[Results of medical research in the performance of the long-term manned flights of the Saliut-6 program].

The major goal of biomedical investigations in prolonged (up to 6 months) manned missions was to obtain information about physiological reactions to long-term weightlessness and to carry out detailed clinical, physiological, immunological and anthropometric investigations before, during and after flight. The results obtained give evidence that man can adapt to the prolonged exposure and to maintain good health condition and high work capacity. The changes detected postflight were reversible and disappeared completely within a relatively short time period. The changes were not correlated with the flight duration. The good health condition and high performance inflight were maintained and postflight readaptation was facilitated due to a rational work-rest cycle and specific countermeasures which were modified with respect to the results of regular medical examinations. Salyut-6 medical data have demonstrated that the duration of forthcoming manned missions can be extended.