Pilot Cosmonaut of the USSR
CLASSIFICATION: 38/81.
NUMBER OF MISSIONS: 1.
SPACEFLIGHT HOURS: 02 days 00 hours 06 minutes 35 seconds.
PIONEER ACTIONS: participate in the first and single water landing of a manned spacecraft in the history of Soviet manned space flight (“Soyuz-23”, Lake Tengiz, October 16, 1976).
PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH: Born February 13, 1939 in Leningrad (at present Saint-Petersburg), RSFSR (Russia).
NATIONALITY: Russian.
EDUCATION:
1967 - finished secondary school No.56 in Leningrad;
1961 – graduated from the F.E.Dzherdzhinsky Higher Naval Engineering School on ô military surface-craft shipbuilding speciality. Got qualification of a military engineer-shipbuilder;
1962 – finished a six-month officer course of diving specialists at 39 emergency-rescue school of the Black Sea Fleet.
EXPERIENCE BEFORE COSMONAUT CORPS:
October 14, 1961 – deputy commander, emergency-rescue party, 446 separate battalion of the rearward emergency-rescue service, “Baltiysk” Naval Base, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet;
August 3, 1962 – October 25, 1965 – commander, diving team, emergency-rescue service of the SS-87 rescue ship of the same battalion, Liyepaye Naval Base, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet.
ENROLLMENT (ENROLLMENT ¹, DATE):
October 28, 1965 – enlisted in the cosmonaut corps of the Air Force’s Cosmonaut Training Center as a candidate cosmonaut by the Air Force Commander-in-Chief Order (3rd enrollment);
from December 30, 1967 – cosmonaut of the 2nd corps.
QUALIFICATION: diving specialist (1962), third-class cosmonaut (1976).
BACKUP ACTIVITY:
August 13, 1973 – June, 1974 – flight engineer of the fourth crew for flight aboard the “Almaz” OPS-101-2 (“Salyut-3”) together with V.Zudov;
July – August, 1974 – backup crew flight engineer for the 2nd expedition program aboard the “Almaz” OPS-101-2 (“Salyut-3”) together with V.Zudov;
August 26, 1974 – backup of L.Dyomin, flight engineer of the “Soyuz-15” spacecraft;
January, 1975 – June, 1976 – backup crew flight engineer for flight aboard the “Almaz” OPS-103 (“Salyut-5”) together with V.Zudov;
July 6, 1976 – backup of V.Zholobov, flight engineer of the “Soyuz-21” spacecraft.
July 3, 1974 – backup of P.Popovich, commander of the “Soyuz-14” spacecraft.
SPACEMISSIONS:
1st mission – October 14-16, 1976 – flight engineer of the “Soyuz-23” spacecraft together with V.Zudov. The mission program envisaged docking to the “Saluyt-5” station and work aboard it. But docking was not fulfilled due to the “Igla” rendezvous and docking system failure. It was the first time the soviet spacecraft landed on the surface of Lake Tengiz (Kazakhstan). The crew was evacuated in the night-time under subzero temperature and bad weather conditions. Mission duration: 02 days 00 hours 06 minutes 35 seconds. Call sign: “Rodon-2”.
DISCHARGE FROM COSMONAUT CORPS:
1986 – discharged from the cosmonaut corps due to a new assignment.
EXPERIENCE IN CTC:
from June 18, 1986 – chief,1st unit, 1st department;
from October 9, 1986 – chief, 11th unit;
from July 18, 1988 – deputy chief, cosmonaut training department;
from March 9, 1992 – chief, 2nd department.
AWARDS:
Medal “Gold Star” of Hero of the Soviet Union (November 5,1976),
Order of Lenin (November 5,1976),
Order “For Service in the Armed Forces of the USSR” of the III class (February 8, 1982),
11 commemorative medals,
Medal of Blue Nile of the I class (Ethiopia, October 10, 1981)
Honorary citizen of Arkalyk, Bor, Gagarin, Kaluga.
ÑURRENT STATUS: October 31, 1992 – dismissed from service (colonel engineer in the reserve).