Georgi Ivanov (born July 2, 1940) was the first Bulgarian cosmonaut, and later a member of the Bulgarian National Assembly.

Born in Lovech, Kakalov attended university in Sofia, earning a Ph.D. in engineering. After completing his doctorate, he joined the Bulgarian Air Force, and rose to the rank of Major General.

As soon as he entered the Intercosmos programme, he had his name changed to Ivanov after discovering that "Kakalov" was an obscenity in the Russian language. After intensive training, the newly named Ivanov was selected for the fourt international programme.

He, along with Soviet cosmonaut Nikolai Rukavishnikov, was launched into space as part of the Soyuz 33 mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 10, 1978, at 17:34 (GMT).

Though take off was smooth, the mission was disaster, with severe damage to the engine preventing docking in orbit. Needing to prematurely return to Earth, Ivanov and Rukavishnikov realised just as they began to descend that they had miscalculated, and were going to land more than 150km away from where they intended, and would have to endure more than 9Gs.

When they finally landed, they were 320km southeast of Dzheskasgan. They completed 31 orbits, and stayed in space for 1 day, 23 hours and 1 minute.


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