Muslim Cosmonaut

Abdul Ahad Mohmand is the first Afghan astronaut. Before he became an astronaut, Mohmand served in the Afghan Air Force. Mohmand became an astronaut in 1988. He became the first citizen of Afghanistan to go into space. In 1988, Mohmand spent 9 days in space aboard the Mir space station. He made observations of Afghanistan during this mission. Abdul Ahad Mohmand was an Afghan citizen, he was born in Afghanistan and he trained in USSR as a pilot. The original plan was for him to be join by Mohammad Dauran Ghulam Masum. But before the launch Mr. Dauran was diagnosed with appendicitis and his trip was cancelled.

Graduated from Polytechnical High school in Kabul; graduated from Air Force Academy; Colonel Air Force; he currently lives in Stuttgart, Germany.

Transported to the Mir orbital station a Soviet-Afghan crew comprising the cosmonauts V.A. Lyakhov, V.V. Polyakov and A A Momand (Afghanistan) to conduct joint research and experiments with the cosmonauts V.G. Titov and M K Manarov. Returned Manarov, Titov (Soyuz TM-4), Chretien (Soyuz TM-7) to Earth. Initial orbit 195 X 228 km at 51. 57 deg. Maneuvered to a 235 x 259 km orbit, then docked with Mir at 05:41 GMT on August 31st, 1988 at its 339 x 366 km orbit. Moved from aft to forward port September 8th, 1988. Undocked 03:33 GMT December 21st, 1989. Revised software installed as a result of TM-5 abort overloaded computer. Landing planned for 06:48 aborted. Backup program used. Orbital Module retained through retrofire. Recovered December 21, 1988 09:57 GMT. Landed 180 km SE Dzhezkazgan.

Abdul Ahad Mohmand was awarded the hero of the soviet union on September 7th 1988