Vladimir Viktorovich Aksyonov
Vladimir Viktorovich Aksyonov was a Soviet engineer, test specialist, and cosmonaut who flew as on Soyuz 22 and Soyuz T-2. His career connected aircraft test work, Earth-observation photography, and the first crewed flight of the improved Soyuz-T spacecraft.
- Born
- February 1, 1935
- Died
- April 9, 2024
- Birthplace
- Giblitsy, Ryazan Oblast,Soviet Union
Flights
2
Spacewalks
N/A
EVA time
N/A
In space
11 days, 20 hours, 11 minutes
Bio
Aksyonov began in military aviation training but moved into OKB-1 engineering and test work after demobilization. He earned a mechanical engineering degree through the All-Union Correspondence Polytechnic Institute and became a test engineer associated with Sergey Anokhin's department.
His first flight, Soyuz 22 in 1976, used an East German MKF-6 multispectral camera for Earth-observation work. Aksyonov and Valery Bykovsky photographed large areas of the Soviet Union, East Germany, and other regions, returning thousands of images for analysis.
In 1980, Aksyonov flew Soyuz T-2 with Yury Malyshev on the first crewed test of the Soyuz-T variant. The mission visited Salyut 6, demonstrated upgraded spacecraft systems, and included a manual docking after automatic-docking trouble.