Space pin made in the Soviet Union about Soyuz 9. Soyuz 9 was a 1970 Soviet crewed space flight. The two man crew of Andrian Nikolayev and Vitali Sevastyanov broke the five year old space endurance record held by Gemini 7, with their nearly 18 day flight. The mission paved the way for the Salyut space station missions, investigating the effects of long term weightlessness on crew, and evaluating the work that the cosmonauts could do in orbit, individually and as a team. To date, Soyuz 9 marks the longest crewed flight by a solo spacecraft.