Arnaldo Tamayo Mndez (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Arnaldo Tamayo Mndez (born January 29, 1942) was the first Cuban cosmonaut and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the United States to travel into earth orbit. He was also the first Hispanic and first Black person in space. Born in Guantnamo, Tamayo graduated from the Cuban Air Force Academy and became a pilot in the Cuban Air Defense Force. He was selected as part of the Soviet Union's seventh Intercosmos program on March 1, 1978. His backup cosmonaut was fellow Cuban Jos Lpez Falcn. Tamayo, along with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, was launched into space aboard Soyuz 38 from Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 18, 1980, at 19:11 UTC. After docking with Salyut 6, Tamayo and Romanenko conducted experiments in an attempt to find what caused space adaptation syndrome, and perhaps even find a cure. After 124 orbits of the Earth (lasting 7 days, 20 hours and 43 minutes), Tamayo and Romanenko landed 180 km from Dzhezkazgan. The landing was risky, as it was during the night.