As none of the back-up crew had previous flight experience (required since the failure of the Soyuz 25 mission), Ryumin was drafted for the mission despite having completed a six-month mission only the previous August.
As none of the back-up crew had previous flight experience (required since the failure of the Soyuz 25 mission), Ryumin had been given the choice of replacing Lebedev or delaying the mission. This despite having completed a six-month mission only the previous August.