Cosmonaut George Grechko died

In Moscow, at the 86th year of life, a cosmonaut pilot died, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Georgy Grechko. It is reported by Roscosmos.

Grechko was born in Leningrad. In 1955 he graduated from the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute. He participated in the development of the first Soviet satellites and interplanetary stations. In 1966 he was appointed head of the group of candidates for cosmonauts-testers, and on May 27, 1968, by order of the Minister of General Engineering, he was enlisted in a detachment of astronauts.

Grechko participated in three space flights. From January 11 to February 9, 1975, Grechko was in space as a sorcerer "Soyuz-17" and the first main expedition to the Salyut-4 orbital station.

From December 10, 1977 to March 16, 1978, Grechko made a record in duration for his time flight as a sorcerer of the first main expedition to the Salyut-6 station. For this flight, during which the station was visited by the Czechoslovak astronaut Vladimir Remek, Grechko was awarded the title of Hero of Czechoslovakia.

On September 17, 1985, Grechko, as a sorcerer of the Soyuz-T-14 ship, flew to the Salyut-7 station. He returned a week later on the Soyuz-T-13 ship.

Since May 1986, Grechko worked at the Institute of Physics of the Biosphere of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Until March 1992, he remained an astronaut-research by this institution, and then he took the position of a researcher. Grechko defended the dissertation of the candidate of technical (1967) and a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences.

In 1989, Grechko nominated for candidates for people's deputies of the USSR, but at the last moment, before the vote itself, he withdrew his candidacy in favor of Boris Yeltsin.

In 2005, Grechko, among another 50 Russian science and culture figures , signed a letter in support of the sentence to former Yukos leaders .

Grechko is the author of memoirs "Cosmonaut No. 34. From Luchina to Aliens."