[2] Grechko had a brief cameo role in Richard Viktorov's 1981 film Per Aspera Ad Astra, and as a result attained pop culture status in his home city of Leningrad.

[5] In order to maintain fitness in weightlessness, Grechko spent up to two hours a day exercising on a bicycle and treadmill, as well as experimenting with wearing negative pressure suits.

The crew boarded the Soviet Salyut 6 Space Station, where they would stay long enough to eclipse the 84-day record set in 1974 by US Skylab astronauts Gerald Carr, William Pogue, and Edward Gibson.

[7] Their extended stay is what allowed the crew to pull off such an observation, as it takes two to three weeks for human eyesight to adapt to conditions in orbit.

After several weeks in orbit, the members of the Salyut 6 crew were able to examine the finer details of the landscape, which included the traces left on the water surface by typhoons, enormous solitary waves that were over 100 kilometers long, and some of the characteristic features of the ocean floor.

On March 15, after spending a record-setting total of 96 days in orbit, Grechko and Romanenko finally left the Salyut 6 Space Station and returned to earth aboard the Soyuz 27 spacecraft.

[8] After spending such an extended period of time in orbit, the crew began an expanded exercise routine a week prior to departure that was intended to minimize the effects of the return to normal gravity.

Despite this training, both Grechko and Romanenko struggled to complete easy tasks shortly following their return, such as turning a radio dial or lifting a cup of tea.