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Vladimir Aleksandrovich Shatalov
Born December 8, 1927(1927-12-08) (age 97)
Place of birth Petropavlovsk, Kazakh SSR
Rank Lieutenant General, Soviet Air Force

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Shatalov (Russian: Владимир Александрович Шаталов; born December 8, 1927 in Petropavlovsk) is a former Soviet cosmonaut who flew three space missions of the Soyuz programme: Soyuz 4, Soyuz 8, and Soyuz 10.[1]

Biography[]

Dmitry Medvedev 12 April 2011-12

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev awards Shatalov with the Order of Friendship on 12 April 2011 (Cosmonautics Day)

From 1971 to 1987 he was Commander of Cosmonaut Training, and Director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre from then until 1991.

Quote: "When we look into the sky it seems to us to be endless. We breathe without thinking about it, as is natural... and then you sit aboard a spacecraft, you tear away from Earth, and within ten minutes you have been carried straight through the layer of air, and beyond there is nothing! The 'boundless' blue sky, the ocean which gives us breath and protects us from endless black and death, is but an infinitesimally thin film. How dangerous it is to threaten even the smallest part of this gossamer covering, this conserver of life."[2]

Honours and awards[]

Foreign awards:

  • Hero of Socialist Labour (Socialist Republic of Vietnam)
  • Order of Ho Chi Minh (Socialist Republic of Vietnam)
  • Order of Karl Marx (GDR)
  • Order of the Polar Star (Mongolia)
  • Order "Madara Horseman" (Bulgaria)
  • Order of the Banner of the People's Republic of Bulgaria
  • Medal "Brotherhood in Arms" (Poland)
  • Medal "Brotherhood in Arms" (GDR)
  • Medal "100 years of Bulgaria's Liberation from Ottoman Slavery"

References[]

  1. Spacefacts. Spacefacts.de. Retrieved on 2012-08-04.
  2. James Bruges (1 April 2004). The Little Earth Book. The Disinformation Company. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-0-9729529-2-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=8MM_AnJI5c4C&pg=PA28. Retrieved 4 August 2012. 
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