 A final round of examinations in Moscow in 1978 affirmed Ivanov and Aleksandrov's as the most physically fit, and they were approved as prime and backup, respectively.The Interkosmos mission flight crew consisted of an experienced Soviet cosmonaut as a flight commander, while the member state cosmonaut served as a flight engineer or a "research cosmonaut" whose role was to oversee their assigned experiments and equipment.Training was meticulous and intensive.