Valery Kubasov

Valery Kubasov
Born	Valeri Nikolayevich Kubasov (1935-01-07)7 January 1935 Vyazniki, Ivanovo Industrial Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	19 February 2014(2014-02-19) (aged 79) Moscow, Russia
Nationality	Soviet/Russian
Occupation	Engineer
Awards	Hero of the Soviet Union (twice)
Space career
Cosmonaut
Time in space	18d 17h 59m
Selection	Civilian Specialist Group 2
Missions	Soyuz 6, Soyuz 19, Soyuz 36/35
Mission insignia
Retirement	November 13, 1993
Signature

Valery Nikolaevich Kubasov (Russian: Вале́рий Никола́евич Куба́сов; 7 January 1935 – 19 February 2014) was a Soviet/Russian cosmonaut who flew on two missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 19 (the Apollo–Soyuz mission), and commanded Soyuz 36 in the Intercosmos programme. On 21 July 1975, the Soyuz 7K-TM module used for ASTP landed in Kazakhstan at 5:51 p.m. and Kubasov was the first to exit the craft. Kubasov performed the first welding experiments in space,^[1] along with Georgy Shonin.

Kubasov was also involved in the development of the Mir space station. He retired from the Russian space program in November 1993 and was later deputy director of RKK Energia.

Kubasov evaded death twice during his space career. He was part of the crew that was originally intended to fly Soyuz 2, which was found to have the same faulty parachute sensor that resulted in Vladimir Komarov's death on Soyuz 1 and was later launched without a crew. Later, he was grounded for medical reasons before the Soyuz 11 flight, which killed the crew when the capsule was accidentally depressurised by a faulty valve.