Polyakov Credit: www.spacefacts.de |
Status: Inactive; Active 1972-1995. Born: 1942-04-27. Spaceflights: 2 . Total time in space: 678.69 days. Birth Place: Rostov-on-Don, Tula.
Soyuz TM-6 Polyakov and Mohmand move equipment around Mir. Credit: RKK Energia |
Soyuz TM-18 Polyakov, Afanasyev, Usachev aboard Mir. Credit: RKK Energia |
Russian physician cosmonaut 1972-1995. Longest single space flight (437 days). 678 cumulative days in space. Civilian Physician, Institute of Medical Biological Problems. 2 spaceflights, 678.7 days in space. Flew to orbit on Soyuz TM-6 (1988), Soyuz TM-18.
After screening the flight candidates have been boiled down to four: Lazarev, Yegorov, Polyakov, and Sorokin. Moskalev and Katys are the remaining scientist-passenger candidates. Kamanin believes Katys, with a doctorate in technical sciences, is the better candidate and definitely superior to any of the OKB-1 engineer candidates.
Benderov has been washed out of training after haemorrhaging excessively during centrifuge training, and Polyakov after reacting poorly to the barometric chamber. This leaves only seven cosmonauts in training for the first mission: Volynov, Katys, Komarov, Yegorov, Sorokin, Lazarev, and Feoktistov. The first six are qualified for flight, but Feoktistiov cannot be admitted for parachute or flight training; his visual acuity is only 0.3. Later the cosmonaut party collective meets to take up the problem of Titov. He has made many errors: he drives and flies too fast, he has bad marital relations. But he is known not only to the entire country, but to the whole world. To disgrace him would not reflect only on him, but on all of the cosmonauts and the Soviet Union. Therefore it is finally decided not to take any public action, but to switch him and Beregovoi in the training order for the fourth Soyuz flight.
Later Finogenov, head of the VVS range at Vladimirovka, informs Kamanin that flight trials of the new combination parachute/soft landing system will be delayed at least two weeks after the failure of one of the parachute canopy rings in static test.
Manned three crew. Docked with Salyut 6. Tested the improved transport ship of the 'SOYUZ T' series; transported to the Salyut-6 orbital station a crew consisting of L D Kizim, O G Makarov and G M Strekalov to carry out repair and preventive work and scientific and technical investigation and experiments.
Manned three crew. Docked with Salyut 7. Transported a crew consisting of ship's commander L D Kizim, flight engineer V A Solovyov and cosmonaut-research O Y Atkov to the SALYUT-7 orbital station to conduct scientific and technical studies and experiments.
Transported to the Mir orbital station a Soviet-Afghan crew comprising the cosmonauts V A Lyakhov, V V Polyakov and A A Momand (Afghanistan) to conduct joint research and experiments with the cosmonauts V G Titov and M K Manarov. Returned Manarov, Titov (Soyuz TM-4), Chretien (Soyuz TM-7) to Earth. Initial orbit 195 X 228 km at 51. 57 deg. Maneuvered to a 235 x 259 km orbit, then docked with Mir at 05:41 GMT on 31 August at its 339 x 366 km orbit. Moved from aft to forward port 8 Sept 88.