Cosmonaut
Pham Tuan


Vietnamese pilot, Pham Tuan was launched into orbit aboard Soyuz 37 on 23 July 1980. Along with V. V. Gorbotko, Tuan was to service the Salut-2 space station. Tuan is photographed above, left, with Leonid Popov and Valeri Rumyin who had been in orbit since April. Tuan and Gorbotko returned on 31 July.

During his time in orbit, cosmonaut Tuan performed experiments on melting of mineral samples in microgravity and plant experiments on azolla. Tuan also photographed Vietnam from orbit for the purpose of mapping.

In April, 1979, two Vietnamese 'guest cosmonaut' trainees selected were for Salyut 6 missions: Pham Tuan and Bui Thanh Liem. They were among trainees from Romania, Mongolia, Cuba, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria.

Back ground photo by Popov and Rumyin is of a Soyuz T2 spacecraft. Source TASS.

Australia Vietnam Science-Technology Link