When the visiting
Soyuz 36 Intercosmos crew departed Salyut 6 on 3 June 1980 and the remaining
resident crew almost immediately redocked the Soyuz craft left behind, observers speculated the secretive Soviets were possibly planning a second Intercosmos mission. The failure of
Soyuz 33 the year before had forced the Soviets to juggle their launch schedule. A launch indeed was soon in the offing, but not the predicted mission. Soyuz T-2 was launched 5 June with
Yury Malyshev and
Vladimir Aksyonov on what turned out to be the first crewed mission of the new
Soyuz T variant. As the craft approached Salyut 6, solar cells, re-introduced to the Soyuz, were tested. The approach was completed automatically, while the final 180 metres were achieved manually on 6 June. The Argon docking computer had failed, leaving the craft perpendicular to the station. The computer failure was later explained as being caused by the crew and controllers failing to have practiced the particular approach the computer chose. The crew had therefore chosen to dock manually to be safe; the computer would have successfully docked if allowed to, said the Soviets. However, failures during the automatic approach was a recurring problem in future Soyuz T missions. During their short stay, Malyshev and Aksyonov seemed to have carried out a minimum of experiments, including participating in some medical tests and using the Salyut's MKF-6M camera. They undocked in the craft they arrived on only two days after first greeting the resident crew. As they left, the Salyut turned around and the Soyuz T-2 crew photographed and visually inspected the space station. The Soyuz then departed and landed about three hours later. ==See also==