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  German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn (Soyuz 31)

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Author Topic:   German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn (Soyuz 31)
india-mike
Member

Posts: 76
From: Linnich, Northrine Westfalia, Germany
Registered: Jan 2012

posted 02-13-2017 08:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for india-mike   Click Here to Email india-mike     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sigmund Jähn flew into space on board Soyuz 31 (26.08.-03.09.1978) together with commander Valery Bykovsky. This flight as part of the Interkosmos program docked to the space station on August 28, 1978.

Today, Feb. 13, 2017 is a very special day for the first German cosmonaut. Born in 1937, Jähn will celebrate his 80th birthday today.

Sigmund Jähn was born in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz in the Vogtland in former Eastern Germany. Myself, born in Western Germany, met Sigmund Jähn on several occasions after the union of Western and Eastern Germany. Sigmund Jähn still is seen as a German national hero in the former Eastern Germany. I could witness this at more than one occasion in person.

He not only made one spaceflight but he was the key advisor to the ESA who paved the way for the succesful flights of four German cosmonauts to the space station Mir. Sigmund Jähn was the perfect person at the right time. He is not only fluent in the Russian language, he also has absolutely key knowledge of the Russian spaceflight technology and he knows the Russian mentality very well.

Sigmund Jähn is an absolutely fantastic and humble person. He loves nature and in each of his public lectures he shows at the end some slides of the environment in the near of his dacha in the Vogtland.

I could tell about several anecdotes I experienced with Sigmund Jähn but I only want to share one publicly.

Sigmund Jähn was a special guest at the Neubrandenburg Space Days in 2014. The Space Days are a well organized 3-day event with lectures on current spaceflight topics.

The event takes place on a weekend and it is a tradition to have a banquet in the hotel that housed the event.

When the banquet began, I felt absolutely miserable and I went several times to the men's room because I had severe stomach problems. After not even half an hour I left the banquet and went to my hotel room, where I vomitted the whole evening. Late at night I crawled to the reception of the hotel and collapsed there.

I was taken to the next hospital by ambulance and was treated with infusions. I woke up in an observation room at around 5 a.m. on Sunday and asked to be dismissed from hospital because I wanted to absolutely listen to the next lectures of the Space Days beginning at 9 a.m.

So I went back to the hotel by taxi and went immediately to the breakfast room where I found a free chair at the table of Sigmund Jähn and the well known German journalist Gerhard Kowalski, specialized in the field of Russian spaceflight. I ordered a cup of tea and then we began a conversation. I told Sigmund Jähn about my treatment and stay in the hospital at night and he asked me what happened. I told him and then he replied: "When we were in cosmonaut training and we were ill, we had a special Russian medicine. We drank vodka!" We three broke out in laughter.

East-Frisian
Member

Posts: 586
From: Germany
Registered: Apr 2005

posted 02-13-2017 09:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for East-Frisian     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Happy birthday Mr. Jähn.

Kite
Member

Posts: 831
From: Northampton UK
Registered: Nov 2009

posted 02-13-2017 10:30 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kite     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wishing Sigmund Jahn a very Happy 80th birthday, good health and many more.

randy
Member

Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 02-13-2017 10:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for randy   Click Here to Email randy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From one German to another, Happy Birthday!

SPACEFACTS
Member

Posts: 301
From: Germany
Registered: Aug 2006

posted 02-13-2017 10:57 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SPACEFACTS   Click Here to Email SPACEFACTS     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Happy birthday, Sigmund Jähn.

Wehaveliftoff
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Posts: 2343
From:
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 02-13-2017 05:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Wehaveliftoff     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Frohliche Achtzig Geburtstag

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