Soyuz TM-19

Soyuz TM-19 launched from Baikonur Site 1/5 on July 1, 1994 with Yuri Malenchenko as commander and Talgat Musabayev as flight engineer. After a two-day solo flight the spacecraft docked with Mir on July 3, and Malenchenko and Musabayev joined Valeri Polyakov aboard the station as the Mir-16 resident crew. Spacefacts notes that the mission was the first all-rookie Soyuz crew since Soyuz 25. During the expedition Malenchenko and Musabayev performed two EVAs from Mir, carried out station maintenance and research work, and later supported an undocking and Kurs rendezvous test connected with previous automatic-approach problems. Soyuz TM-19 landed on November 4, 1994 with Malenchenko, Musabayev, and Ulf Merbold, who had arrived on Soyuz TM-20 for the EuroMir 94 programme. This mission record links the launch crew while recording the return-seat exchange in the mission prose.