Forty-seven years ago, Georgi Ivanov became the first
Bulgarian to go into space. On this day in 1979, at 20:34 Moscow time, the Soyuz-33
spacecraft was launched into orbit. Georgi Ivanov was on board together with
mission commander Nikolai Rukavishnikov.
Due to a technical malfunction, the spacecraft failed to
dock with the Salyut-6 orbital station. The two cosmonauts managed to land 320
km southeast of Dzhezkazgan (Kazakhstan) after completing thirty-one full
orbits around the Earth. Ivanov and Rukavishnikov spent one day, 23 hours and 1
minute in space.
Throughout the mission, the Bulgarian cosmonaut remained
calm. His pulse did not exceed normal levels even during the emergency landing.
Edited by Diana Tsankova
Translated by Kostadin Atanasov