Perseus

Mission name: Soyuz TM-29
Call sign: Derbent
Number of crew members: 3

Launch:
20 February 1999, 04:18:01 UTC, Baikonur LC1
Landing:
28 August 1999, 00:34:20 UTC, 70 km NE of Arkalyk
Duration: 188 days, 20 hours, 16 minutes, 19 seconds
Number of orbits: ~3 070

CREW

Launched

• Viktor Afanasyev (3)
• Jean-Pierre Haigneré (2) - France
• Ivan Bella (1) - Slovakia

Landed

• Viktor Afanasyev (3)
• Sergei Avdeyev (3)
• Jean-Pierre Haigneré (2) - France

(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission

MISSION HIGHLIGHTS

Soyuz TM-29 was a Russian manned spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz 11A511U rocket. It docked with Mir on 22 February 1999 at 05:36 GMT with Cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, and Ivan Bella aboard.

Since two crew seats had been sold (to Slovakia and France), Viktor Afanasyev was the only Russian cosmonaut aboard. This meant that Russian engineer Sergei Avdeyev (already aboard Mir) would have to accept a double-length assignment.

After the 27 February 1999 departure of EO-26 crew commander Gennady Padalka and Slovak cosmonaut Ivan Bella aboard Soyuz TM-28, the new EO-27 Mir crew consisted of Viktor Afanasyev as Commander, Sergei Avdeyev as Engineer and French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré.

On 20 February 1999 the Soyuz TM29 was launched with Haigneré and his crew to the MIR station for the Perseus mission. He performed a six-months mission with Viktor Afanasyev and Sergei Avdeyev. They left MIR uninhabited in a stand-by mode and landed in Kazakhstan on 28 August 1999.