Bulgaria Cosmonaut Rockets Aloft With 2 Soviet Spacemen
A Bulgarian cosmonaut rocketed into a clear blue sky today along with two Soviets in the first manned space mission of 1988, a launch televised live and featuring broadcasts from inside the capsule.
Alexander Alexandrov, 36, of the Bulgarian town of Omurtag and the two Soviets blasted off at 6:03 p.m. aboard a Soyuz TM-5 capsule from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet Central Asia.
Soviet television gave unusually extensive coverage of the liftoff, showing live pictures of Alexandrov’s family in Omurtag and black-and-white shots of the cosmonauts in the moments before and after launch.
The mission comes while the American manned space program is grounded. The last launch, in January, 1986, ended in disaster.
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