Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez
Cuban - (RFSA)
Retired
Date of Birth: Jan. 29, 1942
Age: 83
Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (born January 29, 1942) is a Cuban military officer, legislator, and former cosmonaut and the first person of African heritage in space. As a member of the crew of Soyuz 38, he became the first Cuban citizen and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the United States to travel into Earth orbit.
Soyuz-U | Soyuz 38
Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) | RussiaBaikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Sept. 18, 1980, 7:11 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:
Soyuz 38 was the 12th mission to visit the Salyut 6 space station and carried the EP-8 crew, which visited the long-duration Soyuz 35 resident crew. The mission began on September 18, 1980, 19:11:03 UTC, launching Commander Yuri Romanenko and Research Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first Cuban cosmonaut, into orbit. They docked with the station the next day. During their 7-day stay on the station, EP-8 crew carried out medical and other experiments, including Earth and solar observation, plant and crystal growing. The mission concluded with a safe landing back on Earth on September 26, 1980, 15:54:27 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.
Long March 3B/E
Fengyun-4C
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaChina's geostationary meteorological satellite program FY-4 (Feng Yun 4) is the second generation of chinese geostationary meteorological satellites.
Long March 8A
SatNet LEO Group 17
Commercial LC-1 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of ChinaA batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…
Soyuz 2.1a
Obzor-R No.1
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian FederationNote: Assignment of payloads to this launch is uncertain. The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite desi…
LVM-3 (GSLV Mk III)
BlueBird Block 2 #1
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, IndiaAST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…
Long March 12A
Demo Flight
Long March 12A Pad - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaFirst test launch of CASC/SAST’s Long March 12A rocket, with a dummy payload. The rocket’s 1st stage attempted to land on a landing pad about 300 km …
