17 Facts About Anatoly Solovyev

Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyev is a retired Latvian and Soviet cosmonaut and pilot.

Anatoly Solovyev completed two years of evening school and in 1967, enrolled at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the State University of Latvia.

Anatoly Solovyev enrolled as a cadet in the Chernigov Higher Military School of Pilots in 1968.

Anatoly Solovyev graduated from the Lenin Komsomol Chernigov Higher Military Aviation School in 1972, having flown the L-29, MiG-15UTI and MiG-21.

Anatoly Solovyev was selected for Cosmonaut training 23 August 1976 as a member of TsPK-6.

Anatoly Solovyev was commander for the 9-day Mir EP-2 visiting crew June 1988 launched aboard Soyuz TM-5 and returned aboard Soyuz TM-4.

Anatoly Solovyev's crew were Viktor Savinykh and Aleksandr Aleksandrov.

Anatoly Solovyev thus became the 65th Soviet Cosmonaut with the personal callsign "Spring".

Anatoly Solovyev then served as the back up commander for Soyuz TM-8.

Anatoly Solovyev served as reserve crew commander with Andrei Zaytsev for Mir EO-10 but the crew was disbanded after flight programme changes.

Anatoly Solovyev served as back up commander of Mir EO-18, and then as commander of Mir EO-19 with Nikolai Budarin.

Anatoly Solovyev was replaced by David Wolf and then Andrew Thomas who remained to join EO-25.

Anatoly Solovyev's first EVA on 22 August 1997 was an unusual "internal spacewalk" to connect power and survey damage to the depressurised Spektr module.

Anatoly Solovyev performed six more EVAs to set a world record total of 16, with a world record combined duration of 82 hours 21 minutes.

Anatoly Solovyev was tapped to be on the crew of the first expedition to occupy the International Space Station.

Anatoly Solovyev left the Cosmonaut Detachment in 1999 having reached compulsory retirement age and became the president of "For the Good of the Fatherland", a national organisation recognising the work of Russians devoted to cultural and social development.

Anatoly Solovyev's parents are Yakov Mikhailovich Anatoly Solovyev, deceased in 1980 and Antonia Pavlovna Soloveva, who resides in Riga.