The first batch Check Moonwatch Only 3rd edition page 398 The year 1991 saw the first special edtion of Mir-flown Speedmaster chronographs as 10 standard Moonwatches were flown during a 90-days stay onboard the Russian space station MIR (December 1990 to March 1991). The caseback reads " 90 Days Flight Qualified SpaceLab Mir Dec 90 - Mar 91 " How did these get onboard the Mir space station ? Knowing there were no unmanned Progress cargo ferry missions ( Dec 90 & Mar 91) nor space shuttle dockings to Mir, as those only started in June 1995... there can be only 1 solution; Carried onboard the manned Soyuz TM-11 mission on December 2, 1990... Brought back to Earth onboard the manned Soyuz TM-11 capsule on May 26, 1991 However, this brings the flown time-in-space on 175 days for the ten Speedmaster 145.0022 The second batch Check Moonwatch Only 3rd edition page 418 The year 1995 saw the second special edition of Mir-flown Speedmaster chronographs as 35 Moonwatches were flown during a 365-days stay onboard the Russian space station MIR (July 1993 to July 1994). In fact 28 steel Omega Speedmaster and 7 yellow Gold Omega Speedmaster chronographs were flown... How did these get onboard the Mir space station ? Knowing there were no unmanned Progress cargo ferry missions ( July 93 & July 94) nor space shuttle dockings to Mir, as those only started in June 1995... there can be only 1 solution; Carried onboard the manned Soyuz TM-17 mission on July 1, 1993... Brought back to Earth onboard the manned Soyuz TM-18 on July 9, 1994 However, this brings the flown time-in-space on 373 days for the thirty-five Speedmaster chronographs 345/145.0022 Of course, for both space-flown batches, we can count the flight to/from the Mir space station and the actual time of fixing the case to a point in the Mir space station as the beginning of the space-flown duration and come to about 90 days and 365 days ... One thing is obvious, Russian cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev was involved in both batches to assure a safe return of the Mir space-flown Speedmaster chronographs on May 26, 1991 and on July 9, 1994 ! #MoonwatchUniverse .
Still searching a good photo showing the Omega set boxes attached to the walls of the Mir space station....
A yearly returning question... about Omega Speedmasters onboard ""Mir"" ... The first batch of 10 space-flown Speedmaster 145.0022 were gifted to VIPs and came with a caseback mentioning the European reusable SpaceLab module which only flew in the cargo bay of space shuttle orbiters " Spacelab Mir DEC 90 - MAR. 91 " Why was the European reusable SpaceLab mentioned? Why did the caseback mention " 90 Days Flight Qualified " as the boxed set of 10 Speedmasters were " 175 days in space ! " ... Anyway, as we know the year 1991 was the start of Soyuz missions with each cosmonaut wearing an Omega Speedmaster on his/her wrist !!! .