Georgi Beregovoi

Georgi Timofeyevich Beregovoi Cosmonaut Nationality SovietBorn April 15, 1921
Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSRDied June 30, 1995
Moscow, RussiaOther occupation PilotRank Lieutenant General, Soviet Air ForceSpace time 3d 22h 50m Selection Air Force Group 2 SupplementalMissions Soyuz 3Mission
insignia

Georgi Timofeyevich Beregovoi (Russian: Георгий Тимофеевич Береговой; April 15, 1921, Fedorovka, Poltava Oblast of Ukrainian SSR – June 30, 1995) was a Soviet cosmonaut of Ukrainian descent. He flew on a single space mission, Soyuz 3.

He joined the Soviet air force in 1941, and was soon assigned to a ground-attack unit flying the Ilyushin Il-2 "Shturmovik". He flew some 185 combat sorties during the course of World War II and rose quickly through the ranks, finishing the war as a Captain and Squadron Commander. He was decorated as Hero of the Soviet Union.

Following the war, he became a test pilot, and over the next sixteen years test-flew some sixty different aircraft, rising to the rank of Colonel and the position of Deputy Chief of the air force's flight testing department. In 1962, he applied and was accepted for cosmonaut training.

Beregovoi's flight in Soyuz 3 was less than successful, and he was never selected to fly another mission. On January 22, 1969, Beregovoi survived an assassination attempt on Leonid Brezhnev, undertaken by a Soviet Army officer Viktor Ilyin. He eventually took up a position at the Centre for Cosmonaut Training, and in 1972 was made Director of that facility.

After retirement Beregovoi became a Soviet parliament member representing his native Donbas region of Ukrainian SSR. As such, he reportedly was helping Viktor Yanukovych, then a local young criminal, to start a new life. In 2000s Yanukovych became the Prime Minister of modern independent Ukraine.

He died in 1995 of natural causes and is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Georgi Beregovoi was awarded two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, Order of Alexander Nevsky, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (3rd Class), Order of the Patriotic War (1st Class), two Orders of the Red Star, and numerous medals.

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