Abdulahad 'Abdulah' Momand (1959-2026)

[Orionid]

Abdulahad 'Abdulah' Mohmand został wyselekcjonowany w ramach Specjaliści cudzoziemcy grupa 6 z Afganistanu (1988).

Jest 208. człowiekiem w kosmosie oraz pierwszym Afgańczykiem.

Odbył 1 lot kosmiczny:
29.08.1988-07.09.1988 Sojuz TM-6 Mir OE-3A/Szamszad Proton / Sojuz TM-5 Mir/Szipka Rodnik 008:20:26:27

1976 ukończył szkołę i wstąpił na Politechnikę w Kabulu.

1977–1981 studiował w wojskowych szkołach lotniczych w Krasnodarze i Kijowie.

1978 został powołany do wojska i wysłany do ZSRR w celu odbycia edukacji wojskowej.

Po powrocie służył w afgańskich siłach powietrznych.

1987 ukończył kijowską filię Akademii Sił Powietrznych w  Monino im. Jurija Gagarina.

11.1987 wziął udział w selekcji kandydatów na wspólny radziecko-afgański lot kosmiczny.

12.12.1987 został wymieniony jako jeden z 8 kandydatów do lotu.

1988 posiadał stopień kapitana afgańskich sił powietrznych.

01.1988 w Moskwie został wybrany na dublera głównego kandydata.

26.02.1988 rozpoczął szkolenie w CPK.

04.1988 został przeniesiony do załogi głównej.
Według jednej wersji powodem była operacja głównego kandydata, Mohammada Daurana 'Dauran Han' Ghulama Masuma, mająca na celu usunięcie zapalenia wyrostka robaczkowego.
Według innej była to kwestia narodowości Daurana.
Dauran był Tadżykiem, ale chciano wysłać Pasztuna w kosmos.

Lądowanie statku kosmicznego Sojuz TM-5 z załogą składającą się z Władimira Lachowa i Mohmanda zaplanowano na północ z 5 na 6 września.
Lądowanie opóźniło się o 1 dzień
Potrzebne było przeprogramowanie systemu ze względu na niedziałające i późniejsze nieprawidłowe działanie silników hamulcowych

Po odbyciu lotu kosmicznego ukończył Akademię Sztabu Generalnego.

Momand został mianowany na pułkownika afgańskich sił powietrznych.

Pracował w Afgańskim Instytucie Badań Kosmicznych.

1991 roku został wiceministrem lotnictwa cywilnego i turystyki Republiki Afganistanu.

Po dojściu talibów do władzy uciekł z żoną i córką najpierw do Indii , a następnie do Niemiec, gdzie mieszkał już jego brat.

1992 przyjął niemieckie obywatelstwo i pracował jako księgowy w małej firmie handlowej.
Zmienił wtedy pisownię nazwiska na Momand.

Momand zamieszkał w Ostfildern w Szwabii.

http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/international/english/mohmand_abdol.htm
http://www.astronautix.com/m/mohmand.html
https://www.worldspaceflight.com/bios/m/mohmand-a.php

https://mek.kosmo.cz/bio/ostatni/00208.htm
http://www.kozmo-data.sk/kozmonauti/mohmand-abdul-achad.html
https://www.astronaut.ru/index/in_pers/02_007.htm
https://www.april12.eu/otherastron/mohmand208ru.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Ahad_Momand
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Ahad_Momand
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulahad_Momand

http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum37/HTML/000444.html

#HappyBirthday to ASE member Abdulahad Mohmand, who flew to space in 1988 aboard Soyuz TM-6 as part of an expedition to Mir (Mir EP-3)!

https://twitter.com/ASE_Astronauts/status/1874538649674453168

1er janvier
66ème anniversaire de Abdul Momand, premier afghan dans l'espace🎂🎂🎂
C'était lors de la mission Soyouz TM-6 entre le 29 août et le 6 septembre 1988. Il a passé en tout 8 jours 20 heures 26 minutes dans l'espace

https://twitter.com/spacemen1969/status/1874230304095003021

[mss]

Dziś pojawiła się nowość, że wczoraj w Stuttgarcie zmarł w wieku 67 lat jedyny kosmonauta z Afganistanu - Abdulahad 'Abdulah' Momand.

Odbył on jedyny lot w kosmos na pokład stacji Mir i w statku Sojuz TM-6 oraz powrócił na ZIemię na pokładzie statku Sojuz TM-5 spędzając w kosmosie 8 dni 20 godzin 26 minut i 27 sekund.

[Orionid]

Afghanistan's first spaceman returns home
By Jenny Norton BBC News Published 23 March 2014


Abdulahad Momand (right) and Flight Engineer Valery Polyakov on the Soyuz spacecraft

In 1988, just as the Soviet army was preparing to pull out of Afghanistan, a rocket blasted off carrying the first and only Afghan to travel into space. Abdulahad Momand returned to earth a hero - but within three years he was forced to flee the country.

"When I was little I used to look up at the sky. Sometimes planes would appear overhead and I would think how great it would be if I could fly," says Momand.

He is remembering a childhood in Afghanistan half a century ago.

Sure enough, he became a fighter pilot in the Afghan air force, and this opened the door to another opportunity the young Ahad could never have imagined.

He was selected from more than 400 candidates to be the first Afghan to join the Soviet space programme, and moved at the age of 29 to the Cosmonauts' Training Centre in Star City, outside Moscow.


The Soyuz crew and back-up team Image source, Roskosmos

Veteran cosmonaut Vladimir Lyakhov, who was to be his flight commander, liked the young Afghan from the start. They had fun together, both on Earth and in space - for example, when Ahad had to be filmed reciting from the Koran on board the space station, at the Afghan government's request.

"Ahad put on a skull cap, to do it," says Lyakhov, now in his 70s. "He was being filmed from below and I was just out of shot hanging on to his legs to stop him floating off."

They timed their 90-minute stints on the station exercise bike, by looking out of the window, Lyakhov says.

"Someone said, 'Look we're just flying over Canada, so if you keep going till Canada comes round again, then you'll have done a complete circuit.'"

Both of them had need of their sense of humour as they made the return journey to Earth - and the computer systems on the Soyuz space-craft malfunctioned. They came within seconds of losing their engines and being trapped in space forever.

For 24 hours, while mission control frantically reprogrammed the on-board systems in preparation for another landing attempt, Ahad and Lyakhov were orbiting the Earth alone in their tiny landing capsule. Their predicament made headlines around the world - they had no food, no water, no toilet and only enough oxygen to last two days.

So how did they pass the time?

"To be quite honest with you, we told each other lots of jokes," says Ahad.


Ahad Moman, Lyakhov and Poliakov Image source,Roskosmos

When they finally landed in Kazakhstan, both were smiling broadly as they came out to face the Soviet television crews, though they were well aware it had been a close-run thing.

"As we landed Ahad said to me Commander, don't fly for a fourth time," Lyakhov remembers. "Allah won't forgive you for it."

"I told everyone, old spaceman Vladimir Lyakhov's flying days are over. And Ahad was right. I never flew again."

He arrived in Kabul with Lyakhov in 1988 to a hero's welcome. Cheering crowds lined the roads - while the mujahedin fighting the Soviet occupation fired an angry barrage of rockets on to the city.

This year Ahad returned there with the BBC for the first time since 1992, uncertain how he would be received.

Only a year after his triumphant return from space, the Russians had withdrawn from Afghanistan, he had been appointed deputy civil aviation minister and the mujahedin were closing in on Kabul.

He left on a hastily arranged business trip just days before the Soviet-backed government collapsed. In the orgy of violence that followed, he would most certainly have been a target as one of the most famous faces of the Communist era.


Czech-made L39 fighter jet at Kabul military airbase - Momand used the same for training in the 1980s Image caption

But on his first trip back to Afghanistan for 25 years, he has barely arrived when President Karzai's office rings, inviting him for lunch.

"He was very kind," Ahad says afterwards. "He told me straight away that even though he was fighting against the Soviets when I went to space, he still felt very proud and happy."

One evening he's invited to go star gazing with a group of young astronomers. They're thrilled to see him, and insist on setting up their telescope even though the sky is covered in heavy cloud.

"I told the children we're still going to see a star," says the head of the astronomy centre. "Not a star up in the sky but one right here on earth."

Ahad is nervous about being out at night in the dark on a remote Kabul hillside. But the young astronomers' enthusiasm is infectious. By the end of the evening he's signing autographs and fielding questions from a new generation of would-be space travellers.

Ahad is clearly inspired by today's young Afghans.

"This is something that makes me happy," he says. "It gives me hope for a better future."

As they pack up, one of the teachers says he's never been able to forget watching Ahad on television speaking live to Afghanistan's then president, Mohammad Najibullah, from space.

"You told him that Afghanistan was very beautiful from space," he says. "And that it looked so peaceful."

Ahad remembers that conversation too.

"My message is still the same as it was back then," he says. "Afghans do not need war. Please come together and please stop fighting."


Ahad Momand and family

Since 1992 Ahad has lived in Germany.

His life is very different now - he's not a fighter pilot, or a cosmonaut, or a government minister, he's an accountant in a small firm in Stuttgart. He lives on the outskirts of the city with his wife and three children. It's less exciting, perhaps, but a good example of the peaceful normality the only Afghan to have visited space wishes for his own country.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26648270

[Orionid]

El afgano que subió al espacio y bajó al infierno
Escrito por Karlos Zurutuza 01/10/2020 at 10:53 
https://www.jotdown.es/2020/10/mohmand-afgano-subio-al-espacio/

[Orionid]

first afghan astronaut abdul ahad momand biography | د لومړني فضانور عبدالاحد مومند ژوندليک

[Orionid]

Abdulahad 'Abdulah' Momand zmarł, jak podała rodzina, po długiej walce z rakiem w szpitalu w Stuttgarcie.
https://www.facebook.com/KhaamaPressGlobal/posts/abdul-ahad-momand-the-first-afghan-to-travel-to-space-has-died-in-germany

Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan’s First Astronaut, Dies in Germany at 67

TOLOnews English @TOLONewsEnglish 7:01 PM · Jun 21, 2026
Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan’s first and only astronaut, passed away from cancer on Sunday at the age of 67 in Germany.

According to reports, members of his family and close associates have confirmed the news of his death.

They said that Momand had been living with his family in the German city of Stuttgart in recent years and had been suffering from cancer in the final days of his life.

In 1988, at the age of 29, Momand traveled to the Mir Space Station as part of a joint mission of the former Soviet Union. Spending about nine days in space, he made history as the first Afghan astronaut, securing his place in both Afghanistan’s and the world’s space exploration history.
#TOLOnews_English

https://x.com/TOLONewsEnglish/status/2068741019324256611

Abdul Ahad Mohmand, Afghanistan's first astronaut, dies in Germany
SOCIETY — June 21, 2026

He was 67 and died of cancer on 31 Jawza in a Stuttgart hospital after living in exile in Germany since 1992.


Image courtesy Afghanistan International

Abdul Ahad Mohmand, Afghanistan's first astronaut, has died in Germany. He was 67 and passed away from cancer in a hospital in Stuttgart on 31 Jawza while living in exile there.

Mohmand flew to the Mir space station aboard the Soyuz TM-6 spacecraft in 1988 and spent nine days in space. He was the first Afghan citizen to travel to space and carried a copy of the Quran with him, becoming the first Muslim to do so. During the mission he conducted experiments, photographed Afghanistan from orbit and sent a message of peace.

After the flight, Mohmand served as deputy minister of civil aviation and tourism. He left Afghanistan after the fall of Dr. Najib's government and the civil wars that followed in 1992, eventually settling in Germany.

His death has prompted reactions among Afghans and scientific figures who viewed him as a national hero.

https://www.ehtebar.com/article/abdul-ahad-mohmand-afghanistans-first-astronaut-dies-in-germany

Умер единственный афганский космонавт Абдул Ахад Моманд
Редакция сайта ТАСС 10:10

Ему было 67 лет

ИСЛАМАБАД, 22 июня. /ТАСС/. Первый и единственный космонавт из Афганистана Абдул Ахад Моманд умер в возрасте 67 лет в Германии. Об этом сообщил телеканал TOLO News.

По его данным, причиной смерти стал рак. Семья космонавта, который проживал в Штутгарте, подтвердила новость о его смерти.

Моманд с 1978 году получал образование в СССР. Он обучался в Краснодарском и Киевском военно-авиационных училищах, в 1987 году окончил Военно-воздушную академию имени Гагарина, а уже после полета в космос - Академию Генерального штаба ВС СССР.

Полет на околоземную орбиту проходил с 29 августа по 7 сентября 1988 года в рамках советской космической программы "Интеркосмос" и афганской программы "Шамшад" на корабле "Союз ТМ-6". С ним на борту находились советские космонавты Владимир Ляхов и Валерий Поляков. С собой на орбиту Моманд взял флаг Афганистана и Коран.

Во время экспедиции он вел съемку территории Афганистана. После полета получил звание Героя Советского Союза, а потом работал в афганском филиале Института космических исследований РАН. Он также получил звание Героя Демократической Республики Афганистан (1988 год), афганский орден "Солнце свободы" (1988 год) и российскую медаль "За заслуги в освоении космоса" (2011 год).

https://tass.ru/kosmos/27834285

https://www.khaama.com/abdul-ahad-momand-afghanistans-first-astronaut-dies-in-germany-at-67/