Lev Stepanovich Djomin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lev Djomin
Country: USSR
selected on January 10, 1963
Calls: 1 space flight
Begin: August 26, 1974
Landing: August 28, 1974
Time in space: 2d 0h 12min
retired on January 1982
Space flights
Lev Stepanovich Djomin (right) and Gennady Vasilyevich Sarafanov (Soviet postage stamp, 1974)

Lev Stepanowitsch Djomin ( Russian Лев Степанович Дёмин ; born January 11, 1926 in Moscow , Russian SFSR ; †  December 18, 1998 in the " Star City " near Moscow) was a Soviet cosmonaut .

Life

Djomin joined the Air Force in July 1947. From 1951 to 1956 he studied at the Air Force Military Academy in Monino and was then an aspirant at this academy .

Cosmonaut activity

In 1962 Djomin went through the selection process for cosmonauts and in January 1963 was accepted into the second military cosmonaut group. His basic training ended on January 21, 1965 with the final examination. Djomin was among the top four of the 15 graduates.

Already in 1964 Djomin was trained for a long-term flight with a Vozhod spacecraft , but the planned flights were never carried out. Djomin was then discussed as a flight engineer for the Soyuz spacecraft . From September 1966 he trained for the planned Almaz space station . However, the Soyuz 1 crash and the Soyuz 11 accident delayed all manned projects considerably.

In addition, some engineers who came from the Central Design Office for Experimental Mechanical Engineering were assigned to space flights in front of Djomin. Jelissejew , Kubassow and Volkov were scheduled for the first three crews of Salyut 1 .

From November 1971 to April 1972 Djomin trained together with his commander Pavel Popovich , from September 1972 he was assigned to commander Gennady Sarafanov . They were the backup crew for the first planned mission to Almaz.

The first Almaz station was launched in April 1973 under the name Salyut 2 . Due to technical problems, however, she could not be manned and crashed after just two months.

The next Almaz station was launched in June 1974 under the name Salyut 3 . Sarafanow and Djomin were the reserve crew for the first crew with Soyuz 14 and main crew for the second crew with Soyuz 15 .

Djomin and Sarafanov started with Soyuz 15 on August 26, 1974 (according to local time as early as August 27). They rendezvoused with Salyut 3, but the Igla automatic approach and coupling system failed and they could not dock. A coupling controlled by the cosmonauts was not possible, and so the cosmonauts had to return to earth prematurely. The landing took place 48 hours after take-off on August 28 (according to local time, August 29). This was the first night landing in the history of manned space travel.

At 48, Djomin was the oldest person in space to date. He replaced Georgi Beregowoi , who was 47 years old on his flight. Djomin's record was broken in 1975 by 51-year-old Deke Slayton .

After the space flights

Djomin retired from the cosmonaut corps in January 1982 and from the army in August 1983. He was temporarily deputy director of the "Star City" and then worked in the Soviet Ministry of Geology in Moscow. In 1989 he retired. Lew Djomin died of complications from cancer. He left a wife and two children.

Honors

Djomin received the following awards, among others:

Web links

Commons : Lew Djomin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Djomin, Lev Stepanovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Дёмин, Лев Степанович; Demin, Lev; Djomin, Lew
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet cosmonaut
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 1998
Place of death Star city near Moscow