Viktor Gorbatko, one of the first Soviet-era cosmonauts, dies at 82

Viktor Gorbatko, one of the first Soviet-era cosmonauts and a veteran of three flights into space, died on Wednesday (May 17), at the age of 82.

Viktor Vasilyevich Gorbatko was born on Dec. 3, 1934, in the village of Ventsy-Zarya in Krasnodar Krai. Inspired to become a pilot by the stories he heard from his siblings of World War II aviators, he joined the Soviet Army in 1952 and one year later, graduated from the 8th Military Aviation School in the Ukrainian town of Pavlograd.

Soviet-era cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko.

Launching on Oct. 12, 1969 as the research engineer on board Soyuz 7, Gorbatko and his two crew mates, Anatoly Filipchenko and Vladislav Volkov, embarked on a four-day, 22-hour mission that was intended to be the Soviet answer to the moon landing: having two crewed spacecraft dock in Earth orbit as a third hovered nearby to capture the feat in photographs.

"Such a flight would not only demonstrate the capacity of the Soviet space program to perform complex operations in space, but also provide a long overdue public relations extravaganza," wrote historian Asif Siddiqi in "Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race," published by NASA in 2000.

The mission was also touted as a chance for engineers to refine their rendezvous and docking techniques and gain a greater understanding on controlling multiple spacecraft in orbit in preparation for future space stations, Siddiqi wrote.

Gorbatko and the Soyuz 7 crew did join the Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 8 crews in orbit, but technical difficulties prevented Soyuz 7 from docking with Soyuz 8 and kept the Soyuz 6 crew at a greater distance away than planned. Gorbatko, Filipchenko and Volkov did conduct detailed observations of the Earth, identifying raw mineral reserves in geological target areas./.

Gorbatko returned to space twice more, on Soyuz 24 in February 1977 and Soyuz 37 in July 1980. On his second flight, he and Yuri Glazkov completed a 18-day mission to Salyut 5, marking the final visit to the space station before it was de-orbited six months later. Gorbatko and Glazkov conducted biological and materials experiments, as well as reconnaissance activities.

On his third and final spaceflight, Gorbatko launched with Phạm Tuân, the first Vietnamese citizen and first Asian in space. The 8-day Intercosmos flight marked the 13th crew to visit the Salyut 6 station. Gorbatko and Tuân returned to Earth on the Soyuz 36 spacecraft on July 31, 1980.

Viktor Gorbatko and Phạm Tuân

In total, Gorbatko logged just over a month in space — 30 days, 12 hours and 47 minutes — in flying three missions.

VNF (According to collectspace.com)