Valery Ilyich Roshdestvensky

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Valery Roshdestvensky
Country: Soviet UnionSoviet Union Soviet Union
Organization: WMF
selected on October 23, 1965
Calls: 1 space flight
Begin: October 14, 1976
Landing: October 16, 1976
Time in space: 2d 0h 6min
retired on June 1986
Space flights

Valery Iljitsch Roschdestvenski ( Russian Валерий Ильич Рождественский , scientific transliteration Valerij Il'ič Roždestvenskij ; born  February 13, 1939 in Leningrad , Russian SFSR ; † August 31, 2011 ) was a Soviet cosmonaut .

Roshdestvensky first graduated from the military engineering college of the Soviet Navy. He then worked as the commander of a deep-sea diving unit in the Baltic Naval Navy.

Cosmonaut activity

Valery Roshdestvensky on a Soviet postage stamp (right), with Vyacheslav Sudov

On October 23, 1965 Roshdestvensky was appointed to the selection for the Soviet space program. In the following two years he completed the basic training of Soviet cosmonauts. He was then involved as a flight engineer on the Soyuz 23 space flight from October 14 to 16, 1976 under the command of Vyacheslav Sudow . A serious incident occurred on the return after a failed coupling with the Salyut 5 space station . The landing took place at night on the partially frozen Tengizsee during a snow storm. The landing capsule broke through the ice cover, but remained buoyant. The parachute system could not be ejected and the capsule was partially pulled under the water at the side, which meant that the exit hatch, the fresh air valve and the already damaged antennas of the communication system were below the surface of the water. A radio connection to the rescue teams was not possible. Sudow and Roschdestvensky took all dispensable electrical systems, including heating, out of operation and used the air regeneration system only sparingly. Roshdestvensky and his commanding officer were only able to recover from the frozen Lake Tengiz with difficulty in the course of the following day .

After a long illness, he died at the end of August 2011 at the age of 72.

Valery Roshdestvensky was married and had a daughter.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Звездный городок простился с космонавтом Валерием Рождественским at polit.ru, accessed on September 2, 2011
  2. ↑ Валерий Ильич Рождественский at astronaut.ru, accessed on September 2, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Roshdestvensky, Valery Ilyich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Рождественский, Валерий Ильич (Russian); Roždestvenskij, Valerij Il'ič
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet cosmonaut
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Leningrad
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 2011