Soyuz TM-28 docked at 10:56 GMT on August 15 with the rear (Kvant) port of the Mir space station, which had been vacated at 09:28 GMT on August 12 by Progress M-39. The EO-25 crew, Musabayev and Budarin, landed with Baturin on Aug 25, leaving the EO-26 crew of Padalka and Avdeyev on the station. As only one final Soyuz mission to Mir was planned, with two of the seats on that Soyuz pre-sold to Slovak and French experimenters, the return crew of Soyuz TM-28 was subject to constant replanning and revision. On February 8, 1999, at 11:23 GMT Padalka and Avdeyev undocked from Mir's -X port in Soyuz TM-28, and redocked at the +X Kvant port at 11:39 GMT, freeing up the front port for the Soyuz TM-29 docking. Finally on February 27, 1999 EO-26 commander Padalka and Slovak cosmonaut Bella undocked Soyuz TM-28 from the Kvant rear docking port at 22:52 GMT, landing in Kazakhstan on February 28 at 02:14 GMT. Avdeyev remained on Mir with the EO-27 crew delivered on Soyuz TM-29, heading for a manned space flight time record.

Soyuz TM-30 docked with Mir's forward (-X) port on April 6 at 0631 GMT. Zalyotin and Kaleri reactivated Mir and using Progress M1-1 and M1-2 resupplied the station and raised the orbit to 360 x 378 km x 51.6 deg. The orbital plane of Mir was then around 120 degrees away from that of ISS (making transport between the stations impossible, as desired by NASA). Soyuz TM-30 undocked from Mir on June 15 21:24 GMT. Retrofire came at 23:52 GMT, followed by a safe landing at June 16, 00:44 GMT near Arkalyk in Kazakkstan.

The cosmonauts entered open space via the air-lock of Kvant-2 at 10:44 GMT. The Germatizator experiment, the use of a special glue to seal off cracks on the outside surface of the complex, was executed according to plan. An inspection of a malfunctioning solar panel on Kvant-1showed that the steering cable to the rotor was burnt through due to a short-circuit and was beyond repair. The cosmonauts dismantled an experimental lightweight solar battery from the outer surface of the SO docking compartment. The last activity was the panorama-inspection, making images of the outside of the complex to enable specialist to analyse the effects of ageing of the material. The hatch was closed on what might have been the last spacewalk on Mir at 15:36 GMT.