Soyuz TM-26

Soyuz TM-26 is a Russian spacecraft that ferried cosmonauts and supplies to the Mir, the Russian space station. It was the 32nd expedition to Mir. It was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome on August 5, 1997. The main mission was to transport two specially-trained cosmonauts to repair or salvage the troubled space station. TM-26 docked with Mir on August 7 by manual control. The crew repaired the power cable and harness/connectors in the severely damaged Spektr module and restored much of the lost power; they also repaired and replaced the oxygen generators in Mir. The hole(s) in that module that caused total depressurization of the module could not be located during their spacewalk inside that module. During the flight a Television advertisement starring Vasily Tsibliyev was filmed on the station. The ad, for Tnuva's brand on UHT milk, was the first ad to be filmed in space. The Soyuz is a Soviet crewed spaceship, developed to made crewed lunar missions. This version called 7K will fly 4 times on the giant launcher N1, and several tens of times on Proton to fly over the Moon, which will be successful during the mission Zond 4. Soyuz will become the first spacecraft to transport living beings to the Moon during the flight of Zond 5, with two turtles. Subsequently, it is adapted to low orbit and will fly on the Soyuz launcher to serve the Salyut and Mir stations and the ISS.