Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez

Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (Baracoa, Cuba, January 29, 1942) is a war pilot, cosmonaut, Hero of the Republic of Cuba and Hero of the Soviet Union. He was the first non-American American to fly into space, the first Cuban and Latin American cosmonaut, the first native speaker of Spanish, and the first person of African descent to fly into space. He is a brigadier general and head of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Ministry of Defense) of Cuba.

Biography

Childhood and early years

Tamayo was born into a humble Afro-descendant family. From a very young age and being an orphan he began to work, at the age of 13 he worked as a shoe shine, carpenter's assistant and newspaper seller.He had to study and work at the same time because he was the only breadwinner for his family.

During the government of General Fulgencio Batista, he participated in several student demonstrations in protest against his government.

After the Cuban revolution, on January 1, 1959, he entered the "Rebel Army" Technical Institute and then the Revolutionary Armed Forces. He became a fighter pilot and underwent MiG-15 fighter pilot training in the Soviet Union, when he was only 19 years old.

On July 24, 1961, Yuri Gagarin arrived in Havana and in one part of his speech said: "The day will come when a son of the Cuban people also travels to the cosmos," a phrase that Tamayo would later remember.

In 1962, during the October Crisis —also known as the Cuban Missile Crisis— he undertook multiple reconnaissance missions to intercept enemy aircraft.

In 1971 he graduated from the Antonio Maceo Grajales Higher School of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. During his service in the Cuban Air Force he achieved the rank of first class pilot and later instructor pilot.In 1975 he was chief of staff of the Santa Clara Aviation Brigade and in 1976 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Career in the Intercosmos space program

The prerequisites for the selection of cosmonauts were to be an experienced pilot, with no history of air accidents due to their own mistakes, fluency in the Russian language, and military training. Initially, there were more than 600 candidate pilots, of which 70 were selected., then 41, then 20, then nine, until only four remained, finally the Soviet-Cuban commission appointed two members, one principal and one reserve.

In March 1978 Tamayo was selected along with his compatriot José López to participate in the Soviet Union's Intercosmos space program. Both moved to Star City, near Moscow, to begin their training as cosmonauts. Tamayo would later be selected as a member of the main crew of the Soviet Soyuz 38 spacecraft.

Space Flight

On September 18, 1980 at 19:11 UTC the Soyuz-U carrier rocket took off from Platform No. 1, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome and began the historic space flight of Arnaldo Tamayo, together with Yuri Romanenko in the Soyuz 38.

The docking with the Saliut 6 station took place on September 19, 1980, at 20:49 UTC, inside the station the cosmonauts Leonid Popov and Valery Riumin who had arrived on the Soyuz 37 spacecraft were waiting for them.

Tamayo immediately began his research work on board the station. He rigorously carried out 21 experiments, directed by the Cuban Academy of Sciences. Cuban scientific experiments included areas such as: medicine, biology, physics, psychology and geology. Six other experiments were performed by Soviet cosmonauts.

On September 26, 1980, at 15:54 UTC, he landed southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, in the steppes of the Kazakhstan SSR. Arnaldo Tamayo orbited the Earth 128 times and his total residence time in space it was 7 days, 20 hours, 43 minutes and 24 seconds.

Later Activities

After Tamayo was flown into space, he became a highly relevant public figure and the authorities, under the recommendation of Fidel Castro himself; they prohibited him from continuing to fly combat aircraft, considering the risks inherent in flight.

Since 1980, Arnaldo Tamayo has been a deputy to the Cuban legislature, he is also president of the "Cuba-Russia" Parliamentary Friendship Group and of the "Cuba-Russia" Friendship Association.

Starting in 1981, he was president of the Military-Patriotic Education Society (SEPMI), which was dissolved in the early 1990s.

On October 26, 1987, Arnaldo Tamayo and his colleague Yuri Romanenko established the first radio-bridge between Cuba and outer space with Cuban scientists and journalists through a radio link that linked to the Mir orbital complex —where Romanenko was fulfilling his third mission into space and at the same time setting a new record for permanence—by means of the geostationary satellite Statsionar-4 (Gorizont-7).

Today, apart from his work as a legislator, General Tamayo also works as head of the Department of Foreign Relations of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (MINFAR) and director of the Cuban Civil Defense organization.

Acknowledgments

Upon his return to Earth, he was decorated by Raúl Castro with the first honorary medal of Hero of the Republic of Cuba and the Playa Girón Order.

In Moscow he received the Order of Lenin and was also named a Hero of the Soviet Union.

On June 12, 2011, Tamayo was awarded the Medal "For Merits in Space Exploration" by the Russian Federation.

Family

Arnaldo Tamayo married Maira Lovaina in 1967 and is the father of two children. Since his flight, he has been in contact with Yuri Romanenko, whom he considers part of his family.