Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa was the first Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

n and the second Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

n in space. He was Mongolia's defense minister from 2000 to 2004.

Early life and spaceflight

Born in Gurvanbulag

Gurvanbulag, Bulgan

Gurvanbulag is a sum of Bulgan Province in northern Mongolia....

, Mongolia, Gürragchaa studied in Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar

Ulan Bator or Ulaanbaatar is the capital and largest city of Mongolia. An independent municipality, the city is not part of any province, and its population as of 2008 is over one million....

 to become an aerospace engineer

Aerospace engineering

Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...

. He then joined the air force

Air force

An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...

, rising to the rank of Major General

Major General

Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...

.

He was selected as part of the eighth Intercosmos

Intercosmos

Interkosmos was a space program of the Soviet Union designed to include members of military forces of allied Warsaw Pact countries in manned and unmanned missions...

 program on March 1, 1978. His backup was Maidarzhavyn Ganzorig

Maidarzhavyn Ganzorig

Maidarzhavyn Ganzorig |Tsetserleg]], Mongolia) is a Mongolian scientist. In 1978, he participated in the Soviet Intercosmos program and trained for a Soyuz space flight.Ganzorig graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute in 1975...

. Gürragchaa, along with Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov

Vladimir Dzhanibekov

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dzhanibekov is a former cosmonaut who made five flights.He was born in the remote area of Iskandar in Tashkent Province, Uzbekistan. He changed his surname from Krysin when he married to honor his wife's family, which was noble kin of the descendants of the medieval Kazakh...

, departed from Baikonur Cosmodrome

Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 meters above sea level...

 on March 22, 1981. They docked with Salyut 6

Salyut 6

Salyut 6 , DOS-5, was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth flown as part of the Salyut programme. Launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket, the station was the first of the 'second-generation' type of space station. Salyut 6 possessed several revolutionary advances over the earlier...

. While in orbit, Dzhanibekov and Gürragchaa carried out experiments on earth science

Earth science

Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...

. After 124 orbit

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

s and 7 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes in space, Gürragchaa and Dzhanibekov landed 170 km southeast of Dzhezkasgan.

Post-flight

After Mongolia removed the Communist-era ban on clan names in 1997, and unable to identify his original clan heritage, Gürragchaa chose the clan name Sansar - Mongolian for "cosmos". Clan names have only symbolic significance today and should not be confused with western style "family names", which are unknown in Mongolia.

Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union

Hero of the Soviet Union

The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...

 on March 30, 1981. The Zaisan Memorial

Zaisan Memorial

The Zaisan Memorial is a memorial south of the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar that honors Soviet soldiers killed in World War II. Located on a hill south of the city, the memorial features a circular memorial painting that depicts scenes of friendship between the peoples of the USSR and Mongolia...

, a monument south of Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar

Ulan Bator or Ulaanbaatar is the capital and largest city of Mongolia. An independent municipality, the city is not part of any province, and its population as of 2008 is over one million....

 dedicated to Russian-Mongolian friendship, includes a mural which depicts amongst its scenes Gürragchaa's 1981 flight.

Before becoming minister of defense, Gürragchaa worked as the chief of staff of air defence for the Mongolian Armed Forces

Military of Mongolia

The military of Mongolia has four branches: general purpose forces, border defense forces, internal security forces, and air force. This is a peace-time structure...

. He is married and has two children.

External links

• Spacefacts biography of Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa
• Photo of the Gurragcha panel of the Zaisan Memorial