Vitaliy Sevastyanov

Vitali Ivanovich Sevastyanov
Cosmonaut Nationality SovietBorn July 8, 1935(1935-07-08) (age 72)
Krasnouralsk, RussiaOther occupation EngineerSpace time 80d 16h 18m Selection Civilian Specialist Group 3Missions Soyuz 9, Soyuz 18

Vitali Ivanovich Sevastyanov, (Russian: Виталий Иванович Севастьянов; born July 8, 1935 in Krasnouralsk) is a former Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 9 and Soyuz 18 missions.

He trained as an engineer at the Moscow Aviation Institute and after graduation in 1959, joined Sergey Korolev's design bureau, where he worked on the design of the Vostok spacecraft. He also lectured at the Cosmonaut Training Centre, teaching the physics of spaceflight. In 1967 he commenced cosmonaut training himself.

After two successful missions, including a two-month stay on the Salyut 4 space station, he was stood down from active flight status in 1976. He worked in ground control for the Salyut 6 station before returning to spacecraft design in the 1980s to work on the Buran project.

During the 1980's he was the host of a popular television program on space exploration entitled Man, Earth, Universe.

In 1993, he left the space programme and was elected to the State Duma in 1994.

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