Yevgeny Khrunov
Yevgeny Vasilyevich Khrunov (Russian: Евгений Васильевич Хрунов; born September 10, 1933, Prudy in the Tula Oblast; † 19 May 2000, Moscow) was a Soviet cosmonaut.
After school, he received an education at an agricultural school. Later, he joined the Red Army and was trained at a military flying school. In 1960 he was selected for the first cosmonaut group in the USSR. He was as a replacement pilot for Vostok 5 in conversation, but was not nominated.
From the summer of 1964, he was trained together with Alexei Leonov for spacewalks. Finally, Leonov was preferred and was Khrunov substitute for the mission Voskhod 2, while the Leonov in space left in March 1965 as the first man a spaceship. Khrunov was simultaneously substitute for the commander Pavel Belyayev.
From September 1965 Khrunov was trained on the new Soyuz spacecraft, where he belonged to the group of the first eight cosmonauts for a new space suit should be made, which spoke for an early nomination.
In April 1967, he should take part in a spectacular double flight of two Soyuz spaceships. The plan was that Vladimir Komarov on Soyuz 1 starts first, a day later, the three cosmonauts Bykowski, Khrunov and Jelissejew with Soyuz 2 Khrunov and Jelissejew should change in Earth orbit from one into the other space ship and land with Komarov.
After the launch occurred in Soyuz 1 but massive problems, also delayed due to the weather the launch of Soyuz 2 The flight of Soyuz 1 was aborted when landing parachutes failed and Komarov was killed on impact. During the investigations, it was found that the parachutes of the Soyuz 2 had the same error. The delay of the launch had saved Khrunov and his two comrades life.
1968 Khrunov received the degree at the Engineering Academy of Air Forces of the USSR.
The planned transition from a spaceship to the other took place two years later than originally planned. Khrunov launched on 15 January 1969, his first space flight. Also on board of Soyuz 5 was Alexei Eliseev, who was provided with it already for the canceled flight of Soyuz 2, as well as the commander Boris Wolynow.
Soyuz 5 docked in orbit on Soyuz 4, which was started with Vladimir Shatalov the day before. As planned increased Khrunov and Jelissejew from one into the other space ship to. Khrunov was therefore the seventh man, who left his spaceship in space.
In the aftermath Khrunov was trained to work in the space station Salyut. Only after many years, he was nominated again for a mission. When flight of Soyuz 38 to Salyut 6 space station he was substitute for the commander Yuri Romanenko. With this mission in September 1980 for the first time flew a cosmonaut from Cuba into space.
Khrunov left at the end of 1980, the Soviet space agency. He died at the age of 66 years. Khrunov was married and had two sons.