Bertalan Farkas (, born August 2, 1949) is the first Hungarian

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

, space explorer and

fighter pilot A fighter pilot or combat pilot is a Military aviation, military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, Air-to-ground weaponry, air-to-ground combat and sometimes Electronic-warfare aircraft, electronic warfare while in the cockpit of ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

became the seventh nation to be represented in space by him. Farkas is also the first

Esperantist An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it for ...

cosmonaut. He is currently the president of Airlines Service and Trade. Following his mission, Hungarian-American Károly Simonyi (

Charles Simonyi Charles Simonyi (; , ; born September 10, 1948) is a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American software architect. He introduced the graphical user interface to Bill Gates for the first time who later described it as the first of two revolutiona ...

) was the second Hungarian astronaut – the only person in the entire world who has been twice in space as a

space tourist Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, ...

and who had paid for himself for the

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such ...

s. The next Hungarian astronaut will travel to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

by 2025.

Early life and military career

Born in

Gyulaháza Gyulaháza is a village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. Geography It covers an area of and has a population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or a ...

, he graduated from the György Kilián Aeronautical College in

Szolnok Szolnok (; also known by #Name and etymology, alternative names) is the county seat of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in central Hungary. A city with county rights, it is located on the banks of the Tisza river, in the heart of the Great Hungarian ...

in 1969. He then attended the

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

Military Aviation Institute in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, from where he graduated in 1972. After earning his qualifications at

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, Farkas joined the Hungarian Air Force and rose to the rank of Brigadier General. He also attended the Bessenyei György Gimnázium in

Kisvárda Kisvárda (; , ) is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary near the border of Slovakia and Ukraine. It is the 3rd largest town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg after Nyíregyháza and Mátészalka ...

Intercosmos program

In 1978 he volunteered to become a cosmonaut and was selected as part of the fifth international programme for

Interkosmos Interkosmos () was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with Human spaceflight, crewed and Uncrewed spacecraft, uncrewed space missions. The program was formed in April 1967 in Moscow. All members of the program fr ...

. His backup cosmonaut was Béla Magyari. Farkas, along with Soviet cosmonaut Valery Kubasov, was launched into space on

Soyuz 36 Soyuz 36 (, ''Union 36'') was a 1980 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the 11th mission to and ninth successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 36 crew were the first to visit the long-duration Soyuz 3 ...

from

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

on May 26, 1980, at 18:20 ( UTC). While in

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

, Farkas conducted experiments in

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

. After 7 days, 20 hours and 45 minutes, and having completed 124 orbits, Farkas and Kubasov returned to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, landing 140 km southeast of

Jezkazgan Zhezkazgan, or Jezkazgan ( ) is a city and the administrative centre of Ulytau Region, Kazakhstan. Population: Its urban area includes the neighbouring mining town of Satbayev (city), Satpayev, for a total city population of 148,700. 55% of ...

. Bertalan Farkas was awarded the title

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both ...

on June 30, 1980.Biography
at the website on Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia

Personal life

Farkas is married to Anikó Farkas, and has four children: Gábor, Aida, Ádám and Bertalan. He loves

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and plays it often. He was a member of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, a Hungarian conservative political party, and was its candidate at the 2006 parliamentary election in the Baktalórántháza election district. He holds the rank of Commander (CLJ) in the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem in Hungary.

References

External links

Spacefacts biography of Bertalan Farkas

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farkas, Bertalan 1949 births Living people People from Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Hungarian Esperantists Hungarian astronauts Recipients of the Order of Lenin Foreign Heroes of the Soviet Union Hungarian Democratic Forum politicians 20th-century Hungarian people Astronaut-politicians Salyut program cosmonauts