Aleksei Stanislavovich Yeliseyev (Russian: Алексей Станиславович Елисеев; born July 13, 1934) is a retired Soviet cosmonaut who flew on three missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 5, Soyuz 8, and Soyuz 10. Aleksei's father was Lithuanian with the last name Kuraitis, who died in the Soviet's Gulag as an enemy of the people. Aleksei uses his mother's last name "Yeliseyev" so some regard him as also being a Lithuanian cosmonaut.
Soyuz 4 mission started with the launch on January 14, 1969, 07:30:00 UTC, carrying Commander Vladimir Shatalov, Flight Engineer Aleksei Yeliseyev and Research Engineer Yevgeny Khrunov into orbit. Two days later mission achieved the first ever docking of two crewed spacecrafts, having Soyuz 4 docked with Soyuz 5 spacecraft. Since no connecting tunel had been developed yet, the two cosmonauts had to spacewalk from one vehicle to another. The mission concluded with a safe landing back on Earth on January 17, 1969, 06:50:47 UTC.
Low Earth OrbitSoyuz 5 mission started with the launch on January 15, 1969, 07:04:57 UTC, carrying Commander Boris Volynov, Flight Engineer Vladislav Volkov and Research Engineer Pyotr Kolodin into orbit. Two days later mission achieved the first ever docking of two crewed spacecrafts, having Soyuz 5 docked with Soyuz 4 spacecraft. Since no connecting tunel had been developed yet, the two cosmonauts had to spacewalk from one vehicle to another. The mission concluded with a hard landing back on Earth on January 18, 1969, 07:59:12 UTC.
Low Earth OrbitSoyuz 8 was a joint mission with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 7 that saw three spacecraft in orbit together at the same time. It prime mission was to dock and transfer crew to Soyuz 7 but the mission failed due to docking system failure. Soyuz 8 was Commanded by Vladimir Shatalov and Flight Engineer Aleksei Yeliseyev.
Low Earth OrbitSoyuz 10 launched on 22 April 1971, 23:54:06 UTC. It carried commander Vladimir Shatalov, flight engineer Aleksei Yeliseyev and test engineer Nikolai Rukavishnikov into orbit. Flight was intended to become the world's first mission to the world's first space station, Salyut-1. Docking was not successful, and crew didn't enter the station. Crew returned to Earth, landing on 24 April 1971, 23:40 UTC.
Low Earth OrbitThe Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos, is the governmental body responsible for the space science program of the Russian Federation and general aerospace research. Soyuz has many launch locations the Russian sites are Baikonur, Plesetsk and Vostochny however Ariane also purchases the vehicle and launches it from French Guiana.