EO-3 crew member Valeri Polyakov. Also on TM-6 was the two-person crew of the visiting expedition Mir EP-3, consisting of the commander Vladimir Lyakhov, as well as the first Afghan cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand. After about a week on the station, Lyakhov and Mohmand returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-5, leaving the fresh TM-6 spacecraft at the station as their new lifeboat. During the descent of TM-6 there were some technical problems, resulting in some tense moments as well as a day-long delay in landing. Nevertheless, they landed safely on 7 September. Spacewalks The first spacewalk (also known as "Extra-vehicular activity", or EVA) of EO-3 took place on 26 February 1988 (4h 25m) replacing a segment on a solar cell. The second EVA was on 30 June 1988 (5h 10m) in which the replacement of a detector block on the Kvant-1 module failed. New tools were delivered to the station and with this the same work was then successful on 20 October 1988 (4h 12m). End of mission Mir EO-3 officially concluded on 21 December 1988, when Manarov and Titov returned to Earth in the Soyuz TM-6 spacecraft. The mission in total lasted for 365.94 days, the third longest of all the expeditions. Polyakov stayed aboard the station, and was transferred to Mir EO-4. See also List of Mir Expeditions References http://www.spacefacts.de/mir/english/mir-3.htm Mir 1987 in the Soviet Union 1988 in the Soviet Union