Aleksandar Panayotov Aleksandrov

Aleksandar Panayotov Aleksandrov is a retired Bulgarian cosmonaut. He is the second Bulgarian to have flown to space, behind Georgi Ivanov. Aleksandrov graduated from the Bulgarian Air Force Academy in 1974 and obtained a degree in technical sciences in 1983. In the Bulgarian Air Force, Aleksandrov rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Aleksandrov was selected as a research cosmonaut on March 1, 1978, as part of the Soviet Union's Intercosmos program. On June 7, 1988, Aleksandrov launched aboard Soyuz TM-5 as a research cosmonaut along with mission commander Anatoly Solovyev and Viktor Savinykh. Upon arriving at Mir, Aleksandrov became the first Bulgarian to reach a Soviet space station. On June 17, Aleksandrov returned aboard Soyuz TM-4 along with his fellow crew members, spending just under 10 days in space. Aleksandrov later became Deputy Director of the Institute of Space Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Currently Aleksandrov works as a research scientist.