The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 38 on a mission to the Salyut 6 space station, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko and the first Cuban in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez. The week-long flight includes docking maneuvers with Salyut 6 in pitch blackness, guided only by the lights on both the Soyuz vehicle and the station, and experiments aboard Salyut. Since the long-duration Salyut 6/Soyuz 35 crew is due to leave the station soon, the Soyuz 38 crew departs in the same vehicle in which it arrived.
