The first and last mission of the Soviet Buran space shuttle was was an unmanned flight in November this year. Buran had been in development since 1980 and had been designed to dock with Mir.

However its high cost and severe technical problems meant that it would never venture into space again. Funding for the project was cut - although it wasn't officially cancelled until 1993.

He arrived on board Soyuz TM-7, together with Russians Aleksandr Volkov and Sergei Krikalev. The three joined the crew of Titov Manarov and Valery Polyakov, who were already on Mir.