Georgiy Grechko

Georgy Mikhaylovich Grechko (Russian: Георгий Михайлович Гречко; 25 May 1931 – 8 April 2017) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He flew to space on three missions, each bound for rendezvous with a different Salyut space station. Soyuz 17 was the first crewed vehicle to visit Salyut 4, Soyuz 26 was the first crewed vehicle to visit Salyut 6, and Soyuz T-14 visited Salyut 7. During the latter mission, Grechko helped to relieve the crew of Soyuz T-13, who had repaired damage to the station. Grechko graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Mechanics with a doctorate in mathematics. He was a member of Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He went on to work at Sergei Korolev's design bureau and from there was selected for cosmonaut training for the Soviet Moon programme. When that program was cancelled, he went on to work on the Salyut space stations.

Grechko made the first spacewalk in an Orlan space suit on 20 December 1977 during the Salyut 6 EO-1 mission.

He was twice awarded the medal of Hero of the Soviet Union.

He resigned from the space programme in 1992 to lecture on atmospheric physics at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Grechko has written his memoirs as "Космонавт No. 34: От лучины до пришельцев," (Cosmonaut No. 34 From Splinter to Aliens) Olma Media Grupp, Moscow, 2013.

A minor planet 3148 Grechko discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979 is named after him.

Grechko had a brief cameo role in Richard Viktorov's 1981 film Per Aspera Ad Astra, and as a result attained pop culture status in his home city of Leningrad. He also appeared in the 1979 film Under the Constellation Gemini.

Grechko, along with Alexei Leonov, Vitaly Sevastyanov, and Rusty Schweickart established the Association of Space Explorers in 1984. Membership is open to all people who have flown in outer space.

Grechko died aged 85 as a result of several chronic illnesses. He was survived by wife Lyudmila and daughter Olga.