Valentin Vitalyevich Lebedev
Valentin Vitalyevich Lebedev is a Soviet engineer-cosmonaut and scientist whose two spaceflights connected early orbital astronomy with the first long-duration to Salyut 7. His 1982 Salyut 7 stay with Anatoli Berezovoy set a duration record for its time and became one of the major Soviet station missions before Mir.
- Born
- April 14, 1942
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Moscow,Soviet Union
Flights
2
Spacewalks
1
EVA time
2 hours, 33 minutes
In space
219 days, 5 hours, 59 minutes
Bio
Lebedev trained as an engineer and entered the Soviet civilian specialist cosmonaut track in 1965. That background mattered because his flight work emphasized experiments, station systems, repair, and scientific operations rather than only piloting spacecraft.
His first flight was Soyuz 13 in December 1973 with Pyotr Klimuk. The mission operated the Orion-2 ultraviolet telescope and carried out astrophysical and biomedical work during an eight-day solo Soyuz research flight.
His second flight began on Soyuz T-5 in May 1982 with Anatoli Berezovoy. The crew activated and operated Salyut 7, hosted visiting crews, conducted hundreds of experiments, performed an , and returned on Soyuz T-7 after 211 days in orbit.