Valentin Lebedev
Valentin Vitalyevich Lebedev (Russian Валентин Витальевич Лебедев, scientific transliteration Valentin Lebedev Vital'evič; born April 14, 1942 in Moscow, Russian SFSR ) is a former Soviet cosmonaut.
Life
Start of career
Lebedev studied at the Moscow State Aviation Institute (MAI ), which he left in 1966 as an engineer. Subsequently, he joined the design office OKB -1 ( later name: ZKBEM and Energia ) a, in which, among other things, the Soyuz and Zond lunar probe have been developed.
As part of the Soviet lunar program Lebedev worked in the area of splashdown and recovery of the return capsule. Later he trained cosmonauts and worked on methods for manual rendezvous of a Soyuz spaceship with a space station type DOS, which was also developed in ZKBEM.
Selection for cosmonauts
In 1969, Lebedev was in the application phase for the Soviet cosmonaut corps. On March 22, 1972, he was selected as a test cosmonaut. To his group included two other engineers ZKBEM ( Boris Andreyev and Yuri Ponomarev ), an engineer from the design office ZKBM ( Valeri Makruschin ) and three doctors of the Institute of microbiological problems.
Soyuz 13
As of July 1972 Lebedev worked in the support team for a Soyuz flight in which the astrophysical Camera Orion 2 should be used. In September 1973 he was appointed to the backup crew and became commander Pyotr Klimuk allocated. On 7 December, a decision of the State Commission, after initially foreseen cosmonauts Vorobyov and Jasdowski should not be used and thus Klimuk and Lebedev nachrückten fell.
Klimuk and Lebedev were both only 31 years old and so were the youngest crew of a multi -seat spaceship. Furthermore, Lebedev had only 21 months between selection and first flight of the hitherto shortest formation of a Soviet Soyuz cosmonauts. Only the doctor Oleg Atkow 1984 would remain with less than one year under this brand.
Klimuk and Lebedev began on December 18, 1973 Soyuz 13 with the Orion 2 astrophysical camera both shooting and Earth observations were carried out. The flight was also the test of various on-board systems that were fashioned after the disaster of Soyuz 11. The landing took place on December 26th in a blizzard.
Salyut 6
As of December 1977 Lebedev was prepared for use aboard the new space station Salyut 6 and assigned commander Leonid Popov. Popov and Lebedev were the support team for the first and second long-term occupation ( Salyut 6 EO -1 and Salyut 6 EO-2 ), then Popov and Lebedev moved to the backup crew for the third mission Salyut 6 EO - 3, which in February 1979 launched.
Popov and Lebedev were provided as the fourth team ( Salyut 6 EO -4), but in March 1980, Lebedev moved jumping on the trampoline a knee injury that made its use impossible. Lebedev had to be replaced and arrived at Salyut 6 is no longer used.
Salyut 7
From September 1981 trained Lebedev for use aboard the new space station Salyut 7 Together with Commander Anatoly Beresowoi he should be the first long-duration crew Salyut 7 EO -1.
Beresowoi and Lebedev launched on 13 May 1982 with the spaceship Soyuz T -5, coupled on the following day to the Salyut and took the station in operation.
The end of June came with Soyuz T-6 crew on board a visit to their team with Jean- Loup Chrétien was also the first French astronaut. In the further course of the mission Beresowoi and Lebedev led on 30 July 1982 a spacewalk. A second short-term mission served the spacecraft exchange. On August 20, Soyuz docked at T-7. The visiting team took on 27 August 1982, the Soyuz T-5 returns to Earth.
As Lebedev and Beresowoi ended December 10, 1982 Soyuz T -7, they had set up with 211 days of a new long-term record for a spacecraft.
After the space flight
In 1983, Lebedev was trained as a flight engineer for the space shuttle Buran. Lebedev left the program but as early as 1986, long before it was discontinued due to financial and political reasons.
In November 1989, Lebedev joined the Soviet Academy of Sciences and became Deputy Director of the Institute of Geography. In July 1991 he became head of the newly established Centre for Geographic Information Systems.
Lebedev resigned on February 25, 1993 officially out of the cosmonaut corps. In May 2000, he was appointed as the first cosmonaut corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Publications
Lebedev published 157 scientific articles and is the author or co-author of nine books. His records on board Salyut 7 were published in Russian and in English.
Others
- Lebedev holds 26 patents.
- He was 1975-1991 President of the Soviet Acrobatic Association.
- From 1976 to 1991 he was a member of the Soviet National Olympic Committees.
Honors
- Two-time Hero of the Soviet Union ( December 28, 1973 and 10 December 1982)
- Two-time winner of Order of Lenin ( December 28, 1973 and 10 December 1982)
- Honorary citizen of 16 cities of the former Soviet Union, as well as Fort Worth ( USA)
- Officer of the French Legion of Honour (1982 )
- Named after the minor planet ( 10015 ) Valenlebedev, which was discovered in 1978 by astronomer Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh the Russian.
Private
Lebedev is married and has one child.