Pyotr Klimuk

Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk was the first Belarusian to travel into space and a former Soviet cosmonaut ( born 10 July 1942). Klimuk completed three space missions. At the age of 23, Klimuk was a cosmonaut trainee in 1965. He prepared for a voyage around the moon that was ultimately postponed between 1967 and 1969. In 1973, he piloted Soyuz 13 on its maiden journey to space, spending a week in Earth orbit with crewmate Valentin Lebedev. Klimuk made his second space voyage in 1975 as the captain of Soyuz 18, a 63-day journey to the Salyut 4 space station, after switching to training for space stations. This was the longest Soviet space mission at the time. A Polish cosmonaut named Mirosaw Hermaszewski joined him on a brief visit to the Salyut 6 space station during his final mission as commander of the Soyuz 30 in 1978.

In 1982, Klimuk formally gave up his position as a cosmonaut. He oversaw the political division of the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center from 1982 to 1991. He was chosen to lead the center in September 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he served in that capacity until 2003. Klimuk worked as a Belarusian president's advisor after retiring. He received two honors as a Soviet Union Hero as well as one of the most important historical figures in Belarus (1973, 1975).