Soyuz 36, launched May 26, 1980, was the eleventh mission to the Salyut 6 space station, and the ninth successful docking. Its crew consisted of Valeri Kubasov and Bertalan Farkas, the first Hungarian cosmonaut.
It landed July 31 with Viktor Gorbatko and Pham Tuan, the first Vietnamese cosmonaut.
Valeri Kubasov, born January 7, 1935 in the former Soviet Union, was a veteran of three space flights. He spent over 18 days in space.
His first mission was aboard Soyuz 6 with fellow cosmonaut Georgy Shonin. They conducted the first welding experiments in space but planned docking and rendezvous maneuvers with Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 failed.
His second mission was aboard Soyuz 19 with Alexey Leonov in July 1975. They docked with NASA's Apollo spacecraft for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program, a joint project between NASA and the Soviet space program.
Kuvasov's third and final mission was aboard Soyuz 36 as commander to the Salyut 6 space station in May 1980. He returned to Earth in June.
He passed away of natural causes in February 2014.
Bertalan Farkas, born August 2, 1949 in Hungary, is the first Hungarian cosmonaut. He went into space once aboard Soyuz 36 with fellow cosmonaut Valeri Kubasov in May 1980 to the Salyut 6 space station. Farkas spent almost 8 days conducting experiments in material sciences. They returned to Earth June 3, 1980 aboard Soyuz 35.
Soyuz 37, launched July 23, 1980, was the 13th (11th successful) mission to dock with the Soviet space station Salyut 6. Its crew consisted of Commander Viktor Gorbatko and Flight Engineer Pham Tuan, the first Vietnamese cosmonaut.
They stayed on Salyut 6 approximately eight days later and returned to Earth in the Soyuz 36 spacecraft.
The long-duration crew of Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin returned in Soyuz 37 in October.
Pham Tuan, born February 14, 1947 in Thai Binh, Vietnam, is the first Vietnamese cosmonaut and first Asian in space. His only mission was aboard Soyuz 37 which was launched July 23, 1980 with fellow cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko to Salyut 6.
He returned to Earth on Soyuz 36 July 31 with Gorbatko. It was his only mission into space.
