Soyuz TM-11

Not to be confused with Soyuz 11, Soyuz T-11, Soyuz TMA-11, or Soyuz TMA-11M.

Soyuz TM-11 was the eleventh expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir, using a Soyuz-TM crew transport vessel. The mission notably carried a Japanese television reporter from Tokyo Broadcasting System.

Soyuz TM-11

COSPAR ID	1990-107A
SATCAT no.	20981
Mission duration	175 days, 1 hour, 50 minutes, 41 seconds
Orbits completed	~2,735
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Soyuz 7K-STM No. 61
Spacecraft type	Soyuz-TM
Manufacturer	NPO Energia
Launch mass	7,150 kilograms (15,760 lb)
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Viktor Afanasyev Musa Manarov
Launching	Toyohiro Akiyama
Landing	Helen Sharman
Callsign	Дербе́нт (Derbent)
Start of mission
Launch date	2 December 1990, 08:13:32 (1990-12-02UTC08:13:32Z) UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-U2
End of mission
Landing date	26 May 1991, 10:04:13 (1991-05-26UTC10:04:14Z) UTC
Landing site	near Dzhezkazgan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee altitude	367 kilometres (228 mi)
Apogee altitude	400 kilometres (250 mi)
Inclination	51.6 degrees
Period	92.2 minutes
Docking with Mir
Docking date	4 December 1990, 09:57:09 UTC
Undocking date	26 May 1991, 06:15:59 UTC
Soyuz programme (Crewed missions)

Crew

Position	Launching crew	Landing crew
Commander	Viktor Afanasyev First spaceflight
Flight Engineer	Musa Manarov Second spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut	Toyohiro Akiyama First spaceflight Reporter	Helen Sharman, Project Juno First spaceflight

Mission highlights

Soyuz TM-11 was the 11th expedition to Mir, which spent 175 days docked to the space station. Coincidentally it was launched on the same day as STS-35. As the mission carried Toyohiro Akiyama, a reporter for the Japanese television network Tokyo Broadcasting System, the spacecraft's launch shroud and its Soyuz booster were painted with the Japanese flag and advertisements for Sony, Unicharm, and Otsuka Pharmaceutical. A camera inside the descent module filmed the cosmonauts during ascent for Akiyama's network.

Viktor Afanaseyev, Musa Manarov (on his second Mir visit), and Toyohiro Akiyama were welcomed aboard Mir by Soviet cosmonauts. Akiyama's network paid for the flight. The Soviets called this their first commercial spaceflight and claimed to have earned $14 million. The journalist was scheduled to make one 10-min TV broadcast and two 20-min radio broadcasts each day. Electrical power and video and TV system incompatibilities forced the Japanese to make extensive use of converters. His equipment, which weighed about 170 kg, was delivered by Progress-M spacecraft and set up in advance by Manakov and Strekalov. On December 5 Akiyama's couch was transferred to Soyuz-TM 10. On December 8 Manakov and Strekalov commenced loading Soyuz-TM 10's descent module with film and experiment results. TBS broadcast Akiyama's landing live from Kazakhstan.