Test Cosmonaut Mikhail Burdayev

Abstract

Mikhail Nikolayevich Burdayev was born on August 27, 1932, in Feodosiya, Crimea. In 1956 he graduated with honors from the Mozhayskiy Air Force Engineering Academy. In the years from 1956 to 1959 Burdayev served as a senior technician, then as a squadron engineer at an aircraft carrier; from 1959 to 1969 he worked as a researcher, then a senior researcher at the Central Scientific-Research Institute No. 2 of the Air Defense (2 TsNII) in Kalinin, working on military space topics. In 1963 he defended a dissertation and was awarded the degree of candidate of technical sciences. On April 12, 1967, Burdayev joined the cosmonaut group. From 1967 to 1969 he had general cosmonaut training. In 1969–1970 he trained under the Soyuz-VI military station program, from 1970 to 1972 under the Almaz military station program, and in 1972–1973 under the Salyut (DOS) civilian station program. From 1974 to 1976 Burdayev trained for a Soyuz 7K-S mission as a flight engineer. From 1976 to 1983 he trained under the Soyuz 7K-T program. From 1974 to 1983, Burdayev participated in flight control operations, and from 1983 to 1989 he served as a shift leader of the mission control group at the Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1987 Burdayev defended a doctoral dissertation and was awarded the degree of doctor of technical sciences.