Miroslaw Hermaszewski

Hermaszewski, Mirosław 

Born Sept. 15, 1941, in Lipniki. Polish cosmonaut; lieutenant colonel. Member of the Polish United Workers’ Party since 1963. First Polish citizen to go into space.

Hermaszewski graduated from the Dublin Military Aviation Academy in 1964 and the Military Academy of the General Staff in Warsaw in 1971. He served in fighter-aircraft units of the Polish air defense forces.

Hermaszewski was named a candidate for manned spaceflight in the Intercosmos program in 1976 and completed training at the Iu. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. From June 27 to July 5, 1978, Hermaszewski flew as a cosmonaut-researcher with P. I. Klimuk aboard Soyuz 30, which rendezvoused and docked with the Salyut 6 space station. Salyut 6 was being manned by V. V. Kovalenok and A. S. Ivanchenkov and was already docked with Soyuz 29. Hermaszewski’s flight time was 7 days 21 hr 5 min.

Hermaszewski was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union; he has also been awarded the Grunwald Cross First Class, the Order of Lenin, and various medals.