Nikolai Nikolaevich Rukavishnikov

Born Sept. 18, 1932, in Tomsk. Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 30, 1971, and Dec. 11, 1974). Member of the CPSU since 1970.

Rukavishnikov graduated from the Moscow Physical Engineering Institute in 1957 and began working at a design office. He joined the cosmonaut group in 1967. From Apr. 23 to Apr. 25, 1971, he was test engineer on the Soyuz 10 spacecraft; the other crew members were V. A. Shatalov and A. S. Eliseev. On Apr. 24, 1971, Soyuz 10 docked with the Salyut orbital station that had been put into orbit earlier; the joint flight of Salyut and Soyuz 10 lasted 5 hours 30 minutes. Rukavishnikov spent a total of 47 hours 46 minutes in space.

From Dec. 2 to Dec. 8, 1974, Rukavishnikov was flight engineer on Soyuz 16; the other crew member was A. V. Filipchenko. Soyuz 16 made approximately 97 revolutions about the earth in 5 days 22 hours 24 minutes. During the flight, Rukavishnikov helped test a new docking unit and its automatic equipment, which had been built in the joint Soviet-American program for Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft.

While on his two flights, Rukavishnikov spent a total of 7 days 22 hours 10 minutes in space. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin.