MIR: Expedition 9
(EO-9)

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 67 km southeast of Arkalyk.

Helen Sharman became the first British cosmonaut. Following a two day solo flight Soyuz TM-12 docked with the Soyuz TM-11-Kvant1-MIR-Kristall-Kvant2 complex on May 20, 1991. As part of the British Juno program Helen Sharman was involved in scientific experiments, especially life sciences, together with the eighth resident crew. Helen Sharmans 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 Kvant2 EVA airlock, a compartment not as protected from cosmic radiation as other MIR compartments. Helen Sharman also contacted nine British schools by radio and conducted high-temperature superconductor experiments with the Elektropograph-7K device. Helen 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.

Main goal of the mission was to exchange the MIR resident crew. Anatoli Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalyov became the ninth MIR resident crew.

After the departure of the eighth resident crew together with Helen Sharman the remaining cosmonauts performed six EVAs.

Anatoli Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalyov performed the first EVA June 24, 1991 (4h 58m). They removed the damaged Kurs approach system unit and replaced it. They also assembled a prototype thermomechanical joint to be used in the assembly of space structures.

The second EVA occurred on June 28, 1991 (3h 24m). Both cosmonauts attached to MIRs hull the TREK instrument, a device for studying cosmic ray superheavy nuclei. The experiment was devised by the University of California and delivered by Progress M-8. They used the Strela telescoping boom to move about the station.

On July 15, 1991 (5h 45m) Anatoli Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalyov went outside the station for the third spacewalk. They attached two ladders to Kvant to give them handholds, then assembled a platform for Sofora on Kvant. Sofora was to be a 14.5-m girder extending from Kvant.

The fourth EVA was performed on July 19, 1991 (5h 28m). Anatoli Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalyov installed an automated assembly unit similar to the one Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Soloviyov had experimented with on Salyut 7 in 1986. Sofora was also an experimental construction. The cosmonauts assembled 3 of 20 segments planned for Sofora before returning to MIR.

Anatoli Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalyov performed the fifth EVA four days later on July 23, 1991 (5h 34m). The crew added 11 segments to the Sofora girder.

In the sixth and final EVA on July 27, 1991 (6h 49m) the crew added 11 segments to the Sofora girder. They also attached a Soviet flag in a metal frame to the top of the girder. This was not planned in advance; the cosmonauts decided independently to attach the flag.

The cosmonauts released the small MAK-1 satellite from the MIR base block's experiment airlock on June 17, 1991. It was designed to study Earth's ionosphere. However, a probable power failure prevented its antennas from deploying, and the satellite remained inert.