Zenon Jankowski (born 22 November 1937) is a retired

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 ...

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

of the

Polish People's Army The Polish People's Army (, ; LWP) was the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East during the latter stages of the Second World War (1943–1945), and subsequently the armed forces of the Polish communist state (1945–1989 ...

and

astronaut 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 a reserve crew member of the 1978

Soyuz 30 Soyuz 30 (, ''Union 30'') was a 1978 crewed Soviet space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the sixth mission to and fifth successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 30 crew were the first to visit the long-duration Soyuz 2 ...

space mission.

Biography

Zenon Jankowski was born on 22 November 1937 in the city of

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, into a

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family. In 1956, he graduated the Marcin Kasprzak High School (now known as the ''St. John Cantius High School'') in Poznań. In 1956, he enrolled in the Officer Flight School No. 5 in

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

, Poland, and in 1957, he transferred to the Polish Air Force University in

Dęblin Dęblin is a town at the Confluence (geography), confluence of Vistula and Wieprz rivers, in Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. Dęblin is the part of the agglomeration with adjacent towns of Ryki and Puławy, which together have over 100,000 inhabitan ...

, Poland. On 13 March 1960, he had graduated and was passed out with the rank of second lieutenant, and later the same year, was given the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

. Prior to his graduation, he became a flight instructor. Following his graduation, from 1960 to 1962, he taught

second standard-bearer The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

officer cadet Officer cadet is a rank held by military personnel during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by personnel of University Service Units such as the University Officers' Training Corps. Th ...

s how to pilot

MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate s ...

jet-powered

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

. Since 1962, he served in the

fighter-bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, wh ...

unit in the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

. Since 1964, he was a member of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

. In 1966, he was sent to the Academy of the General Staff of the Polish Army, which he graduated in 1969. Following his graduation, he served in the

unit, where he was the commander of the fighter-bomber

flight Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...

unit, squadron's rifle service chief, squadron commander, and air regiment navigator. In 1976, he became the deputy commander of the air regiment, and was given the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1976, Jankowski was included in the list of ten potential candidates to become

s from Poland, in the

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 ...

Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...

. By that time, he had spent over two thousand hours piloting planes. The candidates had spent two weeks training in

Zakopane Zakopane (Gorals#Language, Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has ...

, following which, from them were chosen five people to the next phase of training and tests that took place in Poland and 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 ...

. They were: Andrzej Bugała, Henryk Hałka,

Mirosław Hermaszewski Mirosław Hermaszewski (; 15 September 1941 – 12 December 2022) was a Polish cosmonaut, fighter plane pilot, and Polish Air Force officer. He became the first and, at the time of his death in December 2022, only Polish national to ever go t ...

, Zenon Jankowski, and Tadeusz Kuziora. Shortly after, Andrzej Bugała was excluded from the list, with the remaining candidates continuing their tests and training, which lasted from October to November 1976. On 27 November 1976, Hermaszewski and Jankowski were chosen as the two final candidates, and on 4 December 1976, they began their training in the

Yuri 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 tra ...

, located in Zvyozdny gorodok, Soviet Union. In July 1977, the candidates from Poland and Soviet Union were divided into pairs. Jankowski was paired up with

Valery Kubasov Valery Nikolaevich Kubasov (; 7 January 1935 – 19 February 2014) was a Soviet/Russian cosmonaut who flew on two missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 19 (the Apollo–Soyuz mission), and commanded Soyuz 36 in ...

, an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, who became the leader of their group. On 25 June 1978, was decided, that

Pyotr Klimuk Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk (; ; born 10 July 1942) is a former Soviet Union, Soviet astronaut, cosmonaut and the first Belarusians, Belarusian to perform space travel. Klimuk made three crewed space mission, flights into space. From 1991 to 2003, he he ...

and Mirosław Hermaszewski, would be the primary crew, while Kubasov and Jankowski, a reserve crew, of the

spacecraft mission. Two days later, on 27 June 1978, the mission, with Klimuk and Hermaszewski on board, had begun, with the spacecraft reaching the orbit and docking to the

Salyut 6 Salyut 6 () was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth station of the Salyut programme, and alternatively known DOS-5 as it was the fifth of the Durable Orbital Station series of civilian space stations. It was launched on 29 September 19 ...

space station. Duration of the mission, until 5 July 1978, Jankowski served as a consultant of flight director. Later, he returned to the service in the Polish People's Army Air Force. He eventually retired, with the rank of

. After retiring, he moved to the town of

Luboń Luboń () is a town in Poland, situated on the Warta River, in the Poznań metropolitan area, in the Poznań County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It has 32,848 inhabitants (2022). The town was created in 1954 by the merger of 3 long establ ...

, located near the city of Poznań, Poland.

Private life

Jankowski has a wife, with whom, he has one child. He resides in the town of

, located near the city of

, Poland.

Commemoration

In 1978,

Poczta Polska The Polish Post (, ) is the state postal administration of Poland, initially founded in 1558. The company is headquartered in Warsaw and employs over 67,000 people. It is the largest mail-handling company in the country, which additionally prov ...

(''Polish Post'') had printed

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

s, depicting Zenon Jankowski, with the caption reading ''The first Pole in space'' (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

: ''Pierwszy Polak w kosmosie''). Identical postage stamps, depicting

were also printed. Both versions were made ahead of the start of

mission, as it was not decided yet, who would be chosen for the mission. Following Hermaszewski being chosen for the mission, the stamps of Jankowski were ordered to be destroyed. However, around 800 stamps that were sent to a distributor in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, had survived. The story of Jankowski was depicted in 1978

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

s ''Zenon Jankowski'', and ''Wita was Polska''. Both films were written and directed by Bohdan Świątkiewicz, and made by Wytwórnia Filmowa Czołówka (''Czołówka Film Studio'').

Awards and decorations

Commander's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

(1978) * Golden Cross of Merit * Golden

Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service of the Fatherland The Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service of the Fatherland () is a Orders, decorations, and medals of Poland, Polish military decoration, awarded for long service and excellent work in Polish Armed Forces, the army. The medal was first establis ...

* Silver

* Bronze

* Golden

Medal of Merit for National Defence The Medal of Merit for National Defence () is a military decoration, decoration of the Ministry of National Defence (Poland), Ministry of National Defence of Poland. Established 21 April 1966 and revised in 1991, the medal recognizes meritorious s ...

* Silver

* Bronze

* Janek Krasicki Golden Decoration * 60 years saf rib

Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" The Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" () was a state military commemorative medal of the Soviet Union established and bestowed upon military personnel to denote the sixtieth anniversary of the creation of the armed forces of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jankowski, Zenon 1937 births Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta Living people People from Luboń People from Poznań People from Radom Polish Army officers Polish astronauts Polish military aviators Polish People's Army personnel Polish United Workers' Party members Recipients of the Medal of Merit for National Defence Recipients of the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland)