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Credit - www.spacefacts.de
Leonid Ivanovich Popov Ukrainian Pilot Cosmonaut. Born 31 August 1945.

Personal: Male, Married, Two children. Born in Aleksandrya, Kirovograd, Ukraine. Soviet Air Force Graduated from Higher Air Force School Chernigov, with a degree in electrical engineering, 1968. Graduated from Gagarin Military Academy, Monino, 1976. Graduated from Military General Staff Academy, Moscow, 1989. Soviet Air Force. Soviet Air Force.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Air Force Group 5 - 1970. Inactive Entered space service: 27 April 1970. Left space service: 13 June 1987. Number of Flights: 3.00. Total Time: 200.62 days. Call sign: Dnepr (Dnieper).

Worked in the General Staff of the Air Forces within the Ministry of Defense. Resigned from active duty in 1995.

Camping, fishing.

Popov Spaceflight Log

  • 9 April 1980 Flight: Salyut 6 EO-4. Flight Up: Soyuz 35. Flight Back: Soyuz 37. Flight Time: 184.84 days.
  • 14 May 1981 Flight: Salyut 6 EP-10. Flight Up: Soyuz 40. Flight Back: Soyuz 40. Flight Time: 7.86 days.
  • 19 August 1982 Flight: Salyut 7 EP-2. Flight Up: Soyuz T-7. Flight Back: Soyuz T-5. Flight Time: 7.91 days.
Popov Chronology

24 March 1970 - Only nine of 16 cosmonaut-finalists cleared by the KGB and Communist Party. Kamanin reports that only nine of 16 cosmonaut-candidates that completed the arduous selection process have been cleared by the KGB and Communist Party for actual acceptance for cosmonaut training. He feels this makes the whole time-consuming selection process a waste of time. The VVS is reluctant to submit officers as cosmonaut candidates, fearing that if they fail the vestibular table tests they will not only be rejected as cosmonauts, but be unable to return to flight duty with the Air Force. The result is a final selection of dullards, who are not intellectual, or literary, or sports enthusiasts, who are poor readers and not really interested in spaceflight or cosmonautics. The final decree has been issued reorganising TsUKOS as GUKOS.

27 April 1970 - Soviet Air Force Cosmonaut Training Group 5 selected..
30 April 1970 - Pressure on cosmonauts for more public relations tasks.. Kamanin notes that the 27 April decree has selected only nine new cosmonauts from 300 pilot and 100 engineer candidates. He believes at least 30 should have been selected. Currently there are only 18 active cosmonauts, but Kamanin feels he needs at least 100, just to cover all the public relations appearance demands made on them.
15 September 1976 - Soyuz 22. Surplus Soyuz ASTP spacecraft modified with a multi-spectral camera manufactured by Carl Zeiss-Jena in place of the universal docking apparatus. Eight days were spent photographing the earth. Tested and perfected scientific-technical methods and devices for studying the geological characteristics of the earth's surface from outer space for economic purposes.
25 February 1979 - Soyuz 32. Manned two crew. Docked with Salyut 6. Transported a team consisting of V A Lyakhov and V V Ryumin to the Salyut-6 space station to conduct scientific investigations and experiments and repair work. Recovered June 15, 1979 16:18 GMT. Returned unmanned.
9 April 1980 - Soyuz 35. Manned two crew. Docked with Salyut 6. Carried crew comprising L I Popov and V V Ryumin to the Salyut-6 station to carry out scientific and technical research and experiments.
11 October 1980 - Landing of Soyuz 37. Soyuz 37 landed at 09:50 GMT with the crew of Popov and Ryumin aboard.
14 May 1981 - Soyuz 40. Manned two crew. Docked with Salyut 6. Transported to the Salyut-6 orbital station the ninth international crew under the INTERCOSMOS programme, comprising L I Popov (USSR), and D. Prunariu (Romania), to conduct scientific research and experiments.
22 May 1981 - Landing of Soyuz 40. Soyuz 40 landed at 13:58 GMT.
19 August 1982 - Soyuz T-7. Docked with Salyut 7. Carried Svetlana Savitskaya, Leonid Popov, Alexander Serebrov to Salyut 7 to conduct scientific and technical research and experiments.
27 August 1982 - Landing of Soyuz T-5. Soyuz T-5 landed at 15:04 GMT with the crew of Popov, Savitskaya and Serebrov aboard.
6 June 1985 - Soyuz T-13. Docked with Salyut 7. Delivered to the Salyut-7 orbital station a crew consisting of flight commander V A Dzhanibekov and flight engineer V P Savinykh to carry out emergency repairs to inert Salyut 7 station and to conduct scientific and technical research and experiments.
Bibliography:
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