posted 12-01-2025 01:08 PM               

A professional rocket scientist, a colonel, and a candidate of technical sciences, Eduard Ivanovich served at the Baikonur and Plesetsk cosmodromes from the 1960s to the 1980s. He participated in the technical acceptance of rocket guidance systems and the Vostok, Voskhod, Zenit, Soyuz, and Energia-Buran rocket and space complexes.

In 1963-1964, he was selected from among 1,500 candidates and was among the 15 trainees in the Second Cosmonaut Class. He underwent general space training at the Cosmonaut Training Center as a cosmonaut student. In 1965, he failed (according to doctors) the centrifuge tests and was dismissed from the cosmonaut corps. However, under the direction of S.P. Korolev, he was then included in the group of civilian specialists — industrial space flight candidates.

Eduard Ivanovich wrote a remarkable book about this period, "The Everyday Life of the First Russian Rocketeers and Cosmonauts."