A group portrait of cosmonauts involved with the Interkosmos program from the first mission, Soyuz 28 (1978) to Soyuz T-11 (1984).

Top: Sigmund Jähn (East Germany), Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Georgi Ivanov (Bulgaria), Yuri Malyshev, Rakesh Sharma (India), Bertalan Farkas (Hungary), Leonid Popov, Boris Volynov and Valery Bykovsky. Bottom: Pham Tuân (Vietnam), Viktor Gorbatko, Vladimír Remek (Czechoslovakia), Alexei Gubarev, Dumitru Prunariu (Romania), Pyotr Klimuk, Alexei Leonov, Mirosław Hermaszewski (Poland), Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (Cuba), Anatoly Berezovoy.

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It’s Mongolian Independence Day today, so here’s Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa, Mongolia’s only astronaut. He flew aboard Soyuz 39 with Vladimir Dzhanibekov to Salyut 6, for a total of 7 days in space in 1981. After Mongolian clan names were reinstated in 1996, he chose Sansar, space in Mongolian.

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Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Svetlana Savitskaya before the launch of Soyuz T-12. (1984)

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Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Svetlana Savitskaya training in the Salyut 7 simulator for their upcoming Soyuz T-12 mission. This was the mission when Savitskaya made the first spacewalk by a woman. (1984)

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Vladimir Dzhanibekov writing ‘спасибо’ (thank you) on the Soyuz 39 capsule after landing. I’m not sure if this is still a tradition as I’ve only seen pictures of this in the 70’s and early 80’s, when the missions were shorter and cosmonauts more able to stand right after landing. (1981)

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scanzen:

Moszkva. Ismét négy lakója van a Szaljut-6 űrállomásnak. Vlagyimir Dzsanibekov alezredes és Zsugderdemidijn Gurragcsaa, a Mongol Népköztársaság űrhajósa a Szojuz-39 jelzésű űrhajóról átszállt a Szaljut-6-ra, ahol a Kovaljonok-Szavinih párossal végzik a közös kutató munkát. Telefoto MTI Külföldi Képszolgálat, XXII. évfolyam 8. szám (25578). 2.

Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa before the launch of the Soyuz-39 spacecraft, March 22, 1981. With this mission, Gürragchaa became the first Mongolian, and second Asian cosmonaut.

The crew of Soyuz T-6 during training: Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Jean-Loup Chrétien (France) and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov. (1982)

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Vladimir Dzhanibekov (front) and Viktor Savinykh on their way to the pad for the launch of Soyuz T-13 (1985)

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This blog turns 1 year old today! Thanks to everyone who enjoys this blog.

To celebrate, here are my favourite cosmonauts in no particular order.

Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh, crew of Soyuz T-13, wave goodbye at launch. It was the first Soyuz to dock to an inert station; Salyut 7 had been left empty for eight months because of a problem with the solar arrays. (1985)

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Aleksandr Ivanchenkov, Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Jean-Loup Chrétien in front of the Soyuz simulator in preparation for their Soyuz T-6 flight. (1982)

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scanzen:

Sok szeretettel emlékül, Magyari Béla. 81.07.22.

Photo of two interkosmos cosmonaut, Bela Magyari (r) and Vladimir Dzhanibekov (l) - the backup crew of Salyut 6 EP-5 -, signed by colonel Magyari. Magyari is a trained astronaut, he was the backup of the first hungarian cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas. He has never flown to space.

Since people seemed to like the last one, here’s another awesome painting by Vladimir Dzhanibekov

A happy Georgi Grechko and Vladimir Dzhanibekov after landing aboard Soyuz T-13. This was before they were gifted with watermelon. (1985)

The Soyuz T-6 crews: Aleksandr Ivanchenkov, Jean-Loup Chrétien (France) and Vladimir Dzhaninbekov (the prime crew); Patrick Baudry (France), Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov (the backup crew) (1982)