Vladimir Afanasyevich Lyakhov (; ; 20 July 1941 – 19 April 2018) was a Ukrainian

Soviet 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 ...

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 ...

. He was selected as cosmonaut on 5 May 1967, and retired on 7 September 1994. Lyakhov was the Commander on

Soyuz 32 Soyuz 32 (, ''Union 32'') was a 1979 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the eighth mission to and seventh successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 32 crew was the third long-duration crew to man the sp ...

Soyuz T-9 Soyuz T-9 (Russian: Союз Т-9, Union T-9) was the 4th expedition to Salyut 7 following the failed docking of Soyuz T-8. It returned lab experiments to Earth. The next mission, Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L (Soyuz 10a), had exploded and thus failed t ...

, and

Soyuz TM-6 Soyuz TM-6 was a crewed Soyuz spaceflight to '' Mir''. It was launched on 29 August 1988, at 04:23:11 UTC, for the station's third long-duration expedition, Mir EO-3. The three-person crew that was launched consisted of Research Doctor Valeri ...

, and spent 333 days, 7 hours, 47 minutes in space. He was married and had two children. Lyakhov's flight to Salyut-6 with Valeri Ryumin as the Soyuz 32 crew resulted in setting a space endurance record of 175 days when they returned to Earth on 19 August 1979. Lyakhov conducted three spacewalks for a cumulative total of 7 hours and 8 minutes with one outside of Salyut 6 and two outside of Salyut 7. Lyakhov was deputy director for cosmonaut training and deputy commander of the cosmonaut corps at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. He retired in 1994. He was twice awarded the Order of Lenin and was twice named a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was also named a

Hero of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan The title Hero of the Republic of Afghanistan () was the highest distinction in the Republic of Afghanistan, awarded to both citizens of the Afghanistan and other states who have performed heroic deeds in the name of defending the gains of the Sa ...

and awarded with the Order of the Saur Revolution and Order of The Sun of Freedom.

References

External links

The official website of the city administration Baikonur - Honorary citizens of Baikonur
1941 births 2018 deaths People from Antratsyt Ukrainian cosmonauts Heroes of the Soviet Union Soviet cosmonauts Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Salyut program cosmonauts Spacewalkers Mir crew members Laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology {{hero-USSR-stub