Valentin Lebedev
Encyclopedia
Valentin Vitaljevich Lebedev ' onMouseout='HidePop("75235")' href="/topics/Moscow">Moscow
) was a Soviet
cosmonaut
who made two flights into space. His stay aboard the Space Station
Salyut 7
with Anatoly Berezovoy in 1982, which lasted 211 days, was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
Since 1989 Lebedev has dedicated himself to scientific work. In 1991 he started the Scientific Geoinformation Center of the Russian Academy of Science. He continues as that Center's Director through the present day.
Valentin Lebedev is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, and Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation.
In 1975 Lebedev defended his Ph.D. thesis on “Methods of formation of the dynamic test bench for the base service of spaceship and crew training”. In 1985 he defended his doctoral thesis on “Methods of carrying of astrophysical explorations aboard of orbital stations”.
In 1967 Lebedev participated in an expedition of the Eighth Naval Squadron to locate, rescue, and rehabilitate the spaceship Zond after its landing in the Indian Ocean.
In 1968 Lebedev led the specialists in Bombay supporting Zond 5
, which flew around the Moon and returned to Earth. He continued leading technical detachments in the flying, design, testing and control of the spaceship Soyuz and Soyuz T, and the orbiting space stations Salyut 4
, Salyut 5
, and Salyut 6
.
Valentin Lebedev trained as a cosmonaut from 1971–1973, at the Yuri A. Gagarin
Center for Cosmonaut Training. He earned a diploma in 1972, given the title Cosmonaut Investigator, and taken on to the cosmonaut's team ZKBEM. His first space flight was with Peter Klimuk, as a crew engineer aboard the spaceship Soyuz 13
, which orbited Earth from 18–26 December 1973. After this space flight, Lebedev was awarded a gold medal, "Hero of Soviet Union", the Order of Lenin, and promoted to the rank of Pilot Cosmonaut.
In 1982 Lebedev, along with Anatoly Berezovoy, spent 211 days in space (13 May - 10 December) as a crew engineer of the "space complex" "TS Soyuz T-5
- Salyut 7
- Soyuz T-7
. During this mission Lebedev conducted more than 300 scientific experiments and studies. The 211-day flight was a record for that time, and recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. After that space flight, Lebedev was awarded a second gold medal, "Hero of Soviet Union", and a second Order of Lenin.
In 2000 he became the fist cosmonaut ever elected to the Russian Academy of Science.
Lebedev retired from the space program in 1993.
From 1989 until 1991, Valentin Lebedev worked as Deputy Director of Science at the Institute of Geography AS USSR, completely dedicated to scientific work. At the same time he was acting Director of the Geoinformation Center (GIC), which was part of this institute. In 1991 the Geoinformation Center became an independent organization: the Scientific Geoinformation Center of the Russian Academy of Science. Lebedev continued there as its Director.
Under V. Lebedev's scientific leadership a unified technology was developed for the creation of maps showing the dynamics of ecosystems. This technology enabled the creation of multilayer maps of natural environments, showing changes over time. These maps were instrumental in the creation of the Ecological Geoinformaion System of the Moscow Automobile Ring Road (Russian: GIS EcoMKAD), which monitored changes in land, surface water, ground water, and flora, due to pollution created by traffic on Moscow's Ring Road.
Together with the Hydrometerological Center of Russia and IWP, as part of a federal program on Reviving the Volga River, the RAS created a new technology for predicting spring floods, based on analysis of runoff from snow blankets, the moisture content of soil (frozen during winter months), and the current state of the landscape.
One of the latest scientific projects of Lebedev and his staff, executed within a program called "Science To Moscow", is a work to remotely monitor Moscow transport traffic flow. Using original methods plus high-resolution aerial image digital processing software, the team obtained reliable data about city transport traffic volume, speed and ecological parameters of transport flow. This data became the basis for modifying street traffic and development of an automated traffic management system called "Start".
The GIS EcoMKAD developed green space for Central and Northeastern Moscow districts. It required developments to establish normalized information environment of megapolis and regions. It created the concept of unified geoinformation space for all of Russia.
Komsomol Central Committee member, 1974–1978
President of USSR Acrobatics Federation, 1975–1991
Member of the national Olympics committee, 1976–1991
Member, RAS President's workgroup on risk assessment and security issues
Member, United RAS Scientific Committee on Geoinformation
Member, Editorial Council, "Herald of Computer and Information Technologies" magazine
Lebedev is the author of “Diary of a Cosmonaut: 211 Days in Space”, written entirely while he was serving aboard the "space complex" "TS "Soyuz-5" - "Salyut-7" - Soyuz T-7". The book was published in both the United States (1988, 1990) and Russia, under the title “Angle of My Judgment”(1994). Extracts from the book were also published in many scientific magazines in Russia and internationally.
Order of Lenin, 28 December 1973 and 10 December 1982
Legion of Honor (France), 1982
Gold Medal of K. Tsiolkovsky by the AN USSR for outstanding achievements in the field of space, 1984
Medal "For construction of BAM" (Baikal-Amur Trank-railway) for the work on BAM during his
summer vacations
Order "For Service to the Fatherland IV degree" for important contributions to science development, 29 December 2007
Lebedev is an honorary citizen of 16 Russian cities, several CIS countries, the State of Texas, and the City of Fort Worth.
In 1978 a small planet was named ValenLebedev in his honor.
Valentin Lebedev has one grandson and one granddaughter.
He lives and works in Moscow.
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) was a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
cosmonaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
who made two flights into space. His stay aboard the Space Station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
Salyut 7
Salyut 7
Salyut 7 was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first manned in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last visited in June 1986, by Soyuz T-15. Various crew and modules were used over its lifetime, including a total of 12 manned and 15 unmanned launches...
with Anatoly Berezovoy in 1982, which lasted 211 days, was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
Since 1989 Lebedev has dedicated himself to scientific work. In 1991 he started the Scientific Geoinformation Center of the Russian Academy of Science. He continues as that Center's Director through the present day.
Valentin Lebedev is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, and Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation.
Education
After graduation from high school, Valentin Lebedev studied for a year (1960) at the Higher Air Force Navigators School in Orenburg, but he was discharged as a result of an armed forces reduction. He continued his studies at the Moscow Aviation Institute, from which he graduated in 1966.In 1975 Lebedev defended his Ph.D. thesis on “Methods of formation of the dynamic test bench for the base service of spaceship and crew training”. In 1985 he defended his doctoral thesis on “Methods of carrying of astrophysical explorations aboard of orbital stations”.
Cosmonaut career
After his graduation from the Moscow Aviation Institute, Lebedev worked for 23 years at the Central Design Bureau "Energy" (SPU "Energy") of the Soviet Scientific Production Union as an engineer, senior research fellow, and a methodology instructor in the cosmonaut's detachment.In 1967 Lebedev participated in an expedition of the Eighth Naval Squadron to locate, rescue, and rehabilitate the spaceship Zond after its landing in the Indian Ocean.
In 1968 Lebedev led the specialists in Bombay supporting Zond 5
Zond 5
Zond 5, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth....
, which flew around the Moon and returned to Earth. He continued leading technical detachments in the flying, design, testing and control of the spaceship Soyuz and Soyuz T, and the orbiting space stations Salyut 4
Salyut 4
Salyut 4 was a Salyut space station launched on December 26, 1974 into an orbit with an apogee of 355 km, a perigee of 343 km and an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees. It was essentially a copy of the DOS 3, and unlike its ill-fated sibling it was a complete success...
, Salyut 5
Salyut 5
Salyut 5 , also known as OPS-3, was a Soviet space station. Launched in 1976 as part of the Salyut programme, it was the third and last Almaz space station to be launched for the Soviet military. Two Soyuz missions visited the station, each manned by two cosmonauts...
, and Salyut 6
Salyut 6
Salyut 6 , DOS-5, was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth flown as part of the Salyut programme. Launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket, the station was the first of the 'second-generation' type of space station. Salyut 6 possessed several revolutionary advances over the earlier...
.
Valentin Lebedev trained as a cosmonaut from 1971–1973, at the Yuri A. Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
Center for Cosmonaut Training. He earned a diploma in 1972, given the title Cosmonaut Investigator, and taken on to the cosmonaut's team ZKBEM. His first space flight was with Peter Klimuk, as a crew engineer aboard the spaceship Soyuz 13
Soyuz 13
Soyuz 13 was a 1973 Soviet manned space flight, the second test flight of the redesigned Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft that first flew as Soyuz 12. The spacecraft was specially modified to carry the Orion 2 Space Observatory...
, which orbited Earth from 18–26 December 1973. After this space flight, Lebedev was awarded a gold medal, "Hero of Soviet Union", the Order of Lenin, and promoted to the rank of Pilot Cosmonaut.
In 1982 Lebedev, along with Anatoly Berezovoy, spent 211 days in space (13 May - 10 December) as a crew engineer of the "space complex" "TS Soyuz T-5
Soyuz T-5
-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass: 6850 kg*Perigee: 190 km*Apogee: 231 km*Inclination: 51.6°*Period: 89.7 minutes-Mission highlights:...
- Salyut 7
Salyut 7
Salyut 7 was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first manned in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last visited in June 1986, by Soyuz T-15. Various crew and modules were used over its lifetime, including a total of 12 manned and 15 unmanned launches...
- Soyuz T-7
Soyuz T-7
-Backup crew:Mission parameters:*Mass: 6,850 kg*Perigee: 289 km*Apogee: 299 km*Inclination: 51.6°*Period: 90.3 minutes...
. During this mission Lebedev conducted more than 300 scientific experiments and studies. The 211-day flight was a record for that time, and recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. After that space flight, Lebedev was awarded a second gold medal, "Hero of Soviet Union", and a second Order of Lenin.
In 2000 he became the fist cosmonaut ever elected to the Russian Academy of Science.
Lebedev retired from the space program in 1993.
Scientific career
In the years following his second return from space, Lebedev became renowned as a specialist in the field of cosmonautics and geoinformation.From 1989 until 1991, Valentin Lebedev worked as Deputy Director of Science at the Institute of Geography AS USSR, completely dedicated to scientific work. At the same time he was acting Director of the Geoinformation Center (GIC), which was part of this institute. In 1991 the Geoinformation Center became an independent organization: the Scientific Geoinformation Center of the Russian Academy of Science. Lebedev continued there as its Director.
Under V. Lebedev's scientific leadership a unified technology was developed for the creation of maps showing the dynamics of ecosystems. This technology enabled the creation of multilayer maps of natural environments, showing changes over time. These maps were instrumental in the creation of the Ecological Geoinformaion System of the Moscow Automobile Ring Road (Russian: GIS EcoMKAD), which monitored changes in land, surface water, ground water, and flora, due to pollution created by traffic on Moscow's Ring Road.
Together with the Hydrometerological Center of Russia and IWP, as part of a federal program on Reviving the Volga River, the RAS created a new technology for predicting spring floods, based on analysis of runoff from snow blankets, the moisture content of soil (frozen during winter months), and the current state of the landscape.
One of the latest scientific projects of Lebedev and his staff, executed within a program called "Science To Moscow", is a work to remotely monitor Moscow transport traffic flow. Using original methods plus high-resolution aerial image digital processing software, the team obtained reliable data about city transport traffic volume, speed and ecological parameters of transport flow. This data became the basis for modifying street traffic and development of an automated traffic management system called "Start".
The GIS EcoMKAD developed green space for Central and Northeastern Moscow districts. It required developments to establish normalized information environment of megapolis and regions. It created the concept of unified geoinformation space for all of Russia.
Other Positions
CPSU member, 1971–presentKomsomol Central Committee member, 1974–1978
President of USSR Acrobatics Federation, 1975–1991
Member of the national Olympics committee, 1976–1991
Member, RAS President's workgroup on risk assessment and security issues
Member, United RAS Scientific Committee on Geoinformation
Member, Editorial Council, "Herald of Computer and Information Technologies" magazine
Publications
Valentin Lebedev is the author of 157 scientific works; author and coauthor of nine monographs and two school textbooks for the Moscow Aviation Institute; 27 articles in “Science and Life” magazine; and a large number of publications in domestic and foreign press. Lebedev was also awarded 26 authors certificates for inventions introduced in the Soyuz and Salyut missions.Lebedev is the author of “Diary of a Cosmonaut: 211 Days in Space”, written entirely while he was serving aboard the "space complex" "TS "Soyuz-5" - "Salyut-7" - Soyuz T-7". The book was published in both the United States (1988, 1990) and Russia, under the title “Angle of My Judgment”(1994). Extracts from the book were also published in many scientific magazines in Russia and internationally.
Honors
Hero of Soviet Union (Gold Medal), 28 December 1973 and 10 December 1982)Order of Lenin, 28 December 1973 and 10 December 1982
Legion of Honor (France), 1982
Gold Medal of K. Tsiolkovsky by the AN USSR for outstanding achievements in the field of space, 1984
Medal "For construction of BAM" (Baikal-Amur Trank-railway) for the work on BAM during his
summer vacations
Order "For Service to the Fatherland IV degree" for important contributions to science development, 29 December 2007
Lebedev is an honorary citizen of 16 Russian cities, several CIS countries, the State of Texas, and the City of Fort Worth.
In 1978 a small planet was named ValenLebedev in his honor.
Family
Valentin Lebedev is married to Lyudmila Vitaljevna Lebedeva (born 1943), an engineer (now retired). He has one son, Vitaly Lebedev (born 1972), who was educated as a lawyer and an economist.Valentin Lebedev has one grandson and one granddaughter.
He lives and works in Moscow.