Balgarianovinite.com On June 7, 1988, the second joint Bulgarian-Soviet space flight took place. With the successful completion of Alexander Alexandrov’s mission, Bulgaria became the sixth country in the world to have sent two of its own cosmonauts into space, following Georgi Ivanov’s flight in April 1979.
The flight was part of the USSR’s Interkosmos international space programme, established in the mid-1960s to promote cooperation among socialist countries in the field of space exploration.
At 6:03 p.m. local time (5:03 p.m. Bulgarian time), the Soyuz TM-5 spacecraft was launched into Earth orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz-U2 carrier rocket. The three-member crew on board included flight commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Viktor Savinykh from the Soviet Union, as well as cosmonaut-researcher Alexander Alexandrov from Bulgaria. The flight lasted ten days – until June 17, when the cosmonauts successfully landed in the vicinity of the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
On June 9, 1988, the spacecraft docked with the Soviet modular orbital station Mir, where Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov had been stationed since December 1987. For nearly eight days, the five cosmonauts carried out the large-scale scientific research programme Shipka, developed by the newly established Institute for Space Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Academician Dimitar Mishev.
The Shipka space programme included experiments in space physics, remote sensing of the Earth, space biology, space medicine and microgravity technologies. A total of 15 space instruments were developed, which operated aboard the now defunct Mir orbital station. Among those were the Liulin radiation dosimeter (it collected data to create a new radiation belt on Earth) and the Spectrum-256 video spectrometry system, which was used to take pictures of Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons.
One of the most important experiments conducted was titled “Sleep.” The study demonstrated that cosmonauts go through all phases of sleep. The results obtained contribute to the expansion of scientific knowledge in the fields of biology and medicine, as there had previously been insufficient data on the sleep process in microgravity conditions.
During the mission, in coordination with the mission control centre in Moscow – the main operational body responsible for manned orbital complexes – assistance was also provided by the International Situation Centre in Stara Zagora, which processed the results of the scientific experiments and transmitted the data to the Moscow centre. This was the first backup spaceflight control centre in the Balkans and one of the few in the world to establish such a practice. June 7, 1988: Space Flight Makes Bulgaria Sixth in World to Have Sent Two of Its Cosmonauts into Space 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-06-07 07:48:49 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
