Soyuz TM-19 - Commander Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Musabayev, spaceflight rookies, were to have been launched with veteran cosmonaut Gennadi Strekalov, who would have returned to Earth with Viktor Afanaseyev and Yuri Usachyov in Soyuz-TM 18 after a few days on Mir. However, cancellation of one of two Progress-M cargo ships scheduled to resupply Mir during the Agat crew’s stay meant Strekalov’s couch had to carry supplies. The result was an unusual all-rookie flight. Docking occurred without incident on July 3. On November 3, Musabayev, Malenchenko, and Merbold undocked in Soyuz-TM 19 and backed 190 m from Mir. They then activated the Kurs automatic approach system, which successfully redocked the spacecraft. The cosmonauts then transferred back to Mir. The test was related to the difficulties Soyuz-TM 20 and Progress-M 24 experienced during their automatic approaches. Final undocking and reentry the following day occurred without incident.

Yuri Malenchenko and Talgat Musabayev performed the first EVA on September 09, 1994 (5h 06m). The cosmonauts inspected the docking port struck by Progress M-24 - it proved to be undamaged - and mended a thermal blanket torn when Soyuz TM-17 struck the station on January 14, 1994. They also prepared equipment for moving the Kristall solar arrays to Kvant, and affixed test materials to Mir's exterior.

The second and final spacewalk occurred on September 14, 1994 (6h 01m) by the same cosmonauts. They carried out assembly work connected with the ongoing effort to move Kristall's solar arrays to supports on Kvant. Yuri Malenchenko and Talgat Musabayev also inspected the Sofora girder.
The cosmonauts did a lot of minor repairs, replacements of bolts, screws, etc. of platforms and equipment on the outer surface of the complex. They also spoke about an old antenna. Activities of that kind must be done now and then, but have been often neglected during EVA's due to more important matters. The cosmonauts also did some preparatory work aimed at the future transfer of the solar batteries from Kristall to Kvant1. This transfer has been put back again, now even to the beginning of 1995.

There have been many problems during this mission, which finally ended with the first successful manual docking of a Progress supply ship at the station by Yuri Malenchenko.

On October, 06, 1994, Mir-17 (Aleksandr Viktorenko and Yelena Kondakova) arrived at Mir together with ESA astronaut Ulf Merbold aboard Soyuz-TM 20, Valeri Polyakov was again to remain aboard on his record duration flight. During final approach, Soyuz-TM 20 yawed unexpectedly. He assumed manual control and completed docking without incident. Yelena Kondakova, the mission rookie, was the third Russian female cosmonaut and the first female to take part in a long-duration flight. Ulf Merbold was a physicist and veteran of two U.S. Space Shuttle missions. The month-long EuroMir 94 experiment program was considered a precursor to the ESA Columbus module planned for the joint U.S.-Russia-ESA-Japan-Canada space station. Ulf Merbold's program was planned rapidly, final agreement between ESA and Russian having been concluded in November 1992. It was also constrained by funding limitations - ESA budgeted only about $60 million for EuroMir 94. Because of these limitations, Ulf Merbold relied heavily on equipment left on Mir by earlier French, Austrian, and German visitors to the station, as well as the Czech-built CSK-1 materials processing furnace. He also used equipment delivered by Progress M-24 and Soyuz-TM 20. Ulf Merbold's experiment program included 23 life sciences, 4 materials sciences, and 3 technology experiments.

On October 11, 1994 the six cosmonauts aboard Mir were unable to activate a video camera and TV lights while recharging Soyuz TM-20's batteries. A short circuit had disabled the computer which guided Mir's solar arrays, forcing the station to drain its batteries. The cosmonauts used reaction control thrusters on the Soyuz TM-spacecraft docked to the station to orient it so its solar arrays would point toward the Sun, and switched on a backup computer. Normal conditions were restored by October 15, 1994.

Ground teams rescheduled Ulf Merbold's experiments to allow completion of those interrupted by the power problems, and moved experiments using large amounts of electricity to the end of Ulf Merbold's stay. In addition, the Czech-built CSK-1 furnace malfunctioned, forcing postponement of five of Ulf Merbold's experiments until after his return to Earth.

The crew conducted medical experiments (research of problems of weightlessness in long term mission) and experiments in materials science, Earth observation, astrophysics and biotechnology.

Progress M-24 arrived at Mir on August 27, 1994 but ran into problems. The freighter's first automatic docking attempt failed. During the second attempt, on August 30, 1994 Progress M-24 bumped into Mir's forward longitudinal port two to four times at low speed, then drifted away. On September 02, 1994 Yuri Malenchenko took manual control of Progress M-24 using a control panel on Mir. A TV on Mir displayed an image of the station's front port transmitted from cameras on Progress M-24; the same image appeared on screens in the TsUP. In an impressive demonstration of remote piloting, Yuri Malenchenko docked Progress M-24 without additional incident.