SOYUZ 38

Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (born January 29, 1942) was the first Cuban citizen and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the United States to travel into earth orbit. He was also the first Hispanic and first Black person in space. Tamayo was selected as part of the Soviet Union's seventh Intercosmos program on March 1, 1978. His backup in the Intercosmos program was fellow Cuban José López Falcón. Tamayo, along with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, was launched into space aboard Soyuz 38 from Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 18, 1980, at 19:11 UTC. After docking with Salyut 6, Tamayo and Romanenko conducted experiments in an attempt to find what caused space adaptation syndrome, and perhaps even find a cure. After 124 orbits of the Earth (lasting 7 days, 20 hours and 43 minutes), Tamayo and Romanenko landed 180 km from Dzhezkazgan. The landing was risky, as it was during the night.