Launch from Baikonur; landing 140 km northeast
of Dzheskasgan.
The original launch date of November 21, 1988 was moved
back to permit French president François Mitterrand to attend the
launch.
Second joined mission USSR - France; docking on
MIR-Kvant-complex; scientific work with third resident crew;
Volkov and
Krikalyov together with
Polyakov became the
fourth resident crew;
EVA by
Volkov and
Chrétien on 09.12.1988 (5h 57m), installing the 240 kg
French
ERA
experimental deployable structure and a panel of material samples;
Chrétien became the first non-American and non-Soviet
cosmonaut to perform a spacewalk.
During this mission experiments in 16
different fields were performed as topografic and spectrografic research of the
Earth surface, biological and medical research (incl. Blood- and
heart-tests).
