Lyakhov Vladimir Afanasievich

Astronaut Russia. Born July 20, 1941 in Anthracite Voroshilovgrad (now - Luhansk) region of the Ukrainian SSR (now - Republic of Ukraine) in a working class family. His father died in the Great Patriotic War. Brought up his mother and stepfather. After graduating from high school, he studied in school pernachalnogo training of pilots, and then entered the Kharkov Higher Aviation School. In 1964 he graduated from college and served in the aviation wing of the Air Forces of the USSR. In 1967 he enlisted in the detachment of Soviet cosmonauts (1967 Group of the Air Force? 4). It has been a full course of general space training and preparing to fly on spacecraft like the Soyuz and orbital stations such as Salyut (DOS). Along with the preparation for space flight, he studied at the Air Force Academy named after Yury Gagarin, where he graduated in 1975.

Then he graduated from the school for test pilots. He mastered the piloting of aircraft of various types, flown 1300 hrs. He was a member of the backup crew of the Soyuz-29 "(with Valery Ryumin) at the start of June 15, 1978. February 25, 1979 for the first time went into space, along with Valery Ryumin as commander of the Soyuz-32 ". During the 174 days he worked on board the orbital station Salyut-6 ". August 15, 1979, together with Valery Ryumin made unscheduled exit into open space, where he held office caught on structural elements of the space station antenna radio telescope of MCT-10. Length of stay in the open space of 1 hour 23 minutes. August 19, 1979 returned to Earth aboard Soyuz-34 ". Length of stay in space was 175 days 35 minutes 37 seconds (the longest at that time, space flight). In the future, trained for space flight program of cooperation with the socialist countries of the Intercosmos. Together with the Mongolian cosmonaut Maydardzhibinom Ganzorig was part of the backup crew of spacecraft "Soyuz-39" at the start of March 22, 1981. In the future, preparing for the program of work on board the orbital station Salyut-7 ". He was a member of the backup crew of Soyuz T-8 "(with Viktor Savina and Alexander Pavlovich Alexandrova) during the launch April 20, 1983.

Second flight into space made from 27 June to 23 November 1983 together with Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov in as commander of Soyuz T-9 ". He worked on board the orbital station Salyut-7 ". Length of stay in space was 149 days 10 hours 46 minutes. In the future, re-trained for space flight on international programs. He was a member of the backup of the Bulgarian-Soviet space crew of Soyuz TM-5 "(jointly with Alexander Alexandrovich Serebrova and Bulgarian Krasimir Stoyanov) at the start of June 7, 1988. August 29, 1988 for the third time was launched into space as commander of Soyuz TM-6 "(with Valery V. Polyakov and an Afghan, Abdul Ahad Mohmand). Within 7 days he worked on board the orbital station "Mir". Returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz TM-5 together with the Afghan cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand. After separation of the recovery vehicle, had problems in the propulsion system, forcing the astronauts during the day to perform autonomous flight. Planting was accomplished only 7 September 1988. Length of stay of astronauts in space was 8 days 20 hours 27 minutes. During three flights into space flown 333 days 7 hours 17 minutes 37 seconds. He continued to remain in the squad of cosmonauts until 1995, worked at the Cosmonaut Training Center named after Yury Gagarin.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 19 August 1979 and November 23, 1983). Awarded 3 orders of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, medals. Hero of the Republic of Afghanistan (1988). He was awarded the Order of the Afghan "freedom of the Sun" and the Order of the Bulgarian People's Republic of Bulgaria ". He was awarded a gold medal Tsiolkovsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR.