Aidyn Aimbetov

Colonel Aidyn Akanovich Aimbetov (Айдын Аимбетов, born July 27, 1972 in the Kolkhoz "Zarya Kommunisma", Kazakhstan) is a Kazakh cosmonaut. He is a member of the first, and as of 2015, only Kazakh cosmonaut class, and the first of the class selected to fly.

Family
As of 2015, Aimbetov is married with three children, two daughters and a son.

Military career
Aimbetov graduated from Kutakhov Armavir Higher Military Aviation School and became a military pilot, having enrolled straight out of secondary school. He served at Lugovaya and Taldykorgan, flying MiG-27 and Su-27 fighters.

Cosmonaut career
Aimbetov was selected to the first Kazakh cosmonaut class in 2002, along with Mukhtar Aimakhanov, out of a pool of 2000 candidates. From 2003 to 2009 he trained in Russia as a cosmonaut at Star City. He returned to Astana, in Kazakhstan, after failing to secure a spaceflight. He had been scheduled to fly in autumn 2009, but due to the world financial crisis, this fell through. Aimakhanov remained in Russia, becoming a Russian citizen, making Aimbetov the sole Kazakhstani cosmonaut. After returning, Aimbetov stayed in the JSC (national center of space research and technologies) of the National Space Agency (NSA) of Kazakhstan. He founded the Institute for Space Development to promote the space industry in Kazakhstan. He started the Young Cosmonauts School in the Astana Pupil's Palace in 2012. He was still flight ready in April 2015.

In June 2015, he was selected to fly on the Soyuz TMA-18M mission in place of singer Sarah Brightman who had withdrawn in May 2015, and her backup, Satoshi Takamatsu, who had also withdrawn. The mission is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on 1 September 2015. Aimbetov becomes the forth Kazakh cosmonaut to fly, after Toktar Aubakirov in 1991, and Talgat Musabayev (1994, 1998, 2001). Musabayev is head of KazCosmos the National Space Agency of Kazakhstan and Yuri Lonchakov (2001, 2002, 2008) at the time of Aimbetov's selection and flight. Aimbetov had originally been projected to fly on a 2017 launch.