Usachov made his first trip into space on January 8, 1994. The Soyuz TM-18 spacecraft carrying Usachov with cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev and Valeri Polyakov lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:05:34 UTC. Usachov served as the Flight Engineer. After two days of solo flight, Soyuz TM-18 docked at the Kvant-1 module of the Mir space station on January 10 at 11:15 UTC. The three cosmonauts became the 15th resident crew of the Mir. Usachov joined as a Flight Engineer. He was on board the Mir on January 14, when the departing Soyuz TM-17 spacecraft struck Kristall module two glancing blows during the customary inspection fly-around prior to the deorbit burn. After the incident, the EO-15 crew on Mir checked over Kristall and found no damage. During Usachov's stay three Progress spacecraft arrived at Mir. On 30 January, on March 24 and on May 24: Progress M-21, Progress M-22 and Progress M-23 spacecraft arrived at Mir. The Progress spacecraft delivered food, water, fuel, spare parts and equipment for the maintenance of Mir's systems and additional equipment for medical experiments.
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