Image: Montage by Erick Soares3 (Sharman photo: Anne-Katrin Purkiss; Krikalev: NASA), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Soyuz TM-12
Mission Profile
| Launch date | 1991-05-18 |
|---|---|
| Launch site | Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5 |
| Launch vehicle | Soyuz-U2 |
| Spacecraft | Soyuz 7K-STM No. 62 (Soyuz-TM) |
| Target | Low Earth Orbit |
| Type | Crewed |
| End date | 1991-10-10 |
| Duration | Sharman: 7 days 21 hours; spacecraft: 144 days 15 hours |
| Partners | Soviet Union, United Kingdom, Project Juno |
Overview
Soyuz TM-12 carried the first Briton into space, chemist Helen Sharman, who beat 13,000 applicants to a seat won through the privately funded Project Juno. Launching on 18 May 1991 with commander Anatoly Artsebarsky and flight engineer Sergei Krikalev, Sharman spent about eight days aboard Mir running life-science and crystal-growth experiments, placing 250,000 pansy seeds in the Kvant-2 airlock, and speaking by radio with British schoolchildren. She returned with the outgoing EO-8 crew aboard Soyuz TM-11 on 26 May 1991. Artsebarsky and Krikalev remained as the Mir EO-9 resident crew; Krikalev would famously stay aboard far longer than planned, earning the nickname 'the last Soviet citizen' as the USSR dissolved beneath him. The TM-12 ferry itself later brought a crew home in October 1991.
Crew
Anatoly Artsebarsky
Commander (up)
First spaceflight; Mir EO-9 resident crew
Sergei Krikalev
Flight Engineer (up)
Mir EO-9; stranded by Soviet collapse, returning only in March 1992
Helen Sharman
Research Cosmonaut (up)
First Briton in space; Project Juno; returned aboard Soyuz TM-11
Toktar Aubakirov
Flight Engineer (down)
First Kazakh in space; flew up on TM-13, returned on TM-12
Franz Viehböck
Research Cosmonaut (down)
First Austrian in space; flew up on TM-13, returned aboard TM-12
Key Milestones
1991-05-18
Launch from Baikonur with Artsebarsky, Krikalev and Britain's Helen Sharman
1991-05-20
Docking with the Mir space station
1991-05-26
Sharman returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-11 with the outgoing EO-8 crew
1991-10-10
Soyuz TM-12 lands, returning Aubakirov and Austria's Viehböck after the TM-13 visiting flight
Key Achievements
First Briton in space
First spaceflight funded through the privately backed Project Juno
Delivered the Mir EO-9 resident crew, including Sergei Krikalev
