This painting by Sokolov showing the Soviet Salyut 6 space station in orbit has the distinction of being one of the first artworks flown in space. It arrived at the Salyut 6 space station on March 3, 1978 aboard Soyuz 28 flown by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksey Gubarev and Vladimir Remek of Czechoslovakia as part of the first Interkosmos mission. The painting was returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 30 on July 5, 1978 by the crew of Pyotr Klimuk and Miroslaw Giermaszewski of Poland after spending 124 days in orbit spanning two long-duration Salyut missions.