The Soyuz capsule docked with the station twice in March and July and cosmonauts performed three spacewalks in September.

Throughout the year, attempts were made to grow crystals in the weightlessness of Mir. Scientists had hoped that large crystals of important pharmaceutical compounds could be grown in space.

Although the experiment went well and scientists said Mir was just as good as the US space shuttle for the task, it was later decided that such crystals did not grow that much better in space than they did on Earth.