Vladimír Remek

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**Vladimír Remek**
Intercosmos Cosmonaut

Nationality	Czech
Born	September 26, 1948 České Budějovice
Occupation¹	Pilot
Rank	Colonel, Czech Air Force
Space time	7d 22h 17m
Selection	Air Force Group 6
Mission(s)	Soyuz 28
Mission insignia
¹ previous or current

Vladimír Remek (born 26 September 1948) was the first Czech in space, and the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States. He flew aboard Soyuz 28 from March 2nd to March 10th 1978, for seven days, 22 hours, and 17 minutes. In later life he became a politician and now sits in the European Parliament.

Remek was born in České Budějovice. He graduated from the Air Force Academy and worked as an Air Force pilot. He joined the Intercosmos program as an Army pilot in 1976.

Vladimír Remek was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on March 16, 1978 ^[1]Later, he became director of the Museum for Aviation and Astronautics in Prague, then representative for the company Che-Zet in Moscow. He later worked at the Czech embassy in Russia.

He is now a Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, which is part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left party group in the European Parliament. He is married and has one child.

The asteroid 2552 Remek is named for him.

[edit] Trivia

A joke appeared soon after the Soyuz 28 mission that Remek's hand had mysteriously turned red after the mission. He informed the doctors that this was because every time he went to touch something, the Russian crewmembers would slap his hand and yell, "Don't touch that!"