Soyuz T-12 Soyuz T-12 Soyuz T-12 (also known as Salyut 7 EP-4) was the seventh manned spaceflight to the Soviet space station Salyut 7. The name "Soyuz T-12" is also the name of the spacecraft used to launch and land the mission's three-person crew. The mission occurred in July 1984, during the long-duration expedition Salyut 7 EO-3. During the mission, crew member Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to ever perform a spacewalk, and the potential Buran Space shuttle pilot, Igor Volk, was given spaceflight experience. Unlike many Soyuz visiting missions, the Soyuz lifeboats were not swapped, and the crew returned to
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper as a Mission Specialist and became only the 8th woman to perform a spacewalk (out of 180 total spacewalkers). Stefanyshyn-Piper participated in two of the mission's three EVAs for a total of 12 hours, 8 minutes made her the second most experienced female spacewalker. She also became the first Minnesota woman to go into space. During her pre-flight interview, she described her philosophy about human exploration of space: Piper fainted twice during the STS-115 welcome home ceremony. Stefanyshyn-Piper was commander of the 12th expedition of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), a NASA program for studying human survival in the