Pilot astronaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, has turned 70 years on May 13th, press-service of the Federal Space Agency reports. AEX.ru

Vladimir Alexandrovich Dzhanibekov was the pilot astronaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General of aviation. The “defrost” of Salut-7 orbital station was entrusted to him in 1985. Vladimir Dzhanibekov turned 70 years yesterday.

Dzhanibekov performed his first flight in 1978. A manned system formed by the orbital station and two spacecraft (Soyuz-26 and Soyuz-27) was created then for the first time in the history of cosmonautics.

"Dzhanibekov has experienced a lot of emergency situations. He has performed five flights and all of them were very significant…", - said Petr Klimuk, pilot astronaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Dzhanibekov, graduate of Tashkent Suvorov Military School and Yeysk air force academy has always wanted to be an astronaut and he did his best to make this dream come true.

«Mom asked, what profession will you choose, son? I said - astronaut, long before the graduation from Suvorov Military School. And my mom was public health care worker so she pried and asked: Are you wrong in the head?», - said Vladimir Dzhanibekov, the pilot astronaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

He is believed to be the most experienced pilot in the star squad. He has performed five flights and he acted as the commander in each one of them.  Vladimir Dzhanibekov was part of Soyuz-Apollo backup crew and worked on Spiral and Energiya-Buran programs.

During his fifth flight in 1985 he proved that there are no impossible tasks for him. Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinikh have brought to life the “frozen” Salut-7 station.

They have performed their flight using Soyuz-13 spacecraft. It was almost impossible to maneuver and dock this ship with the station.

"Together with Dzhanibekov we were looking for Salut-7 using Soyuz-13 spacecraft. Everyone told us that the station is in the middle of nowhere and, even worse, our ship has number “13”. But we have found the station and repaired it", - Viktor Savinikh, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, said.

Very few people believed that we can bring the station to life. All the more so because we had to work under conditions of sub-zero temperatures.

And he also discovered the “Dzanibekov effect” in 1985. The Dzanibekov’s spinning nut has caused surprise and concerns in the scientific community. Some scientists have even elaborated a hypothesis that our planet may perform similar roll one day. “Dzanibekov effect” was classified as secret during 10 years, just in case.

The Dzhanibekov’s discovery gave impulse to the development of quantum research of the macro world.

At present Russian cosmonauts are still impressing their foreign colleagues by the wonders of gravity. As against our cosmonauts, the foreign astronauts are unable to tighten the screws under conditions of zero gravity, the Federal Space Agency explained.