The Explorers' Club, № MXC

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 18
24 May-26 July 1975: Soyuz 18 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur, with CDR Pyotr Klimuk & F.E. Vitaly Sevastyanov aboard a Soyuz 7K-T capsule atop a Soyuz rocket; call sign Kavkaz ("Caucasus"); the duo docked with & boarded the Salyut 4 space station; after sixty-three days of experiments, with the station's environmental systems degrading, they landed in the Kazakh S.S.R.

Commentary: Soyuz 18 remained on orbit throughout the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (15-24 July 1975). Klimuk & Sevastyanov set a new Soviet endurance record, more than doubling the Soyuz 17 crew's twenty-nine days in space. As with the Soyuz 9 cosmonauts (1-19 June 1970), the Soyuz 18 duo returned to Earth in worse physical condition than long-duration American astronauts who had spend as long or even longer in microgravity.

Bonus! Space Race Song o'the Day: Soyuz 18
The Littlest Man Band, "Stayed Away Too Long" from Better Book Ends (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.