Ivan Bella (born 21 May 1964) is a

Slovak Air Force The Slovak Air Force, known since 2002 as the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic (), is the aviation and air defense branch of the Military of Slovakia, Slovak Armed Forces. Operating 15 aircraft and 18 helicopters fro ...

officer who became the first Slovak citizen to fly in space. He participated in an eight-day joint Russian-French-Slovak mission to the

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

space station in 1999.

Education and military career

Bella graduated from military school in 1983 and subsequently graduated from

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

Military Academy in 1987. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Slovak Republic Army as a pilot at the 33rd Air Force Base in Malacky, Slovakia.

Spaceflight

Bella began training as a ''research cosmonaut'' on 25 March 1998. He completed his training successfully at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in August of the same year. Bella launched along with mission commander Viktor Afanasyev and flight engineer Jean-Pierre Haigneré on the

Soyuz TM-29 Soyuz TM-29 was a Russian Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spaceflight launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz 11A511U rocket. It docked with Mir on February 22, 1999 at 05:36 GMT with cosmonauts Viktor M. Afanasyev, Viktor Afanasyev of Rus ...

mission on 20 February 1999. TM-29 arrived at Mir on 22 February. While on board the station Bella performed various scientific experiments as well as experiments involving the possibility of survival of Japanese quails during long flights. Bella spent just over a week in space and returned to earth on 28 February aboard Soyuz TM-28 along with fellow crew member

Gennady Padalka Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian Air Force officer and Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka is the only person to have served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS) four times. He previ ...

Diplomatic career

In 2004, Bella was appointed to serve as a

military attaché A military attaché or defence attaché (DA),Defence Attachés
''Geneva C ...

for Slovakia in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Russia.

References

External links

Spacefacts biography of Ivan Bella
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bella, Ivan 1964 births Living people Slovak cosmonauts People from Brezno Mir crew members Recipients of the Order of Courage (Russia) Czechoslovak Air Force officers