General Mirosław Hermaszewski, the first and so far the only Pole to fly into space, passed away at the age of 81 in Warsaw. The information about General Hermaszewski’s death was confirmed in an interview with Wirtualna Polska by MEP Ryszard Czarnecki, who is privately Hermaszewski’s son-in-law.
Mirosław Hermaszewski was born on September 15, 1941 in the village of Lipniki in Volhynia (present day west Ukraine). After the war, he and his family were resettled to Wołów in Lower Silesia.
In 1960, he completed a glider piloting course at the Wrocław Aeroclub. He flew at the airports in Oleśnica, Jeżów Sudecki, Żar in the Beskids and Lisie Kąty. In 1961, in Grudziądz, he completed a pilotage course and in the fall he began studying at the Eaglets’ School in Dęblin as a candidate for a fighter pilot.
In the Polish Army he reached the rank of brigadier general.
The flight that marked his entire later life took place on June 27, 1978. The Pole was a member of the crew that launched the Soyuz-30 from the Baikonur cosmodrome that day. Since then, none of the Polish pilots has participated in such a flight.
In the years 1983-1989 Gen. Hermaszewski was the president of the Polish Astronautical Society. For years he has been involved in popularising knowledge about space.
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General Mirosław Hermaszewski, the first and so far the only Pole to fly into space, passed away at the age of 81 in Warsaw. The information about General Hermaszewski’s death was confirmed in an interview with Wirtualna Polska by MEP Ryszard Czarnecki, who is privately Hermaszewski’s son-in-law.
Mirosław Hermaszewski was born on September 15, 1941 in the village of Lipniki in Volhynia (present day west Ukraine). After the war, he and his family were resettled to Wołów in Lower Silesia.
In 1960, he completed a glider piloting course at the Wrocław Aeroclub. He flew at the airports in Oleśnica, Jeżów Sudecki, Żar in the Beskids and Lisie Kąty. In 1961, in Grudziądz, he completed a pilotage course and in the fall he began studying at the Eaglets’ School in Dęblin as a candidate for a fighter pilot.
In the Polish Army he reached the rank of brigadier general.
The flight that marked his entire later life took place on June 27, 1978. The Pole was a member of the crew that launched the Soyuz-30 from the Baikonur cosmodrome that day. Since then, none of the Polish pilots has participated in such a flight.
In the years 1983-1989 Gen. Hermaszewski was the president of the Polish Astronautical Society. For years he has been involved in popularising knowledge about space.
When he was 1,5 years old, him and his mother barely survived the [genocide of Poles in Volhynia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia).
[In 1943 Ukrainians from UPA attacked Polish village Lipniki and murdered 182 people there](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbrodnia_w_Lipnikach).
Niech mu ziemia lekką będzie…
Cosmonaut*
Oh, so Poland did into space.