Soyuz 35 - Soyuz 36 and Soyuz T-2 Crews Visit

Soyuz 36 and Soyuz T-2 Crews Visit

Progress 9 was undocked 20 May, leaving the rear port vacant for the arrival of the next crew. Soyuz 36 was launched 26 May with Valery Kubasov and Hungarian cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas. The flight was originally scheduled for 5 June 1979, but was cancelled due to the Soyuz 33 failure. The launch was a part of the Soviet Intercosmos program whereby guest cosmonauts from allied nations would visit the space station, typically for about a week. Upon boarding, the visiting crew carried out some Hungarian experiments, including one measuring radiation doses received by the crew and another studying the formation of interferon in human cells under weightless conditions.

Kubasov and Farkas swapped Soyuz craft with the long-duration crew, departing the station in Soyuz 35 on 3 June. The next day, Popov and Ryumin entered Soyuz 36, undocked it from the station, then redocked it 90 minutes later at the vacant front dock. The rapid switch of ferry vehicles, along with the launch of Soyuz 36 at almost the earliest possible date to allow a crew recovery in the nominal window, caused observers to speculate the secretive Soviets were possibly planning a second Intercosmos mission to recoup the time lost after the Soyuz 33 failure. A launch indeed was soon in the offing, but not the predicted mission.

Soyuz T-2 was launched 5 June with Yuri Malyshev and Vladimir Aksyonov on what turned out to be the first manned mission of the new Soyuz T variant. The craft docked at Salyut 6's rear port the next day. The mission proved to be a short one, as they undocked in the craft they arrived on only two days after first greeting the resident crew.

The resident crew carried out repairs of the station's Kaskad attitude control system and performed materials processing experiments. On 1 July, Popov and Ryumin received Progress 10 at the station. Replacement equipment was unloaded from the supply tanker, as were regular crew supplies. Supplies included a Polaroid camera, a color television monitor, and tapes of Soviet pop music. The tanker was undocked from the complex on 17 July after refuelling the station and deorbited 19 July. Also on July 19, Popov and Ryumin sent their greetings from the station to the 1980 Summer Olympics, wishing the athletes happy starts in a live communication between the station and the Central Lenin Stadium where the opening ceremony was held. They appeared on the stadium's scoreboard and their voices were translated via loud speakers.