 |
Soyuz TM-6 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry |
| 1988 Dec 22 |
06:59 |
Soyuz TM-7 undocks from Mir with Volkov and Krikalyov aboard |
| 1988 Dec 22 |
09:46 |
After Mir has completed a 180 degree rotation, Soyuz TM-7 docks with the forward port |
| 1988 Dec 25 |
04:11 |
Progress 39 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 187 x 237 kilometre orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination |
| 1988 Dec 27 |
05:35 |
Progress 39 docks at the Mir complex Kvant docking port - orbit is 325 x 353 kilometres |
