Soyuz TM-21

Soyuz TM-21 was a Russian Soyuz TM mission to Mir and a key Shuttle-Mir transport flight. It launched from Baikonur Site 1/5 on March 14, 1995 with commander Vladimir Dezhurov, flight engineer Gennadi Strekalov, and NASA astronaut Norman Thagard. The spacecraft docked with Mir on March 16, beginning the Mir EO-18 resident increment and making Thagard the first U.S. astronaut to launch on a Soyuz to Mir. During STS-71, Atlantis brought the EO-18 crew home and delivered Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin for Mir EO-19. Soyuz TM-21 stayed at Mir and returned Solovyev and Budarin to Kazakhstan on September 11, 1995.