Thursday, July 13, 2017

Happy birthday, Aleksei Yeliseyev, first Lithuanian cosmonaut, 1934



Aleksei Stanislavovich Yeliseyev was born July 13, 1934, in Zhizdra, Russia, to a Lithuanian father and Russian mother.  Although he was born in Russia and uses his mother's name, Yeliseyev, he is considered to be the first cosmonaut of Lithuanian heritage.  He served as flight engineer on three missions: Soyuz 5, Soyuz 8 and Soyuz 10 before retiring from the Soviet space program in 1985.

The first U.S. astronaut of Lithuanian heritage is Karol Joseph Bobko, who has flown three space shuttle flights.


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