First romanian in space

First romanian in space

Intercosmos was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union’s allies with manned and unmanned space missions. The program included the allied east-European nations of the Warsaw Pact, CoMEcon, and other socialist nations like Afghanistan, Cuba, Mongolia, and Vietnam. In addition, pro-Soviet non-aligned nations such as India and Syria participated, and even France, despite it being a capitalist nation and part-time US/NATO ally.

Born on 27 September 1952 in Brasov, Romania, Prunariu graduated from the Physics and Mathematics high school in Brasov in 1971 and from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest in 1976, obtaining a degree in Aerospace Engineering.  He was selected for spaceflight training in 1978 as a part of the Intercosmos Program. Obtaining the maximum marks during three years of preparation he was selected for a joint space flight with the Russian cosmonaut Leonid Popov. In May 1981 they completed an eight-day space mission on board Soyuz 40 and the Salyut 6 space laboratory where they completed scientific experiments in the fields of astrophysics, space radiation, space technology, space medicine and biology. Prunariu became the 103rd human being to fly into the Outer Space.

In 1981, after completing the flight, he received the awards of Hero of the Socialist Republic of Romania and Hero of the Soviet Union (22 May 1981) and the medal “Golden Star”. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin.


 

Via : Cer Senin

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