Aidyn Ayymbetov

Aidyn Ayymbetov
Country:	Kazakhstan
Organization:	KazCosmos
selected on	November 9, 2002
Calls:	1 space flight
Begin:	2nd September 2015
Landing:	September 12, 2015
Time in space:	9d 20h 14min
Space flights
Soyuz TMA-18M / Soyuz TMA-16M (2015)

Aidyn Aqanuly Ajymbetow ( Kazakh- Cyrillic Айдын Ақанұлы Айымбетов ; born July 27, 1972 in the collective farm "Dawn of Communism ", Taldyqorghan Oblast , Kazakh SSR ) is a spaceman from Kazakhstan . He completed a stay on the ISS in September 2015 .

Military career

Ayymbetow completed his pilot training in 1993 at the Higher Military Aviation School " Pawel S. Kutachow " of the Russian Air Defense Forces in Armavir . He then served in Lugovaya and Taldyqorghan, Kazakhstan, where he flew the MiG-27 fighter aircraft and the Su-27 air superiority fighter . On May 5, 2016, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev promoted Ayymbetov to major general in the Kazakh Air Force.

Activity as a cosmonaut

Together with Muchtar Aimachanow , the then major of the Kazakh Air Force Ayymbetov was selected on November 9, 2002 by the Kazakh space agency KazCosmos as a space pilot . He completed his training from June 16, 2003 to June 28, 2005 in the Russian Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center , on July 5, 2005 both Kazakh cosmonauts received the cosmonaut diploma (No. 196 and No. 197). A space flight originally planned for 2009 with Kazakhstan's participation did not materialize for financial reasons, the space earmarked for Kazakhstan went to the Canadian space tourist Guy Laliberté . While Aimakhanov took Russian citizenship to work in the Russian cosmonaut corps towards a flight, Ayymbetov said he would only fly into space under the Kazakh flag. Ayymbetov became an advisor to Talghat Musabaev , the chairman of KazCosmos.

In June 2015 the opportunity for an ISS flight for Kazakhstan arose at short notice when the British singer Sarah Brightman canceled her confirmed participation in a space flight.

Ayymbetov took off for the ISS in the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft on September 2, 2015, together with the Russian commander Sergei Volkov and the Danish ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen . The return took place on September 12, 2015 together with Gennadi Padalka and Mogensen with Soyuz TMA-16M .

Private

Ayymbetov is married and has two daughters and a son.

Web links

• spacefacts.de: Short biography
• collect space: Kazakh cosmonaut replaces singer Sarah Brightman on space station flight (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kazcosmos: Aidyn Aimbetov: "I will travel into space only under the Kazakh flag". Accessed June 24, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Kazinform: A. Aimbetov appointed Advisor to Chairman Kazkosmos. September 11, 2009, accessed June 24, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Aidyn Aimbetov: Flying into the Space is not buying a theater ticket. (No longer available online.) Akimat of Astana, April 12, 2015, archived from the original on June 27, 2015 ; accessed on June 26, 2015 (English).