Cosmonaut Valeri Kubasov born 1935

Valeri Kubasov, born January 7, 1935 in the former Soviet Union, was a veteran of three space flights. He spent over 18 days in space.

His first mission was aboard Soyuz 6 with fellow cosmonaut Georgy Shonin.  They conducted the first welding experiments in space but planned docking and rendezvous maneuvers with Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 failed.

His second mission was aboard Soyuz 19 with Alexey Leonov in July 1975.  They docked with NASA's Apollo spacecraft for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program, a joint project between NASA and the Soviet space program.

Kuvasov's third and final mission was aboard Soyuz 36 as commander to the Salyut 6 space station in May 1980. He returned to Earth in June.

He passed away of natural causes in February 2014.