Georgi Beregovoi

Georgi Timofeyevich Beregovoi (Russian: Георгий Тимофеевич Береговой; April 15, 1921, Fedorovka – June 30, 1995) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on a single space mission, Soyuz 3.

He joined the Soviet air force in 1941, and was soon assigned to a ground-attack unit flying the Ilyushin Il-2 "Shturmovik". He flew some 185 combat sorties during the course of World War II and rose quickly through the ranks, finishing the war as a Captain and Squadron Commander. He was decorated as Hero of the Soviet Union.

Following the war, he became a test pilot, and over the next sixteen years test-flew some sixty different aircraft, rising to the rank of Colonel and the position of Deputy Chief of the air force's flight testing department. In 1962, he applied and was accepted for cosmonaut training.

Beregovoi's flight in Soyuz 3 was less than successful, and he was never selected to fly another mission. On January 22, 1969, Beregovoi survived an assassination attempt on Leonid Brezhnev, undertaken by a Soviet Army officer Viktor Ilyin . He eventually took up a position at the Centre for Cosmonaut Training, and in 1972 was made Director of that facility.

He died in 1995 of natural causes and is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow