Soyuz TM-5 launched on this day in 1988 (June 7). It carried Anatoly Solovyov, Viktor Savinykh and Bulgaria’s Aleksandr Aleksandrov to Mir. Aleksandrov was Bulgaria’s second cosmonaut, but the first one to get into a space station. The first, Georgi Ivanov, was not able to dock to the Salyut 6 station in 1979. Bulgaria was the only country in the Interkosmos program to send more than one person into space.

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The crew of Soyuz TM-15: Michel Tognini of France, Anatoly Solovyov and Sergei Avdeyev. This was France’s third flight in space. (1992)

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Pavel Vinogradov, David Wolf and Anatoly Solovyov celebrate Christmas on Mir in 1997.

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A second birthday today, Aleksandr Balandin’s. He spent 179 days on Mir with Anatoly Solovyov in 1990.

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Happy Birthday Anatoly Solovyov! He holds the record for most time spacewalking: 78 hours and 48 minutes.

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Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov wave goodbye before their launch to Mir aboard Soyuz TM-26 (1997)