Vladimir Shatalov

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Shatalov (Владимир Александрович Шаталов; born December 8, 1927 in Petropavlovsk) is a former Soviet cosmonaut who flew three space missions of the Soyuz programme: Soyuz 4, Soyuz 8, and Soyuz 10.

Biography
From 1971 to 1987 he was Commander of Cosmonaut Training, and Director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre from then until 1991.

Quote: "When we look into the sky it seems to us to be endless. We breathe without thinking about it, as is natural... and then you sit aboard a spacecraft, you tear away from Earth, and within ten minutes you have been carried straight through the layer of air, and beyond there is nothing! The 'boundless' blue sky, the ocean which gives us breath and protects us from endless black and death, is but an infinitesimally thin film. How dangerous it is to threaten even the smallest part of this gossamer covering, this conserver of life."

Honours and awards

 * Twice Hero of the Soviet Union
 * Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
 * Order For Merit to the Fatherland 4th class
 * Order of Friendship
 * Three Orders of Lenin
 * Order of the October Revolution
 * Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR 3rd class
 * Medal "For Combat Merit"
 * Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad"
 * Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Medal "For the Development of Virgin Lands"
 * Medal "For Strengthening Military Cooperation"

Foreign awards:
 * Hero of Socialist Labour (Socialist Republic of Vietnam)
 * Order of Ho Chi Minh (Socialist Republic of Vietnam)
 * Order of Karl Marx (GDR)
 * Order of the Polar Star (Mongolia)
 * Order "Madara Horseman" (Bulgaria)
 * Order of the Banner of the People's Republic of Bulgaria
 * Medal "Brotherhood in Arms" (Poland)
 * Medal "Brotherhood in Arms" (GDR)
 * Medal "100 years of Bulgaria's Liberation from Ottoman Slavery"