toktar aubakirov

Toktar Ongarbaevich Aubakirov (Cyrillic Токтар Онгарбаевич Аубакиров, Kazakh Тоқтар Әубәкіров; born on July 27, 1946, in Karaganda, Kazakhstan) is a Kazakh military pilot, and the first Turkic man in space. Aubakirov graduated from Air Force Institute and was parachutist and test pilot with the rank of Major General in the Kazakh Air Force before he was selected as cosmonaut. On October 2, 1991 he started together with the Austrian cosmonaut Franz Viehbck and the Russian cosmonaut Alexander A. Volkov in Soyuz TM-13 from the Baikonur cosmodrome spaceport, and spent over eight days in space. He was also the first Soviet citizen to go into space without being fully certified as a cosmonaut, as his flight was hurried forward — several commercial international cosmonauts were already booked, but the flight of an Kazakh cosmonaut was part of the Baikonur rental agreement between Kazakhstan and Russia. Since 1993 he is the general director of the National Aerospace Agency of Republic of Kazakhstan and a member of Kazakhstan parliament.

Toktar Aubakirov

See also