Klimuk, Pyotr Ilyich

Pyotr Klimuk, in full Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk, (born July 10, 1942, Komarovka, Belorussia, U.S.S.R. [now in Belarus]), Soviet cosmonaut who flew three times in space and was head of the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow.

Klimuk became a cosmonaut trainee in 1965, at age 23. Between 1967 and 1969 he trained for a flight around the Moon that was eventually canceled. He flew his first mission into space in 1973 as commander of Soyuz 13, during which he and his crewmate Valentin Lebedev spent a week in Earth orbit. Having transferred into space station training, Klimuk flew his second spaceflight in 1975 as commander of Soyuz 18, a 63-day flight to the Salyut 4 space station. At the time, this was the longest Soviet spaceflight. He ended his career with a third mission in 1978, as commander of Soyuz 30, during which a Polish cosmonaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, accompanied him on a short visit to the Salyut 6 space station.

Klimuk officially resigned as a cosmonaut in 1982. From 1982 to 1991 he headed the political department at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in September 1991, he was selected to head the centre, a position that he held until 2003. After his retirement, Klimuk served as an adviser to the president of Belarus. He was twice named Hero of the Soviet Union (1973, 1975).