Nikolai Nikolayevich Rukavishnikov
Nikolai Nikolayevich Rukavishnikov was a Soviet civilian cosmonaut, physicist, and spacecraft engineer who flew three Soyuz missions. His career is remembered as much for difficult mission outcomes as for successful test work.
- Born
- September 18, 1932
- Died
- October 19, 2002
- Birthplace
- Tomsk,Soviet Union
Flights
3
Spacewalks
N/A
EVA time
N/A
In space
9 days, 21 hours, 9 minutes
Bio
Rukavishnikov studied at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and worked in Sergey Korolev's design bureau before cosmonaut selection in 1967. He represented the civilian specialist tradition inside the Soviet human spaceflight program.
Soyuz 10 attempted to dock with Salyut 1 but returned without entering the station. Soyuz 16 successfully tested Apollo-Soyuz hardware. Soyuz 33, an Intercosmos mission with Bulgaria's Georgi Ivanov, suffered an engine failure near Salyut 6 and returned through a severe ballistic . Those stations were mission targets and context, not separate launches by Rukavishnikov.