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“Rokosmos State Corporation regrets to announce the death of Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia, Pilot Cosmonaut of the USSR, Holder of the World Record for Longest Flight in Space Valery Polyakov.”
With this message, followed by short words of condolences and entrusted to the social telegram, the Russian Space Agency announced the death at the age of 80 of a very special astronaut who survived two very long stays in space after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the new millennium.
It had already begun its training in 1972, when the USSR considered sending doctors into orbit to better understand the effects of a long stay in the cosmos on the human body. To this end, Polyakov undertook two long-term missions with the then Soviet space station Mir totaling 678 days, 16 hours and 32 minutes.
The first mission began in August 1988 with two other cosmonauts, including Abdul Ahad Momad, an Afghan astronaut then under Soviet administration who was trained in Kazakhstan. On this flight, Polyakov made his own doctor by closely observing his other two companions on the Mir. He returned to the ground in April 1989 and achieved a good first result.
The second voyage is more interesting, its purpose was in fact to test the human body with a view to a possible flight to Mars, which was then one of the most coveted targets of the Soviets who never managed to reach its surface. He left on January 8, 1994, then as a Russian cosmonaut, and returned to our planet on March 22, 1995, a remarkable feat.