Bulgarian cosmonaut program
A second Bulgarian cosmonaut, Aleksandar Aleksandrov, spent ten days on the Mir Space Station in 1988 and performed a variety of scientific experiments.
[2] As a result, the first dedicated space research body in Bulgaria, the Astronautical Society (BAS), was established in Sofia on 8 December 1957.
[6] Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov subsequently ordered the establishment of the National Committee for the Research and Utilisation of Space (NCRUS) in February of the following year.
By the end of 1967 the Committee adopted a programme of activities that included the development of joint Soviet-Bulgarian satellite instruments and studies on human physiology in microgravity.
Instruments were placed in Vertikal sounding rockets, several satellites of the Interkosmos series, and ground control activities were carried out in cooperation with the Soviet Union and other Communist countries of the programme.
[9] Bulgarian participation in crewed Interkosmos missions was part of the programme's broader Soviet objective of assisting Communist bloc countries in space research.
[9] Furthermore, Interkosmos member countries were largely relieved of financial costs as the USSR virtually financed all R&D activities, flights and technology sharing.
Candidates who passed the first round of tests were then sent to the Senior Military Medical Institute in Sofia and subjected to several weeks of examinations in isolated conditions.
[11] Elements of the Spektar-15 were delivered to Salyut 6 on 14 March 1979 with the Progress 5 flight; these included the data storage block, the eyepiece, lens and filters.
[12] Ivanov's experiments on the Spektar-15 or other equipment previously installed in the station includes the following:[13] These were to be carried out alongside cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin.
The crew initiated a steep descent and manually programmed the auxiliary engine to run for 187 seconds, slowing down the spacecraft enough to place it in a landing corridor.
With the descent in progress, both Ivanov and Rukavishnikov felt that the damaged auxiliary engine had not provided enough impulse and decided to run it for another 25 seconds to further reduce the landing velocity.
[14][16] Despite the aborted mission, Bulgaria became the fourth Interkosmos country (after Czechoslovakia, Poland and East Germany, in that order)[9] and the sixth in the world to send a citizen in space.
Additional talks with Glavkosmos were subsequently initiated by CLSR director Prof. Boris Bonev, and an official agreement for a joint Soviet-Bulgarian mission was signed on 22 August 1986.
[19] The flight was scheduled for the summer of 1988, and applicants with command of Russian and computer skills were given preference to speed up the selection process.
Aleksandrov was pictured in splashdown training with Vladimir Lyakhov and Aleksandr Serebrov in November, but the crew was later announced to include Anatoly Solovyev and Viktor Savinykh instead.
[24] Overall, Aleksandrov was to perform dozens of research activities related to the interstellar medium, the Galactic Center of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, orientation using stars as a reference, synthesis of materials in microgravity, crystallisation, muscular, vestibular and ocular functioning, among others.
Aleksandrov also continued work on experiments scheduled for Georgi Ivanov's flight (such as Kontrast-2 and Ilyuminator-2) and examined the properties of Bulgarian-made space food.
[27] Aleksandrov also participated in a teleconference with state leader Todor Zhivkov which was aired live on Bulgarian National Television.
The Liulin class of instruments first developed for Aleksandrov's flight are now used on the International Space Station and on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.
[29][30] The Bulgarian SVET plant growth system later installed on the Mir was used to grow wheat and vegetables in space for the first time.
Krasimir Stoyanov has suggested that domestic plant growth and radiation monitoring equipment could allow a Bulgarian cosmonaut to join a human mission to Mars in the future, provided there is government support.
[32] Despite the current lack of a crewed spaceflight programme, a fully functional Soyuz-TMA training analog is operational at the Aerospace Centre and Planetarium of the Yuri Gagarin Educational Complex in Kamchiya near Varna.
