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Dolgopolov
Credit - Yves Dejardin Collection
Gennadi Aleksandrovich Dolgopolov Russian Engineer Cosmonaut. Born 14 November 1935.

Personal: Male. Born in Krasnogorodsk, Russia. Korolev Design Bureau Graduated from Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), 1959 Civilian Engineer, Korolev OKB.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Energia Engineer Group 1 - 1966. Inactive Entered space service: 23 May 1966. Left space service: 3 May 1967.

Retired due to medical reasons. Worked thereafter at NPO Energia.


Dolgopolov Chronology

23 May 1966 - Energia Engineer Cosmonaut Training Group 1 selected..


2 July 1966 - Soyuz crew manoeuvres. Kamanin is back from leave and orients himself. VVS General Rudenko has been visited by Mishin, Tsybin, and Tyulin. They want to replace Kamanin's crews for the first Soyuz mission in September-October with a crew made up of OKB-1 engineers: Dolgopolov, Yeliseyev, and Volkov as the prime crew, Anokhin, Makarov, and Grechko as back-ups. Kamanin believes this absurd proposal, made only three months before the planned flight date, shows a complete lack of understanding on the part of OKB-1 management of the training and fitness required for spaceflight. Kamanin has had eight cosmonauts (Komarov, Gorbatko, Khrunov, Bykovsky, Voronov, Kolodin, Gagarin, and Nikolayev) training for this flight since September 1965. Yet Mishin and Tyulin have been shopping this absurd proposal to Smirnov, Ustinov, and Malinovskiy, who do not know enough to reject it.
6 July 1966 - State Commission on Manned Spaceflight. Tyulin heads a meeting that brings the Soyuz crewing dispute into the open. The opposing crews are represented as follows:

  • Soyuz s/n 3: VVS: commander: Komarov; backup Belyayev. MOM: commander: Dolgopolov; backup Grechko. Flight engineer: VVS: open; MOM: Makarov, Backup: Bugrov.
  • Soyuz s/n 4: VVS: commander: Bykovsky; backup Nikolayev. MOM: commander: Yeliseyev; backup Anokhin. Flight engineer: VVS: open; MOM: Kubasov, Backup: Volkov.

Kamanin is furious. Mishin and Tyulin think an engineer can be trained to be a spacecraft commander in three months, without passing a flight physical, without being a qualifed pilot, without screening and training on the centrifuge or zero-G aircraft, and without parachute training. They put no value in six years of VVS experience in cosmonaut training. They give no weight to the years of general training, spaceflight experience, and ten months of Soyuz-specific training his candidates have already had. He notes that the United States trains crews for a minimum of one to two years before a flight. Kamanin says this decision will not stand.


5 September 1966 - OKB-1 cosmonauts accepted for training.. Kubasov, Volkov, and Grechko have been accepted by the VVS for cosmonaut training, with some relaxation in health requirements. Yeliseyev, Dolgopolov and Makarov need more medical tests to be cleared.

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