Soyuz TM-14 - 14th expedition to Mir. Included astronaut from Germany.

The First Russian Soyuz mission after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Klaus Dietrich Flade became the second German to visit a space station when he reached Mir with the Vityaz crew. The first was SigmundJahn of East Germany, who visited Salyut 6 in 1978. Flade conducted 14 German experiments as part of Germany’s preparation for participation in the Freedom and Columbus space station projects.

Suffered a landing system malfunction, causing its descent module to turn over. It came to rest upside down, trapping its occupants inside until it could be righted.

It concerned the mission to Mir'92. After a two-day solo flight Soyuz TM-14 docked on March 19, 1992 to the complex Soyuz TM-13-Kvant1-Mir-Kristall-Kvant2. Within the scope of the mission Mir'92 the tenth resident crew performed scientific works in which Klaus-Dietrich Flade was particularly involved. He undertook 14 German experiments as a part of the preparation for the future space station projects and Columbus in the areas of Medicine, biology, physics and material research. Thus thermo-dynamic qualities of different substances were investigated in the physical test program TES. Medical investigations related changes in the genome (chromosome analysis), the sleep-wake cycle and the assessment of physical and mental performance, the study of the function of vestibular and orientation ability, furthermore the recording of eye movements during changes of the position, the performance of short term memory, the distribution of body fluids in the muscles and vessels (use of the negative pressure-suit TSCHIBIS) and the hormonal regulation of the human organism (blood and saliva samples). Material Scientific tests consisted mainly in the breeding of pure crystals.

The main objective of the mission was the planned replacement of the resident crew. Aleksandr Kaleri and Aleksandr Viktorenko formed the eleventh resident crew. It was the first space flight since the end of the USSR and Russia's first space flight. It was also the first joint space flight of Russia and Germany.

The eleventh resident crew of the Mir space station undertook experiments on materials research, space technology, astrophysics and earth observation during its nearly five-month mission. They bred super pure gallium arsenide crystals with the new system GRANAT on board of the crystal module, observed the exact composition of the cabin air in a long-time experiment, and studied the influence of movements of the astronauts to microgravity. Furthermore, they carried out astronomical observations in the ultraviolet and X-ray range. As part of the research program EARTH recordings of North Africa, North and South America, the Pacific and Australia were taken with the camera KFA 1000. With the topographical three-channel camera KATE 140 they also made photographic images of parts of Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Related to geological activity in the south of Ukraine the multichannel spectrometer MKS 2M (19 channels in the wavelength range between 415 nm and 1030 nm) was used. Further research concerned the crystal growth, the erosion of different materials by atomic oxygen, the injury of living cells by cosmic rays, the crystallization of biological macromolecules and the influence of artificial gravity on the growth of plants. With the multispectral camera MKF 6MA high-resolution images of the surface of the earth were made. Thanks to these recordings statements about environmental pollution, the suspected deposits of certain minerals or crop forecasts are possible.