Valery Ilyich Rozhdestvensky (Russian: Валерий Ильич Рождественский; 13 February 1939 – 31 August 2011) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

. Rozhdestvensky was born in Leningrad and graduated from the Higher Military Engineering School of Soviet Navy in Pushkin in engineering. From 1961 to 1965 he was commander of a deepsea diving unit in the Baltic Sea War Fleet. Rozhdestvensky was selected as a

on 23 October 1965 and flew as Flight Engineer on

Soyuz 23 Soyuz 23 (russian: Союз 23, ''Union 23'') was an October, 1976, Soviet crewed space flight, the second to the Salyut 5 space station. Cosmonauts Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky arrived at the station, but an equipment malfunction ...

. After his space flight he continued to work with the space program at the

Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for train ...

. He retired on 24 June 1986 and worked with Metropolis Industries. He was married with one child. He died on 31 August 2011 at the age of 72.Cosmonaut Valeri Rozhdestvensky (1939-2011)
/ref>

Awards

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR The honorary title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR (russian: Летчик-космонавт СССР) was a state award of the Soviet Union presented to all cosmonauts who flew for the Soviet Space Agency. Usually accompanying the distinction w ...

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

3rd class *

Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" The Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" (russian: Медаль "За заслуги в освоении космоса") is a state decoration of the Russian Federation aimed at recognising achievements in the space program. It was established ...

References

1939 births 2011 deaths Heroes of the Soviet Union Engineers from Saint Petersburg Soviet cosmonauts Soviet engineers Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" Soviet Navy personnel {{hero-USSR-stub