Romanenko and his III space missions

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko spent a total of 430 days in space over three different missions. His third and final mission came to an end on December 29, 1987, making him the owner of the record for the longest single-mission stay in space at that time. A.S.Ganesh takes a look at Romanenko’s three different missions and what made them eventful…

Born on August 1, 1944 in Koltubanovskiy village in Orenburg Oblast, Soviet Union, Yuri Romanenko was the son of a senior commander on military ships (father) and a combat medic. He did some of his schooling in Kaliningrad after his family moved there, and counted hunting and underwater fishing among his hobbies. 

Following a brief stint doing odd jobs, he joined the Chernigov High Air Force School in what is now Ukraine in 1962. He graduated with honours in 1966 and stayed on to train students, while fine-tuning himself for the demands of a cosmonaut. By 1970, he was cleared and ready for space flights. 

It was another seven years before Romanenko had his first experience of space. As the flight commander on Soyuz 26, Romanenko, along with engineer Georgi Grechko, was launched to space on December 10, 1977. During their 96 days in orbit, they met with Soyuz 27, Soyuz 28, and Progress 1. 

In his first mission, Romanenko performed a space walk for an hour-and-a-half. Leading up to this, there was a moment when Romanenko had pushed against the wall and flew outside, but without harnessing himself to the safety cord. Grechko grabbed hold of him to ensure he didn’t leave the space station, but Romanenko would have nevertheless not floated away because of the electrical cables that were attached still. Grechko joked about the whole accident when the duo met the press, going as far as saying that Romanenko was on the verge of death. 

Romanenko’s second space mission began on September 18, 1980 when he was part of a historic flight aboard Soyuz 38 alongside Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez. This flight was special as Mendez was not only the first Cuban cosmonaut and the first Latin American to fly into space, but also the first person of African descent to make a space-bound journey. 

Over seven days, the duo completed 124 orbits around the Earth, while conducting science and health experiments. A total of nine experiments were performed, including those that studied stress, blood circulation, immunity, balance, and the growth of a single crystal of sucrose in weightlessness. The two returned to Earth on September 26. 

Following his retirement in 1988, Romanenko and his family were invited to Cuba. Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro – the country’s President at that time – not only personally met Romanenko, but also organised a social tour that accommodated Romanenko’s interests in underwater fishing and hunting.