Mukhtar Rabatuly Aymakhanov (, ''Mūhtar Rabatūly Aimahanov''; born 1 January 1967, in Zhosaly,

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

) is a Russian cosmonaut; he was originally a

cosmonaut.

Kazakh cosmonaut career

Aimakhanov and

Aidyn Aimbetov Aidyn Akanuly Aimbetov (, ''Aidyn Aqanūly Aiymbetov''; , born 27 July 1972) is a Kazakh cosmonaut, the first flying as national of independent Kazakhstan. The first from Kazakhstan was Toktar Aubakirov (1991). Family Aimbetov is married and has ...

were selected as the first class of Kazakh cosmonauts in 2002, for the Kazakhstan National Space Agency, KazCosmos. They trained at Star City as cosmonauts from 2003 to 2009, until the world financial crisis indefinitely postponed the prospective Kazakhstan mission. The Kazakh mission finally took place in September 2015 aboard

Soyuz TMA-18M Soyuz TMA-18M was a 2015 Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station. It provided the two twelve-months occupants ( Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko) at the International Space Station with a fresh Soyuz capsule. TMA-18M was the 127th ...

after prospective

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, ...

Sarah Brightman Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano singer and actress. Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made ...

pulled out from the flight. Aimbetov flew with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev as his backup since Aymakhanov had already left KazCosmos and joined Roscosmos by the time of the flight. On December 28, 2022, he left the position of a test cosmonaut in the

Roscosmos The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a State corporation (Russia), state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space science, space flights, List of space agencies, c ...

cosmonaut squad after the decision of the Main Medical Commission. He will continue to work at the

Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for trai ...

as a leading specialist in cosmonaut training.

Russian cosmonaut career

In 2012, to pursue his cosmonaut dreams, Aymakhanov became a Russian citizen, and gave up his Kazakhstan citizenship.

References

External links

Spacefacts biography of Mukhtar Aymakhanov
1967 births Living people Kazakhstani cosmonauts Russian cosmonauts Russian people of Kazakhstani descent People from Kyzylorda Region {{cosmonaut-stub