It was revealed to have been a Salyut station only much later.

Once docked, the engines of the Kosmos were used to make orbital changes for the Salyut station.

Its design lineage thus extends back to the original Salyut stations.

The Soyuz 24 crew landed after spending 18 days in space, and the Salyut station was de-orbited six months later.

The three-person Mayak crew entered the darkened Salyut 7 station carrying flashlights.

One advantage the new Salyut 7 station had over Salyut 6, was continuously available hot water.

He worked in ground control for the Salyut 6 station before returning to spacecraft design in the 1980s to work on the Buran project.

The next day, the first-ever transfer of water between a tanker and a Salyut station was completed.

These were the new Mir station and the old Salyut 7 station.

The first spacecraft to do this was the ill-fated Soyuz 11, which successfully docked with the Salyut 1 station on June 7, 1971.