Soyuz TM-17 was a Russian mission to the space station Mir, launched on July 1, 1993. It lasted 196 days and 17 hours, making more than 3,000 orbits of the planet Earth.

Soyuz TM-17 was the 17th expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir

At 7:37:11 a.m. Moscow time (MT), on 1994 January 14, Soyuz-TM 17 separated from the forward port of the Mir station. At 7:43:59 a.m., the Mission Control Center in Korolev (TsUP) ordered Tsibliyev to steer Soyuz-TM 17 to within 15 metres of the Kristall module to begin photography of the APAS-89 docking system. At 7:46:20 a.m., Tsibliyev complained that Soyuz-TM 17 was handling sluggishly. Serebrov, standing by for photography in the orbital module, then asked Tsibliyev to move the spacecraft out of the station plane because it was coming close to one of the solar arrays. In Mir, Viktor Afanasyev ordered Valeri Polyakov and Yuri Usachyov to evacuate to the Soyuz TM-18 spacecraft. At 7:47:30 a.m., controllers in the TsUP saw the image from Soyuz-TM 17’s external camera shake violently, and Serebrov reported that Soyuz-TM 17 had hit Mir. The TsUP then lost communications with Mir and Soyuz-TM 17. Intermittent communications were restored with Soyuz-TM 17 at 7:52 a.m. Voice communications with Mir were not restored until 8:02 a.m. Inspection of Soyuz-TM 17 indicated no serious damage. In this connection, the Russians revealed that they had studied contingency reentries by depressurized spacecraft in the wake of the Soyuz -11 accident. The Mir cosmonauts did not feel the impact, though the station’s guidance system registered angular velocity and switched to free flying mode.

Later analysis indicated that the right side of the orbital module had struck Mir two glancing blows 2 seconds apart. The impact point was on Kristall, near its connection to the Mir base block. The cause of the impact was traced to a switch error: the hand controller in the orbital module which governed braking and acceleration was switched on, disabling the equivalent hand controller (the left motion control lever) in the descent module. Tsibliyev was able to use the right lever to steer Soyuz past Mir’s solar arrays, antennas, and docking ports after it became clear impact was inevitable.

It was the French Mission ALTAIR. During the pass in orbit 4, 19:03 UTC, Vasili Tsibilyev reported all details about the 2nd orbit correction, which was executed during that pass. All went as scheduled. This had been also the case with the 1st orbit correction. Vasili Tsibilyev reported details about this correction as well for during that correction Soyuz TM-17 was out of range of tracking stations. Among the reported data were the times (in seconds) during which the S.K.D. (engines) worked, the gained speed in M/sec, the so called SIRT (fuel consumption in KG) and some pressures in tanks. During the pass in orbit 5 (20:36 UTC) again radio traffic loud and clear. During the next pass the cosmonauts slept. At 22:13:45 UTC Soyuz TM-17 could be seen passing the TCA as a clear star in elevation 39 degrees. On July 02, 1993 Soyuz TM-17 flew autonomously.

Following a two-day solo flight Soyuz TM-17 docked with the Mir space station on July 03, 1993. In a unique maneuver on July 03, 1993, Progress M-18 undocked from Mir, clearing the port for the docking only minutes later of Soyuz TM-17 with the Mir-14 crew of Vasili Tsibliyev and Aleksandr Serebrov.
For the next 20 days the crewmembers performed common scientific work with the 13th resident crew. After returning to Earth of the 13th crew (together with Jean-Pierre Haigneré), Vasili Tsibilyev and Aleksandr Serebrov became the 14th Mir resident crew. They performed experiments in materials science.

During the experiment 'Rodeo' on July 03, 1993 Progress M-17 undocked from the Mir station while Soyuz TM-17 was waiting for the docking port freed by Progress M-17. Progress M-17 undocked at 15:53 UTC. Soyuz TM-17 docked to Mir at 16:24 UTC. The return-capsule of Progress M-17 landed safely in Kazakhstan at 18:02 UTC.

The Mir-13 crew returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-16 on July 22, 1993. Progress M-18 remained docked to the station in a systems longevity test.
Just after the separation of the Life compartment (BO) and the Motor block from the Landing module (SA) the SA entered the dense layers of the atmosphere at 06:18:17 UTC surrounded by the fire of the plasma. At a distance of approximately 400 km the crew on board Mir was able to observe this through porthole no. 9. At 06:26:55 UTC the main parachute opened and the landing took place at 06:41:00 UTC. So, the crew of the Mir-13 crew, Gennadi Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk, and the French 'spationaute' Jean-Pierre Haigneré accomplished their flights.