(Research Doctor) Mission highlights During this mission experiments in 16 different fields were performed as topografic and spectrografic research of the Earth surface, biological and medical research (including blood and heart-tests). Launch The French president at the time, François Mitterrand, insisted on attending the launch of the Soyuz TM-7, of which Frenchman Chrétien was a crew member. This caused the launch to be delayed by four days, and hence reducing Chrétien's time in space. Mitterrand flew to the launch site in Baikonur in a Concorde. On November 28, two days after launch, the Soyuz TM-7 spacecraft docked to Mir, and for the first time six cosmonauts were simultaneously aboard the complex. Mir Aragatz From November 28 to December 21, 1988, there were six people aboard the station: the three crew members of EO-4, Titov and Manarov who were finishing EO-3, and the visiting French cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chrétien who had launched aboard Soyuz TM-7 on 26 November. Chrétien's flight was referred to as the French Aragatz mission. This was Chrétien's second spaceflight, his first was a short mission to Salyut 7, which was launched with the spacecraft Soyuz T-6, and lasted for about a week. After 24.8 days aboard the station, Chrétien returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-6 on 21 December. A highlight of the Aragatz mission was the spacewalk which was performed by Volkov and Chrétien on 9 December 1988, and lasted for 5 hours and 57 minutes. It was the first spacewalk conducted by someone not from the Soviet or U.S. space programs. Its purpose was to install the 240 kg French experimental deployable structure, known as ERA, and a panel of material samples. Return of Soyuz TM-6 On December 15, 1988, Titov and Manarov's 359th day in space, the EO-3 crew officially broke the spaceflight duration record by the required 10%; the record had previously been set by Yuri Romanenko, who had a 326-day spaceflight aboard Mir during EO-2. Both the French mission and EO-3 ended when Chrétien, Titov, and Manarov landed in the spacecraft Soyuz TM-6 on December 21, which occurred six hours after undocking from Mir. Progress 39 On December 27, shortly after Soyuz TM-6 departed, the expedition's first Progress resupply spacecraft docked with the station, two days after its launch. This model of resupply spacecraft, Progress 7K-TG, had been used for resupply missions to Soviet space stations since 1978. Progress 39 delivered 1,300 kg of