Vitaly Sevastyanov
Vitaly Ivanovich Sevastyanov (Russian Виталий Иванович Севастьянов, scientific transliteration Vitaly Ivanovich Sevast'janov; born July 8, 1935 in Krasnouralsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, RSFSR, † April 5, 2010 in Moscow) was an engineer, a former Soviet cosmonaut, the Russian politician.
Training
After Vitaly Sevastyanov had in 1959 completed his studies in aeronautical engineering at the Moscow Aviation Institute, he was involved as an aircraft engineer in the design office Sergei Korolev in the development of the Vostok spacecraft. 1964 Sevastyanov won the title of candidate of technical sciences.
Space flights
On 31 January 1967, the engineer has been selected in a select group of "Central Design Office of Experimental Mechanical Engineering" as a cosmonaut for the Soviet manned lunar program. He prepared himself for a planned for July 1969 Soviet circumlunar flight, was intended to be their commander Pavel Popovich. This program was stopped after the success of Apollo 8.
The first group flight of three spaceships Sevastyanov was replacement for Soyuz 8, and was subsequently selected for the long-duration flight of Soyuz 9 as a flight engineer.
On June 1, 1970 Sevastyanov launched his first space flight. It was the first night launch of manned spaceflight. Together with Andrian Nikolayev presented Sevastyanov the record for the longest space flight on. These 17 days still represent the longest time spent in a spaceship time dar. After landing, the two cosmonauts were very weakened and became accustomed only slowly back to the earthly gravity. Subsequently, Sevastyanov went on several trips abroad.
As part of the Salyut program Sevastyanov formed together with Alexei Gubaryov and Anatoly Voronov a team. The three were intended as a replacement for the planned flight of Soyuz 12, with the prospect of becoming the third crew of the space station Salyut 1 Soyuz 13. After the disaster of Soyuz 11 on June 29, 1971, however, all plans were put on hold.
The next three launches of Soviet space stations failed, so that it took until 1973 until the next start of a Soyuz spacecraft. This mission Soyuz 12 was used to test the modified spacecraft, and Sevastyanov worked here in the support team. Another nomination for the support team he had failed and had to be discontinued in Soyuz 17, the first flight to the space station Salyut 4 At the next scheduled flight he was in the backup crew, but the start. For this purpose, the term is used Soyuz 18-1.
Thus Sevastyanov was nominated for the main crew of Soyuz 18. Together with his commander Pyotr Klimuk he launched on May 24, 1975 a two-month stay aboard the Salyut 4, during which also held the Apollo - Soyuz Test Project.
He then worked in the ground control for space station Salyut 6 and was for 1989 for a flight to the space station Mir in conversation. For financial reasons, the flight was canceled, and I was left with from April 1989 unmanned for a few months.
Finally, Vitaly Sevastyanov was incorporated into the Buran program. After he worked as a design engineer at the Space Shuttle Buran in the 1980s, he later coached for a flight to the Soviet space shuttle. After the abandonment of the Buran program Sevastyanov retired from the cosmonaut corps on 30 December 1993.
Private
Vitaly Sevastyanov was 1977-1986 and 1988-1989 President of the Soviet Chess Federation.
Sevastyanov was married and had a child.
From 1993 to 2007 he was a member of the Russian Duma.