Soyuz T-6

Soyuz T-6 was the 1982 Soviet-French PVH visiting mission to Salyut 7 and the first spaceflight by a French citizen. Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Aleksandr Ivanchenkov, and Jean-Loup Chretien launched from Baikonur on June 24, 1982 UTC, docked manually with Salyut 7 on June 25 after problems with the automatic docking system, and worked with the resident Salyut 7 crew of Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev. The crew carried out a joint Soviet-French research program prepared with more than 20 French institutes and laboratories. Much of the work focused on human physiology in weightlessness, including echography and cardiovascular monitoring, posture and sensory-motor studies, vision experiments, microbiology, and radiation/biology investigations. The mission also included materials-science experiments using Soviet Crystal furnace equipment. Chretien flew as Research Cosmonaut, making the mission a milestone for CNES and for Western European human spaceflight. Soyuz T-6 undocked and landed near Arkalyk on July 2, 1982 after about 7 days, 21 hours, and 50 minutes in space.