Bella, Ivan

Ivan Bella, (born May 25, 1964, Brezno, Czech. [now Slovakia]), Slovak pilot and air force officer and the first Slovak citizen to go into space.

Bella graduated from the military high school in Banská Bystrica in 1983 and earned his university degree from the Czechoslovak air force academy in Košice in 1987. After completing his education, Bella joined the Czechoslovak air force as a pilot and served as a combat pilot at the 33rd Air Force Base in Malacky beginning in 1993. He eventually attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Slovak air force and the rank of colonel in the Slovak army.

Bella entered space service in March 1998, when he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate for flights to the Mir orbital space station. He completed six months of cosmonaut training at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia, between March and August 1998. He flew his only space mission as a research cosmonaut on Soyuz TM-29, which launched on Feb. 20, 1999, and docked with Mir on February 22. Bella was accompanied on Soyuz TM-29 by a Russian cosmonaut, Viktor Afanasyev, and a French astronaut, Jean-Pierre Haigneré. The mission, named “Mir Štefánik” after the Slovak astronomer and general Milan Štefánik, lasted eight days; Bella landed back on Earth aboard Soyuz TM-28 on February 28. During the mission, Bella conducted several medical experiments regarding radiation levels, metabolism, and hormones and also performed research to determine the survival prospects of Japanese quails during long-haul flights. Bella was among the last cosmonauts to visit Mir, which was put out of service in March 2001.

Beginning in 2004, Bella served as a military attaché for Slovakia in Moscow.