Interkosmos
Interkosmos was an international Soviet space program designed to promote cooperation among socialist countries in space exploration and research. Formed in April 1967 in Moscow, it was led by the Soviet Union and primarily involved allied or friendly countries from the Eastern Bloc and Non-Aligned Movement, which were provided training and technical support with crewed and uncrewed space missions.
Interkosmos was established at the height of the Cold War "Space Race" between the Soviet Union and the United States, which competed to achieve superior spaceflight capability. The respective successes were exploited by both sides for propaganda purposes, with Interkosmos aimed at demonstrating solidarity and unity between the Soviets and aligned or sympathetic countries.
All members of Interkosmos from the USSR were awarded Hero of the Soviet Union or the Order of Lenin. The program included members of the Warsaw Pact and CoMEcon, as well as other socialist states like Afghanistan, Cuba, Mongolia, and Vietnam. Non-aligned nations such as India and Syria participated, as did capitalist states such as the United Kingdom, France and Austria. Most crewed missions consisted of non-Soviet cosmonauts being placed on routine flights with experienced Soviet cosmonauts.
Interkosmos was responsible for many inaugural achievements in the history of spaceflight, including the first citizen of a country other than the U.S. or USSR, the first black and Hispanic person, and the first Asian person.
History
Beginning in April 1967 with unpiloted research satellite missions, the first crewed Interkosmos mission occurred in February 1978. Joint crewed spaceflights enabled 14 non-Soviet cosmonauts to participate in Soyuz space flights between 1978 and 1988. The program was responsible for sending into space the first citizen of a country other than the US or USSR: Vladimír Remek of Czechoslovakia. Interkosmos also resulted in the first black and Hispanic person in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez of Cuba, and the first Asian person in space, Phạm Tuân of Vietnam. Of the countries involved, only Bulgaria sent two cosmonauts to space, although the second one did not fly under the Interkosmos program, and the French spationaut Jean-Loup Chrétien flew on two flights.The Soviet Union also offered commercial joint human spaceflight missions to the United Kingdom and Japan, resulting in the first British and Japanese cosmonauts. In the early 1980s, an offer was made to Finland, with test pilot Jyrki Laukkanen mentioned a potential candidate. The pilots of the Test Flight refused on the grounds that participation would not benefit the flight or test pilot activity in any way; no further offers were made to Finland.
Crewed missions
| Date | Image | Prime | Backup | Country | Mission | Pin | Space station |
| 2 March 1978 | Vladimír Remek | Oldřich Pelčák |  Czechoslovakia.svg.png" />Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg|size=50pxUncrewed missions
LegacyFollowing the Apollo–Soyuz mission, there were talks between NASA and Interkosmos in the 1970s about a "Shuttle–Salyut" program to fly Space Shuttle missions to a Salyut space station, with later talks in the 1980s even considering flights of the future Buran-class orbiter to a future US space station. Whilst the Shuttle–Salyut program never materialized during the existence of the Soviet Interkosmos program, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Shuttle–Mir program would follow in these footsteps in the mid-1990s and eventually pave the way to the International Space Station.FilmsIn general, most of the films associated with programs are short TV documentaries from that era. The two exceptions include Interkosmos from 2006, and cooperation document from 2009 titled Lotnicy Kosmonauci. |