Andrian Nikolayev

Andrian Grigoryevich Nikolayev (Chuvash: ??????? ???????????

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????????), (September 5, 1929–July 3, 2004) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He was an ethnic Chuvash.

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Nikolayev flew on two space flights: Vostok 3 (effectively becoming the third Soviet cosmonaut) and Soyuz 9. His call sign in these flights was Falcon (Russian: ??????). On both, he set new endurance records for the longest time a human being had remained in orbit. He also served as backup for the Vostok 2 and Soyuz 8 missions. On January 22, 1969, Nikolayev survived an assassination attempt on Leonid Brezhnev, undertaken by Soviet Army officer Viktor Ilyin. He left the cosmonaut corps on January 26, 1982.

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Nikolayev was also the first person to make a television broadcast from space, in August 1962.

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On November 3, 1963, he married Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to fly in space (see Vostok 6). They had one daughter, Elena Andrionova (now a Doctor of Medicine), before their marriage collapsed. However, it was not until 1982 that they divorced.

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Andrian Nikolayev was awarded the Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Star, numerous medals, and foreign orders. He was also bestowed a title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Bulgaria, Hero of Labor of Vietnam, and Hero of Mongolia. A lunar crater was given his name, Nikolayev.

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In 2004, Nikolayev died of a heart attack in Cheboksary, the capital of Chuvashia in Russia. A scandal ensued. His daughter, who lives in Moscow, desired that he be interred in the cemetery at Star City. The president of Chuvashia had other ideas. After a farewell ceremony in Cheboksary, Nikolayev was buried in his native village of Sorseli. He has no family living in the republic.

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