Yuri Nikolayevich Glazkov (cyrillic Юрий Николаевич Глазков), Soviet cosmonaut, was born
October 2, 1939 in the city of
Moscow,
Russia. After finishing high school in
1953, he entered into the
Stavropol Military School and in
1957 became a cadet in the
Kharkov Maximum Aviation Engineering Military School, which he graduated from in
1962. He then entered into the
Soviet Air Force until he was selected as a cosmonaut for the
1965 intake.
His first assignment was to the support crew for the Soyuz 21 flight. This was the first flight to Salyut 5. The crew were on board for 50 days but began to experience problems towards the end of the mission due to psychological problems. There was also some suspicsion that there was toxins in the station atmosphere.
He the moved to the backup crew for Soyuz 23. This was meant to dock with Salyut 5 but the rendezvous system failed. The capsule landed in Lake Tengiz, in a -20°C temperatures during a snowstorm. The capsule was dragged under the surface and the heating system had to be turned off to conserve the battery power. It was not until the next morning that they could be recovered, miracously still alive.
His first and only spaceflight was Soyuz 24, launched launched Febraury 7, 1977. He and Viktor Gorbatko docked with Salyut 5 carrying equipment to purge the air of the space station. It was suspected that this could have been the reason for the problems encountered on the Soyuz 21 mission.
It was found that there was no toxins in the air but they carried out the operation anyway. This meant that a planned EVA was not performed. The mission at only 18 days but was classed as highly successful, accomplishing nearly as much as the earlier Soyuz 21's 50 day mission.
Glazkov spennt 17 days 17 hours and 25 minutes in space.
He was also to have been on the prime crews for first TKS flights. TKS was a manned spacecraft designed for the military space stations so that they could operate autonomously from the whims of the Soyuz spacecraft manufacturer. The program was cancelled after problems were encountered on the test flights and the rising costs associated.
After this he moved in to cosmonaut training and became the Head of Department. He was in charge of all the instructors for the Salyut, Soyuz and Mir programs. He was also the deputy head of the science department. He went onto become the first Deputy Chief of Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. He also was involved in the Shuttle-Mir program as he trained the first American astronaut to fly to Mir, Norm Thagard. He retired from this post in May 2000.
He was a Hero of the Soviet Union (by Decree of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on March 5, 1977, has an Order of Lenin and a Red Star. He also won the State Premium of the USSR. He is an honourary citizen of Kaluga, Terek, Gagarin (Russia), Kustanai, Dzhezkazgan (Kazakhstan) and Poznan (Poland).
- http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/people/oral-histories/glazkov.pdf
- http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/cosmonauts/english/glazkov_yuri.htm
- http://www.space.hobby.ru/astronauts/glazkov.html
- http://www.astronautix.com/astros/glazkov.htm