DUMITRU PRUNARIU

Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu(born on September 27 1952 in Brasov Romania) is the first and only
Romanian cosmonaut. He flew in space aboard Soyuz 40 spacecraft and Saliut 6 space
laboratory.
Early life and career
His first contact with space were Jules Vernes lectures, and after he heard the news about
Gagarins success, he really thought about going in space, even he was 8 years old. Dumitru
Prunariu began his path to the stars at the plane modeling course from Pioneers house in
Brasov. There he built models of gliders and airplanes, dreaming to become a builder of
aircraft. He was only 17 when he gained the prize of technical creations at Republican contest
"Minitehnicus".

He graduated in 1971 from the Physics and Mathematics high school in Braov and in 5 years
later from the Politehnica University of Bucharest, obtaining a degree in Aerospace
Engineering.
Prunariu worked as an engineer at Industria Aeronautic Romn, an aircraft industry facility,
before enrolling in the Romanian Air Force Officers Training School in 1977.
The flight into space

On 12 May 1981 Dumitru Prunariu has been officially confirmed as the first nominated in
Romanian-Soviet space flight, along with Soviet cosmonaut Colonel Leonid Popov - Crew
commander.

On May 14 soviet rocket took off without any problem encountered. One day later the
spaceship reached the orbital complex Saliut 6.

For a week the two cosmonauts worked together, realizing 22 scientific experiments, wich
had as main pourpose the expanding of knowledge in astrophysics, nuclear physics and
cosmic technology .

The mission lasted a total of 7 days, 20 hours, after a journey of 5.26 million km
For the successful spaceflight, Prunariu and Popov were awarded with the highest orders of
romania and URSS. Moreover the romanian recieved the equivalent of three salaries.