Soyuz TM-21 was Soyuz

Soyuz programme

The Soyuz programme is a human spaceflight programme that was initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon...

 mission, a human spaceflight

Human spaceflight

Human spaceflight is spaceflight with humans on the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes and remotely-controlled satellites....

 mission transporting personnel to the Russian space station Mir

Mir

Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

. Part of the US/Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Shuttle-Mir Program

Shuttle-Mir Program

The Shuttle–Mir Program was a collaborative space program between Russia and the United States, which involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the shuttle and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to engage in...

, the mission launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome

Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 meters above sea level...

, atop a Soyuz-U2 carrier rocket

Soyuz-U2

The Soyuz-U2 was a Soviet, later Russian, carrier rocket. It was derived from the Soyuz-U, and a member of the R-7 family of rockets...

, at 06:11:34 UTC on March 14, 1995. It is of note because its launch marked the presence, for the first time ever, of thirteen humans in space simultaneously - three aboard the Soyuz, three aboard Mir and seven aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Space Shuttle Endeavour is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States. Endeavour was the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger...

, flying STS-67

STS-67

STS-67 was a human spaceflight mission using that launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 2 March 1995.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass: payload*Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 28.5°*Period: 91.5 min...

.

The spacecraft carried expedition EO-18 to the space station, including the first American astronaut to launch on a Soyuz spacecraft and board Mir, Norman Thagard

Norman Thagard

Norman Earl Thagard is an American scientist and former NASA astronaut. He is the first American to ride to space on board a Russian vehicle, and can be considered the first American cosmonaut...

, for the American Thagard Increment aboard the station, the first Increment of the Shuttle-Mir program. The three crew members it launched were relieved by Space Shuttle Atlantis

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States...

 during STS-71

STS-71

STS-71 was the third mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, which carried out the first Space Shuttle docking to Mir, a Russian space station. The mission used Space Shuttle Atlantis, which lifted off from launch pad 39A on 27 June 1995 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida...

, when they were replaced by expedition EO-19, who returned to earth aboard Soyuz TM-21 on September 11, 1995.

Crew

Mission parameters

• Mass: 7150 kg
• Perigee: 201 km
• Apogee: 247 km
• Inclination: 51.65°
• Period: 88.7 minutes

• First Mir docking: March 16, 1995, 07:45:26 UTC
• First Mir undocking: July 4, 1995, 10:55 UTC
• Second Mir docking: July 4, 1995, 11:39 UTC
• Second Mir undocking: September 11, 1995, 03:30:44 UTC