Mir EO-9

Mir EO-9 was the ninth long-duration resident expedition to the Mir space station. Anatoly Pavlovich Artsebarsky and Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev launched on Soyuz TM-12 with British research cosmonaut Helen Sharman, who visited Mir under the Juno program and returned with the previous resident crew. After the crew exchange, Artsebarsky commanded the resident increment with Krikalev as flight engineer. The expedition handled routine Mir operations during a politically turbulent year, relocated Soyuz TM-12 to free a docking port, supported visiting and cargo spacecraft, and carried out a concentrated EVA campaign. Artsebarsky and Krikalev performed six spacewalks in June and July 1991, including work related to the Kurs rendezvous system, external experiments, and assembly of the Sofora truss on Kvant-1. Soyuz TM-13 arrived in October 1991 with Aleksandr Volkov, Toktar Aubakirov, and Franz Viehboeck; Artsebarsky then returned on Soyuz TM-12 while Krikalev continued into the next resident crew.