Georgy Stepanovich Shonin (Ukrainian: Гео́ргій Степа́нович Шо́нін) (August 3, 1935 – April 7, 1997; born in Rovenky, Luhansk Oblast, (now Ukraine) but grew up in Balta of Ukrainian SSR) was a Soviet cosmonaut, who flew on the Soyuz 6 space mission. Shonin was part of the original group of cosmonauts selected in 1960. He left the space programme in 1979 for medical reasons.
Soyuz 6 was a joint mission with Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 that saw three spacecraft in orbit together at the same time. Soyuz 6 mission was to take high quality photographs of the Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 docking but on all three spacecraft the docking system failed. The mission was commanded by Georgi Shonin and Flight Engineer Valeri Kubasov.
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.