Salyut 7
Expedition 1

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing with Soyuz T-7 capsule 70 km northeast of Arkalyk.

Following a one day solo flight Soyuz T-5 docked with the new space station Salyut 7 on May 14, 1982 and became the first resident crew. There was the ejection of a small radioamateur satellite. The Soviets called this the first launch of a communications satellite from a manned space vehicle. Supplies with cargo spacecrafts Progress 13 - 16 arrived at the station. The resident crew received visits of the spacecrafts Soyuz T-6 on June 25, 1982 and Soyuz T-7 on August 20, 1982.

On May 25, 1982 the crew reoriented Salyut 7 so the aft end of the Progress pointed toward Earth. This placed the station in gravity-gradient stabilization. Valentin Lededev remarked in his diary that the attitude control jets were “very noisy,” and that they sounded like “hitting a barrel with a sledgehammer.” Of Salyut 7 during the unpacking of Progress 13, Valentin Lededev said, “It looks like we’re getting ready to move or have just moved to a new apartment.” The following day the resident crew closed the hatch from the work compartment into the intermediate compartment so the TsUP could pump fuel from Progress 13 to Salyut 7. The crew monitored the operation but played little active role in it. May 29, 1982 was spent organizing the supplies delivered. At the same time, according to Valentin Lededev, “we filled the resupply ship with what we don’t need and tied them down with ropes. When I enter the resupply ship, it jingles with a metallic sound, so when we separate it will sound like a brass band.” Progress 13 pumped 300 liters of water aboard on May 31, 1982. On June 02, 1982 Progress 13 lowered the station’s orbit to 300 km to receive Soyuz T-6.

An EVA by both cosmonauts was performed on July 30, 1982 (2h 33m). Tasks of this EVA were installing a movie camera and a floodlight, replacing samples on the Etalon space exposure experiment and working with the Istok panel, which tested the ability to turn bolts using a special wrench, among others. Medical experiments to find reasons of space sickness were done.

The crew set a new spaceflight record.