Soyuz 26

Soyuz 26 launched Yuri Romanenko and Georgi Grechko to Salyut 6 for the station's first successful resident expedition. Spacefacts lists launch from Baikonur Site 1 on December 10, 1977, docking with Salyut 6 on December 11, and crew return on March 16, 1978 after 96 days and 10 hours in space. The crew returned aboard Soyuz 27 after a visiting crew exchanged spacecraft at the station, so this record models the crewed Salyut 6 EO-1 mission rather than only the physical Soyuz 26 descent module. The flight followed the failed Soyuz 25 docking attempt and proved that Salyut 6 could support long-duration habitation. Romanenko and Grechko opened the station, hosted the Soyuz 27 and Soyuz 28 visiting crews, worked with the first Progress cargo spacecraft, and carried out scientific, station-systems, and operational tasks across more than three months in orbit. On December 19, 1977 they performed a stand-up EVA to inspect the forward docking mechanism, confirming that the station's docking hardware had not been damaged. The mission helped establish the two-port Salyut 6 operating model that enabled later crew exchanges, visiting expeditions, and cargo resupply.