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Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to visit Earth orbit, spending seven days aboard the Soviet Salyut 7 space station in 1984.
The Almaz program contributed to the development of future spacecraft, including the Salyut space stations and the ISS.
The first Almaz station, Salyut-2, was launched on April 3, 1973.
Salyut-3 and Salyut-5 were manned for only about 2.5 months total.
Three Almaz stations were launched under the cover names Salyut-2, Salyut-3, and Salyut-5 in 1973, 1974, and 1976 respectively.
The TKS ultimately flew only to civilian Salyut stations and was the forerunner of later space station modules, including the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module.
The launch of Soyuz T-8 ended prematurely after two days due to a failure to dock with Salyut-7 because the Igla rendezvous antenna did not deploy.
The first long-duration mission to Salyut-7, known as EO-1, set a new record for a long-duration mission of 211 days in 1982.
Soyuz T-9 successfully docked with Salyut-7 despite a failed solar panel deployment.
In 1983, the Soviet Union planned to conduct two Primary Expeditions, EO-2 and EO-3, to ensure continuous crew on Salyut-7.
The Soviet Union launched the Salyut-7 space station in 1982.
EO-3 was planned to launch in late June 1983 to dock with Salyut-7 and spend about six months in space.
Gennady Strekalov and Rakesh Sharma were launched on the successful Soyuz T-11 mission to Salyut 7 on April 2, 1984.
Rakesh Sharma, India's first astronaut, spent a week on board Salyut 7 in April 1984 as part of the USSR's Interkosmos program.
The peak of Soviet share of space power occurred in 1971 with the launch of Salyut 1 and the development of counter space capabilities.
Soyuz 10-1, a 1983 mission to the Salyut 7 space station, used its launch escape tower on the pad after a fire broke out 48 seconds before launch and the tower activated two seconds before the rocket exploded.
Soyuz 18-1 executed the first recorded launch escape maneuver in 1975 during a mission to the Salyut 4 space station.