He served as flight engineer on four flights, including Soyuz T-11, a joint Soviet–Indian mission in April 1984 that carried out scientific research aboard the Salyut 7 space station; and on Mir August–December 1990 and March–July 1995. He logged more than 153 days in space. Strekalov then joined the Energiya Rocket and Space Complex, based at the mission control centre, working on flights of spacecraft belonging to the Academy of Sciences. He was selected as a cosmonaut in 1974.