Pyotr Klimuk

Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk (Belarusian: Пётр Ільіч Кліму́к; Russian: Пётр Ильич Климу́к; born 10 July 1942) is a former Soviet cosmonaut and the first Belarusian to perform space travel. Klimuk made three flights into space.

Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk
Born (1942-07-10) 10 July 1942
Kamaroŭka, BSSR, Soviet Union
NationalityBelarusian
OccupationPilot-cosmonaut
Awards
Space career
Cosmonaut
RankColonel General
Time in space
78d 18h 17m
Selection1965 Cosmonaut Group
MissionsSoyuz 13, Soyuz 18, Soyuz 30
Bust of Pyotr Klimuk on Cosmonauts Boulevard in Brest, Belarus

Klimuk attended the Leninski Komsomol Chernigov High Aviation School and entered the Soviet Air Force in 1964. The following year, he was selected to join the space programme.

His first flight was a long test flight on Soyuz 13 in 1973. This was followed by a mission to the Salyut 4 space station on Soyuz 18 in 1975.

From 1976 he became involved in the Intercosmos and made his third and final spaceflight on an Intercosmos flight with Polish cosmonaut Mirosław Hermaszewski on Soyuz 30 in 1978.[1][2]

He resigned from the cosmonaut team in 1978 to take up a position as the Assistant to the Chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1991 he was promoted to Chief of that facility and remained in that post until retirement in 2003.

Klimuk is a graduate of the Gagarin Air Force Academy and the Lenin Military-Political Academy.

He is the author of two books on human spaceflight: Beside the Stars, and Attack on Weightlessness.

Honours and awards
  • Order of Friendship of Peoples (Belarus) (16 July 2007) – for his significant contribution to strengthening the friendly relations and cooperation between Belarus and the Russian Federation
  • Cross of Grunwald, 1st class (NDP, 1978)
  • Order of Parasat (Kazakhstan, 1995)
  • Officer of the Legion of Honour (France, 2004)
  • Medal, "Brotherhood in Arms", twice (Poland)
  • Medal "For the strengthening of friendship in Arms", 1st class (Czechoslovakia)
  • Medal "100th anniversary of the fall of the Ottoman yoke" (NRB)
  • Medal "from the grateful people of Afghanistan" (1988)
  • USSR State Prize (1978) – for his work on medical justification and implementation of complex methods and means of preventing the adverse effects of weightlessness on the human body, allowing for the possibility of prolonged manned space flights
  • Lenin Komsomol Prize (1978) – script for the documentary "Common Space"
  • Tsiolkovski Gold Medal
  • Gagarin Gold Medal
  • Gold Medal from the Polish Academy of Sciences
  • Honorary citizen of the cities of Kaluga, Gagarin, and Dzhezkasgan

Books

References
  1. Pyotr Klimuk. Windows to the Universe. Windows.ucar.edu. Retrieved on 4 August 2012.
  2. Biographies of USSR / Russian Cosmonauts: Klimuk. Spacefacts.de. Retrieved on 4 August 2012.
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