On Aug. 26, 1978, cosmonaut and pilot Sigmund Jähn became the first German to fly in space.

Jähn was an experienced pilot for the East German Air Force and studied at the Gagarin Air Force Academy in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. In 1976, he and one other German pilot were selected for the Interkosmos program, which was designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with space missions. Jähn joined three Soviet cosmonauts on the Soyuz 31 mission to the Salyut 6 space station, where he took photos of the Earth using a new multispectral camera. He also conducted experiments in biology, physics and materials science. After almost eight days in space, he safely returned to Earth.