Boris Volynov - First Jewish Cosmonaut Metal Print

An image of Boris Valentinovich Volynov (Борис Валентинович Волынов), Soviet cosmonaut and first Jewish person to fly in space. Russian and English text reading, First Jew to fly in space, Volynov's name, and listing the two Soyuz flights of which he was command also appear, along with the Soyuz-5 mission insignia. A native of Irkutsk, Volynov was born in 1934 and was the first Jewish cosmonaut/astronaut. Soyuz-5 launched on January 15, 1969, one day after Soyuz-4, with Volynov as commander. The two spacecraft accomplished the first-ever spacecraft docking maneuver. Two of Volynov's crew, flight engineers Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khruno, transferred to Soyuz-4 via spacewalk for the return to Earth. Now alone on Soyuz-5, Volynov re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. As the spacecraft's service module failed to separate it assumed a nose-forward attitude with only the descent module's relatively thin metal hatch between Volynov and the heat of re-entry. Gaskets sealing the hatch began to burn, the cabin filled with noxious fumes and smoke. Eventually the service module detached before and the descent module assumed the normal attitude with the heat shield now protecting the cosmonaut. The spacecraft's parachute lined became partially tangled resulting in a hard landing during which some of Volynov's teeth were broken. Volynov flew again as commander of Soyuz-21 on June 22, 1976, a mission to the Salyut space station. Volynov and fellow cosmonaut Vitaly Zholobov spent 49 days aboard Salyut before cutting the mission short and returning to Earth. Exactly why the mission ended early was the subject of much speculation, but it was reported that Zholobov was ill possibly related to an acrid odor aboard Salyut. When attempting to separate from Salyut the docking latches jammed. It took 90 minutes, an entire orbit for the cosmonauts to successfully separate the two spacecraft. Strong winds at the landing area resulted in a second hard landing for Volynov.