January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... It has been suggested that leap second be merged into this article or section. ... Map showing Baikonurs location in Kazakhstan. ... March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

Crew

Launched:

• Oleg Makarov (3)
• Vladimir Dzhanibekov (1)

Landed: Oleg Grigorievich Makarov (Russian: Олег Григорьевич Макаров; January 6, 1933 – May 28, 2003) was a Russian cosmonaut. ... Vladimir Dzhanibekov Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dzhanibekov (Russian: Владимир Александрович Джанибеков; born May 13, 1942) was a cosmonaut who made five flights. ...

• Yuri Romanenko (1)
• Georgi Grechko (2)

Roman Yurievich Romanenko (Major, Russian Air Force) (born August 9, 1971, in Schelkovo, near Moscow) is a test-cosmonaut at the Yu. ... Georgi Mikhailovich Grechko (Russian: Георгий Михайлович Гречко; born May 25, 1931 in Leningrad) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on three space flights: Soyuz 17, Soyuz 26, and Soyuz T-14. ...

Mission parameters

• Mass: 6800 kg
• Perigee: 198.9 km
• Apogee: 253.8 km
• Inclination: 51.65°
• Period: 88.73 minutes

Salyut 6 EP-1 was the second successful mission to Salyut 6. They launched in the Soyuz 27 and returned to Earth in the Soyuz 26 spacecraft, the first crew to do so. It was the first visiting crew to the station and marked the first time that three spacecraft were docked together and signaled the beginning of the Russian semi-permanent occupation of space. Salyut 6 was a Soviet space station launched on September 29, 1977. ...

The mission itself really only had two goals. The first was to free the aft port of the station for the Progress freighter. At that time Soyuz 26 was docked to that port after Soyuz 25 was unable to dock to the forward port but an EVA by the Soyuz 26 crew had found that there was nothing wrong with the forward port, showing that the problem was with Soyuz 25 instead. Mission Control however did not feel confident enough to just let the crew of Soyuz 26 undock, fly around the station and dock at the forward port. So instead they decided to let Soyuz 27 dock with the forward port and then land in Soyuz 26, leaving the aft port free for Progress 1. ISS Progress cargo spacecraft (NASA) The Progress is an expendable unmanned freighter spacecraft; it was derived from the Soyuz spacecraft, and is launched with the Soyuz launch vehicle. ... Soyuz 26 was a Soviet human spaceflight launched December 10, 1977. ... Vladimir Kovalyonok (1) Valery Ryumin (1) Mass: 6860 kg Perigee: 198. ...

The other goal was more to do with public relations and propaganda. It was basically to have three spacecraft docked together. This would be the first time since Apollo-Soyuz that two crews had been in space together and the first time that both crews were in the same spacecraft together. The launch was completely nominal and so was docking. Dzhanibekov (who was the commander) allowed the automatic system to dock the station. Even though at one point he detected that they were slightly off course he allowed the system to continue and with 7 metres to go the Soyuz corrected the slight alignment error. Public relations (PR) is the art and science of managing communication between an organization and its key publics to build, manage and sustain an accurate image. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the first joint flight of the US and Soviet space programs. ... Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft approaching the International Space Station Soyuz (Russian: Союз, pronounced sah-YOUS, meaning union) is a series of spacecraft designed by Sergey Korolyov for the Soviet Unions space program. ...

They then encountered their first problem - the hatch wouldn't open. The hatch suddenly did pop free sending Makarov and Dzhanibekov backwards. The crew of Soyuz 26, Georgi Grechko and Yuri Romanenko, dove into the Soyuz and grabbed their first visitors for one month. They hugged and talked to Mission Control were Leonid Brezhnev was watching the proceedings through a live video feed from space. Among the gifts from Earth were newspapers and letters from home. Georgi Mikhailovich Grechko (Russian: Георгий Михайлович Гречко; born May 25, 1931 in Leningrad) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on three space flights: Soyuz 17, Soyuz 26, and Soyuz T-14. ... Roman Yurievich Romanenko (Major, Russian Air Force) (born August 9, 1971, in Schelkovo, near Moscow) is a test-cosmonaut at the Yu. ... Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev Russian: ; December 19 [O.S. January 1 1907] 1906 – November 10, 1982) was the effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, though at first in partnership with others. ...

Russian society places great importance on welcoming visitors. Part of this is the eating of bread and salt, symbols of fellowship and good luck, though on the station all they had were crackers and salt tablets. They also made many toasts with vodka and cherry juice in squeeze tubes. Percentages are relative to US RDI values for adults. ... A magnified crystal of a salt (halite/sodium chloride) In chemistry, a salt is any ionic compound composed of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions so that the product is neutral and without a net charge. ... A Cheez-It cracker. ... Vodka bottling machine, Shatskaya Vodka Shatsk, Russia Vodka is typically a colorless liquor, usually distilled from fermented grain or potatoes but also from other raw materials (see Production below). ... Species Several, including: Prunus apetala Prunus avium (Wild/Sweet Cherry) Prunus campanulata Prunus canescens Prunus cerasus (Sour Cherry) Prunus concinna Prunus conradinae Prunus dielsiana Prunus emarginata (Bitter Cherry) Prunus fruticosa Prunus incisa Prunus litigiosa Prunus mahaleb (Saint Lucie Cherry) Prunus maximowiczii Prunus nipponica Prunus pensylvanica (Pin Cherry) Prunus pilosiuscula Prunus...

To test the structural integrity of the station that now consisted of three spacecraft, the four men held onto the treadmill and bounced up and down to see if the amplified the vibrations. It had been found that the resonant frequencies of the station could be created by running the station at certain speeds. The crew found that the station was perfectly safe with three spacecraft docked. A woman on a treadmill. ...

One piece of information that the visiting crew didn't immediately tell the permanent crew was that Greckho's father had died ten days earlier. Psychologists had decided it was not in the best interests of a cosmonaut spending several months in space to have this hanging over them. Makarov and Dzhanibekov did tell Romanenko and they all agreed that was the right thing to do, though Romanenko decided that he would be the one to tell Greckho when they landed. Years later Greckho said in an interview that he also thought the decision was the right one.

The only major scientific experiment performed by the crew of Soyuz 26 and 27 was an investigation into how microgravity effected the way that protozoa cells grew. This showed that there was very little difference in the growth of the ones in space and the control group on Earth. The only difference was a slight one in the cells metabolism. Astronauts on the International Space Station display an example of weightlessness Weightlessness is the experience (by people and objects) during freefall, of having no weight. ... Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about: Protozoa Protozoa (in Greek proto = first and zoa = animal) are single-celled eukaryotes (organisms whose cells have nuclei) that commonly show characteristics usually associated with animals, most notably mobility and heterotrophy. ...

After five days at the station, the crew swapped their custom seat liners with those in the Soyuz 26 spacecraft, closed the hatch and undocked. They landed 265 km west of Tselinograd, Kazakhstan. Astana, estimated population 500,000 (2003, the city is very fast-growing), has been the capital of Kazakhstan since 1997. ...

• http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz27.htm
• http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-27.htm
• http://www.terra.es/personal/heimdall/eng/soyuz27.htm
• http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Salyut6/Occupation1.htm
• http://books.nap.edu/books/0309085489/html/index.html